On the endemic haematuria of the Cape of Good Hope. / By John Harley ; communicated by Lionel S. Beale.

  • Harley, John, 1833-1921.
Date:
1864
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the endemic haematuria of the Cape of Good Hope. / By John Harley ; communicated by Lionel S. Beale. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

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    no subsequent complications, that the medical practitioners, in the absence of proper means and sufficient leisure for making miimte investigations, had long ceased to pay par- ticular attention to the disease. 4. The drinking-water in Port Elizabeth is partly derived from the superficial drainage of twenty miles of plain by means of wells ten or twelve feet deep, and partly from rain water conveyed by zinc or iron roof-gutters into tanks of various material. The well water is brackish. Almost the whole of the vegetables, including salads, used in Port Elizabeth are obtained from Uitenhage. Peri- winkles are very abundant in Algoa Bay. The natives and colonists are affected with Taenia and Ascaris lumbricoides, both of which parasites are very common. Some time ago the latter appeared in great numbers, and infested both old and young. Some patients evacuated during this epidemic as many as forty worms. A year ago a number of horses died from an epidemic of hot worms, which attacked the stomach. Mr. Dunsterville kindly introduced me to his two sons, young gentlemen of the ages of seventeen and twenty respectively. They had, in common with the other young men of Port Elizabeth, suffered from haematuria, but it had disappeared of late, and they considered themselves to be free from the disorder. The elder (Mr. G. Dunsterville, jun.), however, had been greatly troubled during the last six months with gravel, and had passed during this time four or five renal calculi. He described his urine as being like chalk and water. On examining it, T was able to demonstrate to Mr. Dunsterville the presence of several ova of Bilharzia. One is delineated in Fig. 13. The secretion was highly acid, and loaded with a fine crystalline deposit of oxalate of lime and uric acid. The urine of the younger gentleman (Mr. C. Dunsterville) was full coloured and clear, but usually contained a little deposit of oxalate of lime in distinct octahcdra. In the first sample which I examined I could detect with a pocket lens a few floating ova, which under the microscope presented all