William Budd. Portrait of William Budd (1810-80), British physician and typhoid pioneer. In 1845 Budd first described liver abscesses. From 1839, Budd observed outbreaks of typhoid fever and the results of his studies were published in Typhoid Fever(1873). In it he argued that disease was not caused by miasma (poisonous vapours). He argued that whilst the spread of typhoid was helped by insanitary conditions, the disease did not arise spontaneously out of dirt and excrement. He thought that typhoid was spread by infective agents in victims' excrement and that a clean water supply was vital to combat it. Unfortunately his views were not widely accepted at the time.