Observations on the influence of epidemics of fever in checking the advance of those of cholera / by Robert Lawson.

  • Lawson, Robert.
Date:
[1870]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Observations on the influence of epidemics of fever in checking the advance of those of cholera / by Robert Lawson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    much fever in the Mediterranean stations in 1818 and 1819, plague in the former year in Morocco, and in the latter at Constantinople. Whether Persia and Asia Minor were em- braced in this influence, which was manifest at Cutch to the south-east, and Constantinople to the north-west, I have no evidence ; but as the febrific influence was then strongly developed throughout the Mediterranean, it most likely embraced the countries between these points as well. Be that as it may, however, epidemic cholera failed to penetrate this district. In 1820 and 1821, fever was still prevalent in Cutch and Guzerat. In 1821, it was very severe among the troops in Ionian Islands, and con- tinued in the western part of Medi- terranean, but I have no notice of its prevalence in Egypt, Syria, or Asia Minor. In 1822, there was a great increase of fever among the troops at Malta. In the Ionian Islands fever was less severe than in 1821, but still high. In 1823, the causes of fever were not active at either Gibraltar or Malta, but in the Ionian Islands the deaths from it among the troops were 40 per cent, higher than in 1822, the first indication in this neighbourhood of a severe afid extensive outbreak of febrile disease, met with this year at Sierra Leone and Ascension, and which, in 1824, was manifested in greatly augmented ratios of mortality from fever at Gibraltar and Malta, by very severe plague in Egypt, plague in the Morea, Monte Negro, at Con- stantinople and Erzeroum ; thus com- pletely encircling the district in which epidemic cholera had shown itself, though the milder forms were still experienced far beyond it. In 1826, there was a considerable increase in the mortality from fever among the troops in the Ionian Islands, which became still higher in the following yi'ar. In 1826, plague was severe at Constantinople, and in 18?7 had included Odessa in its so far as the Indus, in either year. In 181'J this wave would pass the iscoclinal 53° N.; there is no further information, however, regarding the prevalence of cholera in its epidemic form; but in the Mediterranean military stations, in 1819, and more especially in 1820, there were indica- tions of its influence in the form of common, or sporadic cholera. In 1820, another cholerific wave passed the isoclinal, 30° N., and the disease, in its epidemic form, pre- vailed extensively in Northern India in China, and passed the Indus into Beloochistan. It continued very active in Northern India in 1821, and spread along the Persian Gulf, and through Persia, as far as Yezd and Bagdad, or to about 34° N. In 1822 tiie epi- demic resumed its activity, and ex- tended to Diarbekir in lat. 38°, and approached the Mediterranean as far as Aintab and Aleppo. This wave would pass the isoclinal 53° N., in 1821, but, although cholera did not become epidemic anj'where in the zone to the north of it, this or the following year, the cholerific influ- ence was still very manifest in the Mediterranean military stations. In 1822, another cholerific wave entered the zone between the iso- clinals 80° and 50° N. This year the epidemic was not quite so active in Northern India as the previous one ; it was severe in the nortli of Pei-sia, apparently under the preceding wave, but early in 1823 it commenced there again, and, it is said, extended as far north as Astrachan and Orenburg in the course of the year ; at the same time, it advanced from Aleppo west- ward, and reached Latakia and An- tioch, and extended along the Medi- terranean, between Scanderoon and Seleucia, where it seems to have stopped. In 1826, another cholerific wave passed the isoclinal 30° N„ and the epidemic disease prevailed in Northern India and China. In 1827 this wave passed beyond the isoclinal 53° N., and the epidemic aft'ected Tartary exten- sively, but did not advance westward