The malarial fevers, haemoglobinuric fever and the blood protozoa of man / by Charles F. Craig ; illustrated by four colored plates, twenty-five clinical charts, and twenty-eight photomicrographs and drawings.

  • Craig, Charles Franklin, 1872-1950.
Date:
1909
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The malarial fevers, haemoglobinuric fever and the blood protozoa of man / by Charles F. Craig ; illustrated by four colored plates, twenty-five clinical charts, and twenty-eight photomicrographs and drawings. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.

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    are less apt to be infected with these fevers than are the lower. Tomassi- Crudeli found that at Girgento, the custodians of the temples suffer greatly from malaria, while people sleeping in houses a short distance away, but upon higher ground, do not suffer at all; Celli instances the case of the workers in the marshes at the foot of the Lepini Mountains, who at night go up into the foot- hills to sleep and who thus escape malarial infection. The town of Norma is built upon the summit of an almost perpendicular mass of rock, 343 meters high, and the inhabitants are free from malaria. According to Celli, the town of Ninfa, situated at the foot of the rock upon which Norma is built, and which was once a flourishing Papal seat, now consists of ruins, the only inhabited house being a mill, where malaria is so severe that the workers have to be changed every week during the malarial season. While, as a rule, malaria is not met with upon highlands, there are many exceptions, and in the Philip- pines one of the worst malarial foci in all the islands is situated in the foot-hills of the Zambales Mountains. Height is only protective when conditions are present preventing the development of Anophelinae, and the mere fact that a country is elevated should not be considered as proving that it is free from malaria. It would appear that the most convincing argument against the transmission of malaria by the air is the fact that the disease is not conveyed by winds, for it is implossible to believe that if the malarial germ were present in the air it would not be carried by the wind. The malarial fevers are strictly local infections, being confined within certam well-defined limits, even in infected localities. Transmission by Water.—The believers in the theory that water is capable of transmitting malaria have instanced numerous occurrences which appear to support their contention. The oft-quoted Argo mcident, used so often as an almost impregnable argument in favor of such a mode of trans- mission, is of little scientific value in the light of our present knowledge. Boudin reported this epidemic, which occurred upon the French transport Argo, in 1834. In July of that year, three French transports sailed from Bona, Algiers, bound for Marseilles, and loaded with French soldiers. While upon two of the transports the troops continued in good health, upon one, the Argo, there occurred a severe epidemic of what was regarded as malarial fever, thirteen of the crew dying, while 98 were admitted to the hospital when the ship reached Marseilles. The cause of the epimedic was supposed to be a number of barrels of water from a swamp, shipped at Bona, where malaria was prevalent. A review of the facts in this celebrated case show that it is almost impossible that any of the patients suffered from malaria, for the incubation period was shorter than has ever been observed; every man of the 120 consti- tuting the crew was affected; in every case the symptoms were described as per- nicious in character, and in no case was there a recurrence of the disease. It is very evident that these men suffered from some form of acute poisoning, perhaps due to the swamp water, but more probably due to some article of food. The 6