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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    First Period. From the earliest historical time to the discovery of cin- chona bark. Second Period. From the discovery of cinchona bark to the discovery of the Plasmodia. Third Period. From the discovery of the plasmodia to the discovery of the method of transmission by the mosquito. Fourth Period. From the discovery of the method of transmission to the present time. First Period.—It is more than probable that the ancient Egyptians possessed some knowledge of what are now termed the ''malarial fevers, for, according to W. Groff, the annual recurrence of malaria is indicated in inscriptions upon the temple ruins at Denderah. In the fifth century B. C, Hippocrates gave a clear description of these fevers, distinguishing them from other continued fevers and dividing them into tertian, quartan, quotidian, and semitertian. He recognized that the malarial fevers are most frequent in the summer and autumn and in the vicinity of bodies of water. Celsus, in the first century A. D., distinguished the pernicious forms of malaria, as well as the forms described by Hippocrates. His description of the malignant tertian fever proves beyond doubt that this form of malaria was well known at the time he wrote. He says: But of tertians there are two sorts. One commencing and terminating like the quartan, with this difference only that it affords one day's interval, and returns on the third; the other, far more dangerous, returning, it is true, on the third day, but generally occuping by the accession six-and-thirty out of the forty-eight hours, sometimes even more or less; nor does it entirely subside in the remission, but only becomes mitigated. Varro, Columella, Avicenna, and Palladius all described the forms of malarial fever observed by them, and regarded the emanations arising from swamps and the swarms of minute animals present in swamp water as probable causes of certain forms of malaria. During the years of Roman sovereignty enormous aqueducts were constructed and drainage works undertaken for the sole purpose of rendering Italy free from the terrible scourge of malaria, and that many of these operations were successful is proven by the ruins of once populous cities in localities which to-day are uninhabitable on account of the prevalence of these fevers. During the darkness and superstition of the Middle Ages no additions were made to our knowledge of malaria and it was not until the middle of the 17th century, when cinchona bark was introduced into Europe, that an impetus was given to the study of these fevers. Second Period.—Cinchona bark was introduced into Europe in 1640 by the Viceroy del Cinchon, who had observed its action in Ecuador in natives, and Europeans suffering from malaria. The introduction of this drug greatly stimulated the study of the malarial fevers, as by its use it was possible to distin-