Typhus

(ti'füs.) [Gr. typhos, stupor arising from fever.] (Med.) A species of continued fever characterized by great debility, a tendency in the fluids to pntrefaction, and the ordinary symptoms of fever. It chiefly attacks those who have been weakened by any previous debilitating cause, or who are confined in unwholesome or damp situations. It a umes various forms, as low fever, putrid fever, nervous fever, jail fever, . When nausea and bilious vomiting prevail, it constitutes what is termed bilious fever. T. commences with extraordinary muscular and nervous debility, great depre ion of spirits, flying pains, sighing, a frequent, small, hard, and fluttering pulse, a foul and brown tongue, impaired taste. As the disease progre es, the debility is increased; the mouth becomes very foul and the breath fetid; the evacuations are extremely offensive and rapidly putrefy. The speech then becomes inarticulate, muttering, and delirious; there is a tendency to bleeding from the nose, mouth, and bowels; livid spots appear on the surface, hiccough comes on, the hands and feet become cold, and death supervenes. In this climate it may last three weeks or a month; in hot countries, eight or ten days. If it does not terminate fatally, the symptoms begin to be favorable about the twelfth or fourteenth day. It is contagious, or infectious, and often epidemic. [s. 915]