The putrid fever, medically known as typhus, was preavalent in the early life of Jane Austen as there was a Putrid Fever epidemic August of 1783. This disease was brought in by troops incoming from their service in Gibraltar returning and quartering in Southampton. This illness was of high mortality among elder people and historically occured during times of war and famine. The transmission of this disease froms was primarily through human infestations and pests such as lice, ticks, mites, and rat fleas. Symptoms of this illness were constant headaches, high temperature, pink spotting, that rapidly darken all throughout the body excluding the soles of the feet, palms and face. Recovery could be spontaneous or prove to be fatal.