Medical and sanitary report / Government of the Gold Coast.

  • Gold Coast. Medical Department.
Date:
[1912]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Medical and sanitary report / Government of the Gold Coast. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    93/194 (page 89)
    15. El min a. November and December proved very trying to Euiopeans, all Officials with one exception were taken ill with fever, and \a ith four exceptions all the non-officials. That is to say, that out of a total population of 17, 12 suffered more or less severely, ” * * * * “ (10) Annual Deport, 1900. # # * # The improvement in the health is, in some measure, due to the more careful and regular methods of life, which, I am glad to say, are yearly receiving more attention ; and also to the meteorological con¬ ditions, the rainfall generally having been above the average, and the temperature somewhat below it.” * “ Meteorological Conditions. “The only special points to notice are the low temperature, and the unusually heavy rainfall; to these may to some extent be attributed the general good health of the Colony.” From the above extracts going back to the year 1886, six years after Laveran’s discovery of the malarial parasite and extending over several year’s of the Pre-Mosquito period, it will be seen that it was customary to ascribe most febrile conditions to Malaria, and to distinguish them as Demittent and Inter¬ mittent Fevers. There is nothing in the records to shew that the diagnosis was ever con¬ firmed by a microscopical examination, and, judging from the conditions that obtained when I first came to the Coast (1897) I doubt whether there was a microscope in the Colony during the period referred to. There can be little doubt that many of the febrile conditions referred to were Yellow Fever, and indeed the extract quoted from the report for the years 1886-87 is practically a description of the disease. Then again attention is called to the fact that the majority of cases of sickness and death occurred during the dry months of the year—the first quarter, the first half of the second quarter and the latter half of the fourth quarter—and this is explained as being due to the mud exposed by the drying up of the Lagoon as in extract (5): “ It is at the edges of this Lagoon that the malarial organism finds its permanent nidus whereas its pabulum is largely derived from the periodically exposed bed of the Lagoon.” It must be remembered that evidently Laveran’s discovery of the malarial parasite had not yet penetrated to the Coast, the mosquito-theory was unknown and the Medical Officers were still in search of the “ nidus ” and “ pabulum,” which together constituted the malarial miasma to escape which bungalows were erected at an elevation above the surface of the soil. [279928] 18a