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Typhus is a group of diseases which are transmitted by the bites of lice, fleas or mites. They flourish in conditions of poor hygiene, such as in war or prison. In early modern England “gaol fever” was a synonym for typhus and, for example, after the 1577 “Black Assize” court in Oxford, more than 300 people died of typhus, including the Lord Chief Baron of the Exchequer and the Lord High Sheriff.
The author, Zinsser, compares his book to Tristram Shandy in terms of the time it takes the protagonist to be born. Unfortunately, some of the preliminary material is just tiresome, such as musings about whether the book will ever be published and read, and footnoting the word “saprophyte” only to tell the reader that it’s “too bad” if they don’t know what it means. However, other preliminary material is worthwhile, in particular a kind of historiographical essay of what we can know (generally little) about historical epidemics, such as those we call the plagues of Athens (as told by Thucydides) and of Justinian.
Consistent with his trope of calling the book a biography, the author stresses that pathogens evolve to take advantage of changing environments of vectors (insects and mites) and of vertebrate hosts (humans, other mammals, and birds). Within this program it makes sense to include the description of syphilis as something which in time became relatively benign, at least compared to its gruesome morbidity when it was first known in late 15th century Europe.
On the other hand, such evolutionary ideas will be well known to potential readers, bearing in mind that it’s not intended as a popular science book (a genre which the author says he detests). So there might have been more value in the specific topic of typhus. But, unfortunately, cutting edge knowledge from the 1930s is not always helpful today, in fact it can be confusing.
In particular, Zinsser talks about the “murine type” and the “human type” of “true typhus” (as opposed to spotted fever rickettsiosis and Tsutsugamushi disease, the latter now usually being called scrub typhus). These murine and human types are now recognised as different diseases with different pathogen species and different vectors. The “human type” is what we now call louse-borne typhus or epidemic typhus, and its main transmission is between humans via the lice, as mentioned in the title of the book. Given that title, it may be surprising to read that “Typhus fever was born when the first infected rat flea fed upon a man”. (Here the protagonist is finally “born” over two thirds into the book, compared to about one third in the case of Tristram Shandy.) The idea is that the “birth” via the flea was a species jump from mouse to human. Whether or not such a jump ever occurred, we now recognise “murine typhus” or “endemic typhus” as a separate infection with its main cycle being between rats and fleas, and humans sometimes getting in the middle. The author talks about the typhus “virus” even though he previously said it was either a bacterium or protozoon: this is presumably just because “virus” was a more general term in the 1930s than it is now.
There are also some contemporary references which don’t stand the test of time, such as snide remarks about FD Roosevelt, and a contemporary New York city mayoral election. Finally, the author seems proud of himself to have caused someone to have been incarcerated for a night just so that a sympathetic policeman could harvest lice from him for the experimental use.
The author, Zinsser, compares his book to Tristram Shandy in terms of the time it takes the protagonist to be born. Unfortunately, some of the preliminary material is just tiresome, such as musings about whether the book will ever be published and read, and footnoting the word “saprophyte” only to tell the reader that it’s “too bad” if they don’t know what it means. However, other preliminary material is worthwhile, in particular a kind of historiographical essay of what we can know (generally little) about historical epidemics, such as those we call the plagues of Athens (as told by Thucydides) and of Justinian.
Consistent with his trope of calling the book a biography, the author stresses that pathogens evolve to take advantage of changing environments of vectors (insects and mites) and of vertebrate hosts (humans, other mammals, and birds). Within this program it makes sense to include the description of syphilis as something which in time became relatively benign, at least compared to its gruesome morbidity when it was first known in late 15th century Europe.
On the other hand, such evolutionary ideas will be well known to potential readers, bearing in mind that it’s not intended as a popular science book (a genre which the author says he detests). So there might have been more value in the specific topic of typhus. But, unfortunately, cutting edge knowledge from the 1930s is not always helpful today, in fact it can be confusing.
In particular, Zinsser talks about the “murine type” and the “human type” of “true typhus” (as opposed to spotted fever rickettsiosis and Tsutsugamushi disease, the latter now usually being called scrub typhus). These murine and human types are now recognised as different diseases with different pathogen species and different vectors. The “human type” is what we now call louse-borne typhus or epidemic typhus, and its main transmission is between humans via the lice, as mentioned in the title of the book. Given that title, it may be surprising to read that “Typhus fever was born when the first infected rat flea fed upon a man”. (Here the protagonist is finally “born” over two thirds into the book, compared to about one third in the case of Tristram Shandy.) The idea is that the “birth” via the flea was a species jump from mouse to human. Whether or not such a jump ever occurred, we now recognise “murine typhus” or “endemic typhus” as a separate infection with its main cycle being between rats and fleas, and humans sometimes getting in the middle. The author talks about the typhus “virus” even though he previously said it was either a bacterium or protozoon: this is presumably just because “virus” was a more general term in the 1930s than it is now.
There are also some contemporary references which don’t stand the test of time, such as snide remarks about FD Roosevelt, and a contemporary New York city mayoral election. Finally, the author seems proud of himself to have caused someone to have been incarcerated for a night just so that a sympathetic policeman could harvest lice from him for the experimental use.