a feeling of depression, with
headache, and perhaps slight nausea, before any characteristic bowel
symptoms begin to show themselves.

The general invasion of the system throws an interesting sidelight upon
the subject of premonitions. There are several well authenticated cases
on record where individuals just before coming down with typhoid have
been strangely impressed with a sense of impending death, and have even
gone so far as to make their wills and set their affairs in order.
Because these strong impressions appeared before any clearly marked
intestinal symptoms of the disease, they have been put down in popular
literature as instances of the "second sight," or "sixth sense," which
popular superstition believes many of us to possess under certain
circumstances. Now, however, we know that the tissues of that individual
were already swarming with bacilli, and his fear of impending death was
simply the effect of his toxin-laden blood upon his brain centres. In
other words, it was prophecy after the fact, like nearly all prophecies
that happen to come true; and the "premonition" was an early symptom of
the disease itself.

As it is, of course, difficult to fix the precise drink of water or
mouthful of food in which the infection was conveyed, we were for a long
time in doubt as to the length of time which it took to spread through
the system,--the "period of incubation," as it is termed,--although we
knew in a general way that it averaged somewhere about ten days. But,
about a year ago, fortune was kind to us. A nurse in one of the Parisian
hospitals, in a fit of despondency, decided to commit suicide. Like a
true Parisienne, she would be nothing if not up to date, and chose, as
the most _recherche_ and original method of departing this life, to
swallow a pure culture of typhoid germs, which she abstracted from the
laboratory. Three days later she began to complain of headache, and
within a week had developed a beautiful crop of symptoms, and a typical
case of typhoid, from which, under modern treatment, she promptly
recovered,--a wiser and, we trust, a happier woman.

By just what avenue the infecting bacilli go from the stomach into the
general system we do not know. Metschnikoff suggests that they can only
penetrate the intestinal wall through wounds or abrasions of the mucous
membrane, made by intestinal worms or other parasites. Certain it is
that the average stomach has a considerable degree of resisting pow