CHAPTER IV.
Of Typhus: Division into Mitior and Gravior, and into Cerebral, Thoracic, and Abdominal. Typhus Mitior, with Subacute Cerebral Affection; with Acute Cerebral Affection; with Thoracic Affection; with Abdominal Affection. Typhus Gravior: in what it really consists: dangerous Nature of the Error that it consists in Debility.
The appearance of a person labouring under typhus is so different from that of a person affected with synochus, that no one ignorant of the disease, who saw these two patients for the first time, would believe that both were afflicted with one and the same malady. And yet dissection after death demonstrates, that the physical condition of the organs is precisely the same in both; and careful examination of the symptoms during life, shews that they are really identical, both in their nature and their succession, however, at first view, they may appear to differ. The difference between these two diseases arises entirely from a difference in intensity: still this difference produces a very important modification in the character of the disease; important, because it materially affects both the safety of the patient, and the nature of the remedies that are best adapted to rescue him from his danger.
Typhus, like synochus, presents itself under two degrees of intensity, which, like those of the latter, may be conveniently designated by the terms mitior and gravior. All the important symptoms which belong to both are found in the same cavities, and relate to the same organs, as in synochus, and, therefore, must in like manner be divided into cerebral, thoracic, and abdominal.