Book Description

Excerpt from Introduction To: The Study of Malarial Diseases The purpose of this little work is to assist the ship's surgeon or the colonial surgeon who has to undertake unaided the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of malarial fever. I shall, therefore, consider but briefly the distribution and history of the disease. Malarial fever is found all over the world, in an area extending from 40 south latitude to 60 north latitude. At certain times of the year the ship's surgeon encounters malarial fever in the majority of tropical and subtropical harbours. Low - lying, flat, swampy stretches of coast are especially the seats of malarial fever; but certain elevated rocky islands - the Cape Verd Islands, for instance - are not exempt from it. The diffusion of malarial fever being thus extensive, it is not surprising that from the earliest times the disease has aroused the greatest interest, not only in physicians, but also in the laity, and that the literature of the subject is so enormous that no single man can now hope to master it. The history of malarial fever may be divided into three periods. First Period. - This extends from the time of Hippocrates down to the year 1640, when the bark of the cinchona-tree was brought for the first time to Europe by the Countess Cinchon, wife of the Viceroy of Peru, the Countess by its use having been cured of an intermittent fever. An enormous advance was thus effected, for although from time to time during the following centuries this drug fell into disrepute, either because it was employed in the treatment of fevers which were not of a malarial nature, or because, in true intermittents, it was administered at an improper time, so that its effects were unsatisfactory, nevertheless, it was already of inestimable value, for physicians were no longer so powerless as they had previously been in the treatment of intermittent fever. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works."