Volume 3

A system of medicine / by many writers ; edited by Thomas Clifford Allbutt and Humphry Davy Rolleston.

Date:
1905
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)

Credit: A system of medicine / by many writers ; edited by Thomas Clifford Allbutt and Humphry Davy Rolleston. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by King’s College London. The original may be consulted at King’s College London.

    25/1099
    INTRODUCTION By Sir Patuick Max«ox, K.C.M.G., M.D., LL.D., F.R.S. The diseases affecting man have been classified in a number of ways, both scientific and practical. It cannot be claimed for the grouping of a certain numbei' under the heading of “ Tropical Diseases ” that such an arrangement is in any sense a scientific classification. Nevertheless, it is a useful and practical one, and, moreover, is based on experience; on the circumstance that certain diseases are confined to tropical regions, or are especially prevalent in them, such limitation and prevalence Iicing determined by peculiar etiological conditions which, in their turn, arc determined or may be inffuenced by the meteorology of these regions. The classification of disease on a climatic basis is supported by the additional circumstance that while some diseases are wholly or ])rinci- pally limited to the tropical belt, others—though oidy few in number, such as scarlet fever and rheumatic fever—are practically confined to cold or temperate climates. On the other hand the vast majoi-ity of diseases have no climatic limitations ; syphilis, cancer, tuberculosis, and a hundred others are to be found in all climates and in nearly every country. Thu.s, then, arranging diseases from the standpoint of climate, we recognise three well-defined gi-oups : a small group demanding the climatic con- ditions obtaining in cold or temperate climates, a huger group demanding tropical conditions, and a still larger group which ap{)ear to be entirely exempt from climatic restriction. Looking at disease as a whole the cpicstion naturally arises Avhy there should be these limitations in some in.stances and not in others, and Avhy any disease should have climatic restrictions. How docs tem])erature^— for, broadh^ speaking, and especially in this instance, climate resolves itself ultimately into atmos])heric temperature—how does temperature inffuence the distribution of disease 1 Climate inffuences the distribution of disease in one or other of several Avays of Avhich the folloAving ai'e the principal:—(1) By the direct action of light, heat, moisture, and other meteorological conditions on the human body; (2) by the food special to different climates; (3) by the social arrangements and .sanitaiy conditions more or less directly imposed by climate ; (4) by the direct VOL. II. —I’T. II IE I!