Typhoid

{ti/ -foid) \rv(poq, stupor; eldog, like]. Resembling typhus. T. Fever, enteric fever, abdominal typhus, i leo typhus. An infectious disease caused by the bacillus typhosus discovered by Eberth. It is introduced into the body with the food and drinking water, and is found in the intestines, the spleen, and the fecal discharges, but may also occur in the various complicating lesions. The principal lesions of typhoid fever are an enlargement and necrosis of Peyer’s patches, and enlargement of the spleen and the mesenteric glands. The mucous membrane of the intestines is also the seat of a catarrhal inflammation. After a period of incubation of from two to three weeks the disease sets in with weakne , headache, vague pains, a tendency to diarrhea, and nose-bleed. The temperature gradually rises, being higher each evening than the previous evening, and reaches its maximum (io4°-io5° F.) in from one to two weeks. It then remains at this level for from one to two weeks, and finally sinks by lysis. The pulse is soft and dicrotic, but often not as rapid as would be expected from the high temperature. The tongue is at first coated on the dorsum and red at the tip and edges, but soon becomes dry, brown, and tremulous, and, like the teeth and lips, covered with sordes. There is usually complete anorexia, the bowels are loose, the stools having a peculiar ” pea-soup ’ ’ color. At times constipation exists. Slight congestion of the lungs with cough is usually present. On the seventh, eighth, or ninth day the peculiar eruption appears— it consists of small, slightly-elevated, rose-colored spots, disappearing on pre ure, and coming out in succe ive crops. Nervous symptoms are prominent in typhoid fever, and are headache, slight deafne , stupor, muttering delirium, car pho logia, subsultus tendinum, and coma vigil. Complications are frequent, the most important being intestinal hemorrhage, perforation of the bowel, peritonitis, pneumonia, and nephritis. Relapses are fairly common, although second attacks are rare. Abortive typhoid is characterized by an abrupt onset of symptoms, which subside quickly, convalescence following in a few days. Walking typhoid is a variety in which the symptoms are so mild that the patient disregards them and walks about. Grave accidents may in such a case develop suddenly. T. State, the condition of stupor and hebetude, with dry, brown tongue, sordes on the teeth, rapid, feeble pulse, incontinence of feces and urine, and rapid wasting, seen in typhoid fever and other continued fevers. 641