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it could, these efforts have been so imperfect and of
so little effect that London has on this occasion
suffered from one of the greatest attacks of smallpox
that has been known since the days of Jenner.
It is really no excuse to say it could not be helped,
and that everything had been done to prevent it.
If proper precaution had been taken it could have
been helped, and the very things that would have
prevented it were not done. The fault does not lie
at your door alone, but it does lie at the door of the
public somewhere, and the public ought to know it,
and prevent such a dreadful calamity in future.
TYPHUS AND TYPHOID FEVERS.
Under the head of typhus in the above tables I
have included typhoid fever. The fact is, typhoid
is as distinct a disease from typhus fever as scarlet
fever is from measles. Typhus is a highly contagious
disease and has its origin in contagion, and
is maintained and propagated in overcrowded populations.
It is a disease that delights in human dirt,
as flies do in putrid meat. It is one of the creditable
things in our overcrowded parish that we have so
little typhus. The other disease, typhoid, or gastric
fever, is not so contagious as typhus, and seems to
originate in decomposing animal and vegetable
matter, so much so that it has been called " drain
fever." This fever has prevailed very much both in