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.

    26/1099 (page 2)
    or indirect ])earing of atmospheric temperature on ijathogenetic and associated organisms. Of these the last is in the case of tropical diseases 1)V far the most important condition. (1) Although many attempts have been made to trace and e.xplain the effect of temperature on the physiological processes of the human body, more especially in reference to the pathological proclivities to which atmospheric heat and cold may conduce, it cannot be said that any important conclusions have been attained. With the e.vception of traumatism due to the sun (sunstroke), heat syncope, erythema solare, and possibly lichen tropicus and heat-apoplexy^ (siriasis), there ai'e no diseases that can be definitely attributed to the direct action of high atmospheric temperature on the human body. With the e.xception of fi'ost-bite and in a measure but only in the case of individuals otherwise predi.sposed, chilblains and paro.xysmal haemoglobinuria, thei'e are no diseases directly depending on the influence of cold on the human body. But, although we may not be able to indicate precisely the way in which our bodies are prejudicially affected by extremes of atmospheric temperature, especially prolonged high temperatures, our sensations, the loss of physical and mental energy, the modifications of physical characteristics undergone by white races when placed during several generations in tropical conditions, and the dark skins of all tropical races indicate that the white races on first arrival are not in all respects adapted for tropical conditions, that they are somehow prejudicially affected thereby, and that while living in tropical countries they are more open to certain pathological risks than arc the natives of these counti-ies. (2) In a general way it may be affirmed that eveiy considerable community has found its aj)pro])riate food and may be said, if this food be adetpiate in amount and of good (piality, to thrive on it. But it sometimes happens that under stress of famine the staple foods are not obtainable, or if obtainable may be damaged. In such circumstances the people may be driven to eat substances containing to.xic material. In this way lathyrism, ergotism, atriplicism, manioc poisoning arc ac(iuired. Such diseases ai'c ])ractically limited to the areas in which such dietetic conditions occur, and some of these are necessarily tropical. Under the same heading might bc‘])laecd the morbid conditions which arise from the inordinate use of coi’tain intoxicants, such as Indian hemp. (d) The social and sanitary conditions of most tropical countries, altlumgh they cannot be .said to cause any special disease, are, nevertheless, as comi)ared to the .social and .sanitary conditions obtaining in most tempci-ate climates, eminently conducive to the prevalence of certain diseases such as lejirosy, cholera, plague, dysentery. So much is this the case and so much more common I'clativel}' are these diseases in tiopicfd countries that, ])ractically, they have come to be regarded as tropical diseases. But they are tropical only in the sense uidicated. They would thrive elsewhere were the social and .sanitary conditions (“qually favourable. They are not essentially tro])ical.