Murchison says, "Simple continued fever, when uncom^
plicated, is rarely, if ever, fatal in this coimtry. The
numerous deaths from simple fever recorded weekly by the
Eegistrar-General are due, for the most part, to enteric fever,
with latent abdominal symptoms."*

Again, "Many cases are designated simple fever or feb-
ricula which are, in reality, mild or abortive cases of typhus
or enteric fever, or relapsing fever without the relapse, or
catarrh with an unusual amount of febrile disturbance."+

Again, "Medical men often decline to call a fever 'enteric',
in which, as often happens, there are no enteric symptoms,
and hence the intestinal lesion is apt to be overlooked until
it unexpectedly becomes a source of danger. This mainly
accoimts for the circumstance that in the returns of the
Eegistrar-General deaths are weekly ascribed to ' simple con-
tinued fever', a disease which in twenty-five years has not
once been fatal in the London Fever Hospital." J

Again, he states " that the cases of f ebricula admitted into
the London Fever Hospital during the twenty-three years,
1848-70, amounted to 2,232."§

• * Continued Fevers (2nd ed.), p. 682. f Op. cit., p. 078.
X Op. Ht., p. 420. § Op. ciL, p. 684, table.
J



74 THE SEASONAL PREVALENCE OF

On the one hand we have the emphatic and reiterated
statement of a deservedly respected authority, founded upon
vast experience ; on the other the opinion of the large body
of medical men in London, who certified that 4,374 deaths in
the last sixteen years were caused by this disease — simple
continued fever.
