AN INSIDOUS FOE.

West Coast Times, Issue 7555, 23 November 1889, Page 4

AN INSIDOUS FOE.

- The recent report of the President of the Central Board of Health on the subject of Typhoid Fever, is a revelation that will startle the most careless and thoroughly arouse all who have the public health nnd well being at heart. Between the Christmas holidays and the time ofuthe President's report, fifty-two caaes of Typhoid Fever were reported, more than 50 per cent, of which proved ; fatal. , Dr. Rose, is reported by the public press, ! to have said at ithe same meeting that if ' all Typhoid cases were reported, it would be found that the percentage of death waß much larg9r. He believed that at least 75 per cent, of the cases ended fatally. Typhoid Fever had many phases j which were frequently mistaken for other diseases. In all cases the same poison was at work concentrating itself on the weakest organs of the subjects, but that all cases were preventable. The ''Lone! ?a Lancet" says the death rate for Typhoid throughout the Aus* tralian colonies is far higher than ia Eng'and In Queensland, of late, being eight times aB iatal. While there may not, as yet, be any im« mediate cause for alarm, it is impossible to avoid anxiety on the score of the ap pearance of Typhoid Fever in our midst. Typhoid, in a mild form, or induced by exceptional causes in individual instances, is of course, always with us. But in it b aspect as an epidemic, it becomes a grave an i serious matter indeed ; and that there

is danger of its spread in this relation, is unhappily apparent. It is the part of w^dom, therefore, that people should be on their guard and thatjevery care should be taken which sanitary science suggests to fight back the foe. The purity and cleanliness of our habitations, and their surroundings are imperative matters. All deposits of offal, dirt, and the like must be carefully prevented. Disinfectants abould be uaed freely. Milk should be boiled ere it is consumed, and water well filtered or still better, distilled. But these precautions are not all sufficient. If we would escape oontagfon, move un harmed in the midst of an epidemic, our blood must be pure and healthy. Now, whether from one cause or another, there are very few people whose blood is pure and healthy. The habits of our dally lives, indulgence in the pleasant vices of eating and drinking. The inhalation of impure air, not to speak of the peculiarly debilitating effects upon the human system of the recent; change- | able and trying weather, all tend to the demoralisation of the circulatory system and the disintegration of its chemical constituents. Thephosphates are diminished in quantity and weakened nervous energy is the result. In this condition the system is unable to avoid contagion, or to throw off disease if infected. No person is safe whose blood is poor or corrupt, and it behoves everybody who values health and life to remember this. Tet it is remarkable how few do so, until stricken down ; the more so, that it ia so eaay to keep the blood, and the organ upon which It act«, pu r e and nncontaminated, A regular appeal to Warner's safe cure and safe pills is all that is needed to guard against the insidious poisons which surround us ; re* membering that these agents have been instrumental in saving thousands from infection , and that they have faithfully stood the test of experience. Thus fortified the blood is invulnerable to the influences of disease germs. The constitution, when restored to its original or natural state, is impervious to disease, and it would Beem that this seriouß fact is one of those lessons of Providence which have been laid down for our guidance and warning. Health, then, iB the essential ; and health to the blood, and, therefore, to the whole system oan be. and ia to be accomplished, by an application of the facts to which reference has been made.