A treatise on relapsing or famine fever / by R.T. Lyons.

  • Lyons, R. T.
Date:
1872
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A treatise on relapsing or famine fever / by R.T. Lyons. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    justified in giving tliem a place in the text, wlien they are alluded to as bihous remittent or jungle fever by contempo- rary writers, who have given a description of the disease so named, of the nature of which I have been thereby enabled to judge. The earlier epidemics were imperfectly described by the old writers, but sufficient information regarding them has been recorded to satisfy me regarding their nature. Some of the symptoms, moreover, are not usual in the disease as * it appears in the present day; but those who have had the opportunity of observing epidemics, will probably not fail to discover in the unusual symptoms which, in the olden days, had epidemic proportions, a marked similarity to exceptional cases which came under their notice. The history here compiled, being the first of its land, it has been considered just and essential, in order to enable the reader to form an independent judgment, to state in detail the symptoms of the earlier epidemics. The accounts of a few of these are given verbatim; of the others, the original descriptions have been condensed, the langtiage of the writers, however, being as far as was possible retained, as well as the views or opinions expressed by them. It must not be considered that this history is exhaustive, for the author has not had the opportunity of searching the entire literature of fever. It will be observed, however, that while Calcutta and the upper provinces of the Bengal presidency have been frequently visited by epidemics of relapsing fever, the districts of Lower Bengal appear to have enjoyed a remarkable exemption from the scourge. Within recent times, the newspapers have contained notices of the ravages of most awful epidemics of fever: villages being said to have been extermiuated and whole districts devas- tated, so that large tracts of cultivated land have reverted to jungle from the destruction of the people. The accounts of these recent epidemics are vague and obscure. For instance, a disease alleged to be a malarious fever, of which the symptoms are those of malarious fever, and of which the cause is malaria—which is not contagious, but spreads over the countiy by means of atmospheric waves—is hardly intelligible. Other accounts are equally difficult of com-