PART PLAYED BY URINE AND FECES IN SPREAD OF TYPHOID FEVER.

While it is true that the profession and many of the laity are well-aware that the dejecta from typhoid fever patients are the cause of the dissemination of this modern scourge, many of those who are well acquainted with this fact steadily ignore it in the practice of preventive medicine. The laity are to a certain extent justified in this carelessness by reason of the fact that physicians very often fail to insist on the proper disinfection of the discharges of the patient, and physicians of experience are constantly meeting with instances in which carelessness concerning the readiness with which the disease is communicated results in illness and death.

In this connection, an interesting paper has recently been published by Horton-Smith of St. Bartholomew's Hospital, in which he gives the details of some interesting researches made by him as to the period at which typhoid bacilli appear in the stools