2018.416.2778A [FORM 25.] TYPHOID FEVER, ITS PREVENTION AND RESTRICTION. Issued by the State Board of Health of Maine. There is a pretty strong conviction in the minds of sanitarians and physicians, that typhoid fever is a disease which has but little right to exist in a civilized community. Such thoughts regarding things inevitable and necessary are neither reverential nor profitable; but intelligently directed efforts to diminish the prevalence of ty- phoid fever have been followed by SO large a measure of success that we are justified in regarding it as one of the unnecessary di- seases. The prevention of typhoid fever must rest very intimately on a knowledge of its cause, or, at least, on an acquaintance with the known laws in accordance with which that cause operates. The essential cause of the disease is generally believed to be a minute organic germ which is given off by the sick, and may be transmit- ted to the well in several ways. The poisonous germ is not thrown off through the breath, or in the exhalations from the skin, as is the case in some other infectious diseases; but in this disease it is contained in the discharges from the bowels, and possibly also in that from the kidneys. Hence the proper disposal of the excreta is a matter of the first and highest importance. Another conclusion, which is generally accepted is that the disease germ, as it leaves the body, is not yet in a condition to be dangerous, but that in a short time, through a fermentative process, it acquires a dangerous character; therefore, the need of the disposal of all discharges from the patient without delay.