Yellow fever, considered in its historical, pathological, etiological, and therapeutical relations: including a sketch of the disease as it has occurred in Philadelphia from 1699 to 1854, with an examination of the connections between it and the fevers known under the same name in other parts of temperate, as well as in tropical, regions (Volume 2).

  • La Roche, R. (René), 1795-1872.
Date:
1855
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Yellow fever, considered in its historical, pathological, etiological, and therapeutical relations: including a sketch of the disease as it has occurred in Philadelphia from 1699 to 1854, with an examination of the connections between it and the fevers known under the same name in other parts of temperate, as well as in tropical, regions (Volume 2). Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

    23/816
    Not less certain is it, that the protective influence of acclimatization is lost by a prolonged residence in cold climates -,1 that the children of the natives of, and acclimatized to, tropical regions, do not enjoy the same ad- vantages in regard to protection as their parents,3 but acquire them rapidly as they advance in age; that the residents of some portions of tropical re- gions suffer to a certain extent from the disease, on removing to another and more insalubrious part of the same regions,3 or even to one differing but little in point of salubrity. We find also that the natives and the acclimatized residents of cities or towns in southern latitudes, where the yellow fever has either never prevailed before, or had not done so for many years back, are liable to be attacked—to a certain extent at least—(as at Guayaquil in 1840 and 1842, or Caraccas about the same time), when the disease breaks out in an epidemic form; that individuals acclimatized to a yellow fever locality sometimes lose, to some extent, the protection they had enjoyed, by a long exemption of that locality from local sources of infection, or by its being favoured, during several successive summers, with a cooler and purer atmosphere than before;4 and that the same results obtain when individuals change their residence to places where the effluvia evolved, though not more detrimental to health, are of a different nature from those to which they were accustomed. We cannot be surprised at this. It has been remarked, as we learn from Mr. Cornuel, whose experience in the matter is extensive, and whose judg- ment is mature, that all the mutations in the location of troops in the West Indies have to be conducted with the greatest care; for it is a matter of ob- servation that all such changes favour in a singular manner the development of disease. Suppose two companies placed in two different localities : their sanitary condition is excellent: they have neither of them any sick in the hospital. Exchange their location—in effecting this, take the greatest pre- caution ; make the change by sea, shelter the soldiers from the rain, the heat of day, and the dampness of night: in a word, act in the way best calcu- lated to shield the men from the ill effects of fatigue and atmospheric vicissi- tudes. However you may act, each company will soon send a number of sick to the hospital. And yet, the hygienic condition of those localities has not changed; for the other portions of the troops that have not left their old quarters continue healthy.5 Captain Philips thought he escaped the fever by remaining in town and visiting the sick, thus accustoming himself to the town air. This I did by 1 Rochoux, pp. 40, 41; Maher, p. 884; Bally, pp. 332, 340; Arnold, p. 26; McArthur, in Johnson, 350; R. Jackson, Fevers of Jamaica, p. 250; H. McLean, p. 187; Pugnet, pp. 345, 346; Frost, Med. Repos., xii. 224; Dariste, p. 37; Savaresy, p. 256; Bancroft, p. 268; Frazer, Med.-Chir. Rev., xiii. 347; Rufz, Med. Exam., iii. 109; N.Dickinson, p. 12; Veicht, pp. Ill, 112; Hume, p. 267; Pinkard, ii. 481. 2 Musgrave, Med.-Chir. Trans., ix. 106, 107; Rufz, Med. Exam., iii. 106. 3 Humboldt, pp. 761, 771, 772; J. Clark, pp. 1, 2; Pugnet, p. 346. 4 Chervin, Report on Rufz's Mem., p. 44.