Notes on diseases in Turkey ; and Memoir on the remittent fever of the Levant.

  • United Kingdom. Army and Ordnance Medical Department.
Date:
1854
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Notes on diseases in Turkey ; and Memoir on the remittent fever of the Levant. 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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    Bulgaria; the same is the case at Brahilou, Galatz, and throughout the Delta formed by the embouchures of the Danube. Nor is the generation of the miasma confined to the Danubian valley, for it is likewise bred by the Limans of South Bessarabia; along the shores of the Aluta and the Shyl in Wallachia; in the marshes south-west of Varna; those on either side of the Maritza near Adrianople ; not to speak of others of lesser dimensions, and the numerous muddy brooks so frequently to be met with in Bulgaria and Rou- melia, which emit a peculiar and offensive smell during the hot season, when they are constantly visited by buffaloes, which wallow in the mire with their muzzles alone aboy? water. Independently of marshes and swamps, I believe that the alluvial soil of Bulgaria and Boumelia, which, by proper cultivation, might be rendered as salubrious as it is fertile, contains within itself the elements of malaria, which, during the excessive heat, escapes constantly, to the surface through the innumerable cracks formed in the parched meadow land. The changes of the temperature and the seasons arc rapid and sudden. The coimtry between Jassy, in Moldavia, and Constantinople, lies between the 43rd and 46th degree north latitude, and yet the temperature ranges from the most excessive heat in summer to 39 degrees below freezing point in winter, and this, too, without the gradual transitions observable elsewhere. The spring, which is very short, is suddenly ushered in by warm breezes, which melt the snow and ice in very little time; the vegetable kingdoip, which appeared extinct for many months, begins to germinate and blossom in a few days, and with the end of April every feature of the vernal season is nearly gone. During the summer months, again, there is daily a rapid fall of the ther- mometer towards the evening, by 15 to 19 degrees Fahr.