Report on the malarial epidemic fever of Mauritius of 1866-67, (with plans of Port Louis and Flat Island, and a map of Mauritius, shaded to show the distribution of the fever districts) / by John Small and W.H.T. Power.

  • Small, John, Surg.-Major.
Date:
[between 1870 and 1879?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report on the malarial epidemic fever of Mauritius of 1866-67, (with plans of Port Louis and Flat Island, and a map of Mauritius, shaded to show the distribution of the fever districts) / by John Small and W.H.T. Power. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

    29/46 (page 27)
    difficult to see why the one should be treated and not the J^^er^, and thk naus^ and even vomiting, generally ceased as soon as the hot stage ^^a wen bew iu To privent vomiting, the most useful and successful remedy was the nu Je ^fU^nuth in Ih-grav. doses various ^ther remedxe^^^ a^^^^^^^^ vomiting were tried but none succeeded so weU as this one, « ^'^/T^'J^J^^ given, and certainly not as a matter of routine: our l^^'^'^^^'^^^^^'^Z that it was at all a necessary preliminary to « clear out the primae vise betore ^'Sf,4t/wiTo-t once used, except occasionally some calomel as a purgj, and our results and experience satisfactorily show this drug is not at all required; even the liver may seem to be a httle disordered, ^ tongue ?o2l, yet we found that the quina, actirg agamst the noxious, causes of aU the'inischief, cleared the tongue, and set the liver all ^^^^f^^^^ith stop to the next fit of ague. Comparing the mortahty of .^^J^/^^^^ the immense mortality of the civil population, we think no g^f^^f/PJ^f^^^^^^^^ be given of rational and good treatment, though no doubt the attendance and good diet went a long way in Port Louis, to cause this difference ; l>utit must be remembered that the deaths amongst those m easy circumstances, were far greater than amongst the soldiers. . We found the previously-observed fact to be the case m this epidemic, that if no quina were given for a fit of ague, the next fit came on at an earlier hour than the previous one, and that also t^e ^^jerse was the case if qu^^^^^ were given. The lig. qidnoiddne of Savory and Moore was tried m l.ngland, but by no means replaced quina as a preventative of the next fit of ague; moreover, it was very apt to cause vomiting. CinchomcB disulph. was also used, but it required far larger doses than of quina to stop a paroxysm, and even then its action could not thoroughly be relied on. Gemral Remarks on PoiyUs of Interest connected with the Fever. Numbers of Non-Gommissioned Ofcers and Men who escaped the Fever.-^ Thirty-six, or 5-307 per cent. Two of the men had ague for the first time since, and some time after, their arrival in England, reducing these figures to 34-, or 5-07 per cent. ; of commissioned officers, 7, or 25 per cent., escaped ; no marked characters as to strength of body or general health, to account at all lor their escaping. Yellowness of skin was only marked in one case, and slightly m one other. , . , Diuresis, as a sequel to, or during the fever, occurred m one case only. The Fever not Contagious.—\i may seem strange that a fever whose general noii-contagious character is so well known, should have been called contagious by any one ; yet such was gravely set forth by a medical practitioner m the island, in a series of letters to a local journal. We are not aware, however, of any other practitioner in M auritius holding like opinions—two perfect^ proofs of its being non contagious were fortunately afforded in the regiment, viz. :— 1st. At Flat Island none of the whites and blacks there resident contracted the fever during the six weeks that the regiment was there stationed, though they mixed much with the regiment, of course excepting those who had visited Mauritius during the time of the epidemic ; and, 2ud. No sailor on board the Himalaya had an attack of the fever during our passage home. _ i . r xi. These are ample proofs of the utterly non-contagious character ot the fever. Period of Incubation.—The length of time during which the malaria may lie latent in the system without manifesting itself by fever seems to depend in very many cases on external conditions; thus most of the men and officers composing the head-quarters of the regiment had had no fever till after their arrival at Flat Island, and then, from exposure to sun and great fatigue, num- bers of them were struck down soon after with fever ; indeed, far more were attacked with fever in a short time than had been the case in Port Louis itself, where the amount of duty and work was very slight. That the period of in- cubation may be long is seen in the case of two of the 36 men who escaped the fever ; these two men have had each a thorough attack of intermittent fever