Typho-malarial fever : is it a special type of fever? : being remarks introductory to the discussion of the question in the Section of Medicine, International Medical Congress / by J.J. Woodward.

  • Woodward, Joseph Janvier, 1833-1884.
Date:
1876
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Typho-malarial fever : is it a special type of fever? : being remarks introductory to the discussion of the question in the Section of Medicine, International Medical Congress / by J.J. Woodward. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    l)rtt cliliered in many important ])articnlars from those to wliicli they were accustomed at home. This circumstance was noticed in both the Western and the Eastern ra-mies: but, so far as I have been able to ascertain, official attention was first directed to it in the Army of the Potomac, then encamped just beyond the banks of the river in front of Washington. By an order from the Adjutant Geuend s office, dated December G, 1861, a Board of Medical Officers was convened for the purpose of visiting the camps of the Anny of the Potomac, and inquiring into the nature of the prevail- ing fever, especially endeavoring to ascertain—to use the language of the order appointing the Board—“ whether it is to be considered an intermittent or bilious reinittent fever in its incejDtion, assuming in its course a typhoidal type, or a typhoid fever prunarily.” This Board con- sisted of Siu'geon A. N. McLaren, IT. S. A.; Brigade Surgeon G. H. Lyman, U. S. Volunteers, and Assistant Surgeon M. J. Asch, U. S. Army. It convened December 16th, at the quarters of Brigade Surgeon Lyman, who was chief medical officer of the division commanded by General Pitz John Porter; and during its subsequent labors examined the hos- pitals of this and other divisions, and collected a great deal of valuable information, in writing, by means of written questions addressed to the brigade and regimental medical officers of parts of the army which its members were unable conveniently to visit. As might have been ex- pected, some diversity of opinion was expressed in the replies received. But in their general tenor the great majority of these replies confirmed the opinion foinied by the members of the Board on the basis of their own personal observations. This opinion was, that while a certain number of cases of ordinary typhoid fever existed in the army, the large majority of the febrile cases were “ bilioias-remittent fevers, which, not having been controlled in them primary stage, have assumed that adynamic type which is present in enteric fever. ^ In the following spring, after the Army of the Potomac commenced its Peninsular campaign, this mixed form of fever increased in frequency. It assumed formidable proportions during the siege of Yorktown, and reached its greatest intensity while the army lay encamped on ithe swampy borders of the Chickahominy. The hospitals of Washington and Alexandria, of Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York, and other North- ern cities, were crowded to overfiowing with the sick. Among the attenfhng physicians were some of the best instructed medical men of the Northern States. Tliey have shown that they recognized that they hafl to deal with an unusual pathological complex, by perpetuating the name of Chickahominy fever, which apjjears so often in their reports. It was under these circumstances that T was ordered, early in tlie