A manual of the climate and diseases of tropical countries : in which a practical view of the statistical pathology and of the history and treatment of the diseases of those countries is attempted to be given : calculated chiefly as a guide to the young medical practitioner on his first resorting to those countries / by Colin Chisholm.

  • Chisholm, Colin, 1755-1825.
Date:
1822
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A manual of the climate and diseases of tropical countries : in which a practical view of the statistical pathology and of the history and treatment of the diseases of those countries is attempted to be given : calculated chiefly as a guide to the young medical practitioner on his first resorting to those countries / by Colin Chisholm. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.

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    flammatory symptoms begin to appear, blended with those which may be called bilious, or those which are more peculiar to the hot and rainy season. In January, February and March, during which the nights, mornings and evenings, are cold, and the days warm, violent pleurisies, hepatic inflammation, coughs and rheu- matism pevail much. This state of weather, and the diseases inci- dent to it, are much more evident in the North and North-east sides of the islands, than in the leeward sides; and doubtless pro- ceed from the former being much more directly exposed to the piercing northerly winds, called Norths by the inhabitants, which almost constantly blow during the Winter and Spring months. During the time between the wet and dry seasons, and between the dry and wet, there is, sometimes, a kind of anomaly in the symp- toms when these appear;—thus, pleurisy and hepatitis then assume a diathesis which has been designated in Europe, typhoid, which gives them a character of peculiar danger and insidiousness. A very remarkable instance of this occurred in the island of Grenada in the year 1785. The Spring months of that year were dis- tinguished by sudden changes from exccessive drought to excessive moisture, from great heat to a very considerable but variable degree of cold. An epidemic anomalous hepatitis was the consequence, most insidious in its symptoms, and most fatal in its result. It was chiefly prevalent in those districts of the island which are most ex- posed to the influence of the chiUing northerly winds; and was most epidemic and most fatal in January and February, when the degree of cold was greatest. All colours, sexes and ages were sub- ject to it. It is not a little singular that the vicinity of marshes rendered the disease considerably more anomalous, insidious and dangerous. So much, indeed, did this disease partake of the typhoid character that Dr. John Stev/art and myself, who for some time jointly observed and treated it, had reason, in many instances, to consider it contagious.—A full account of this disease was pub- lished in the Edin. Med. Commentaries for 1786. In other situa- tions in the West Indies this anomalous hepatitis has been observed, and always with greater insidousness and danger in proportion to the vicinity of marshes, a detail of its symptoms and treatment is given in Part ii. ch. 4, sect. 1. A stranger to the climate of the torrid zone, trusting to a general view of it, and believing that its diseases must necessarily proceed from heat; and not aware of the change of temperature and direc- tion of the winds, at the commencement of the Winter months or dry season, beheves that catarrhal complaints of every description must be infinitely more rare than they really are in the torrid zone. There is not, however, a more fatal error. M. Desportes, a most intelligent French physician, who practised many years in the island of St. Domingo, observed that les habitans des pays chauds sont *' encore plus sujets aux catarrhes que ceux des temper^es, L'al- ternative du chaud et du froid arretant ordinairement trop subite- ment la traa^piration, doit occasioner des engorgemens dans les