Hygiene & Diseases of Warm Climates

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1893. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER IV. MALARIAL DISEASES. BY ANDREW DAVIDSON, M.D., F.r.c.p.ed. Nomenclature and Synonyms.--The term malaria,--from the Italian mat' aria, bad air,--however inappropriate etymologically, has been so generally accepted as signifying the infective agent of a well-marked group of febrile, cachectic, and nervous affections, that we shall continue to employ it in this sense, and without prejudice to the question whether water or air is the medium by which the infective principle effects its entrance into the system. The French designate the malarious process paludisme (pains, a marsh), and the malarial class of affections are frequently spoken of as maladies palustres, or marsh diseases,--terms which unfortunately suggest an exclusive marsh origin to these diseases, and are specially inappropriate to malaria in its epidemic manifestations. The following synonyms, though strictly applicable only to the febrile manifestations of the infection, are nevertheless used comprehensively to designate malarious affections generally:--Gr. AiakeLirav trvperot; L. febris intermittens; E. ague, intermittent fever, remittent fever; Fr. jtivre intermittentc, fibvrc telluriquc, Jievrc ptriodijue; It. fchhr intermittente; G. Wcclwlfieber, aussetzendes Fieber, kaltes Ficber. Nature Of The Malarial Infection. Malarial diseases, notwithstanding their diversity of manifestation, have long been recognised as constituting a natural group, the members of which are related to one another in their etiology, symptomatology, and pathology. They are observed to prevail together in the same localities, seasons, and years, to exhibit in most instances a marked periodicity, and to give rise to alterations in the same organs--notably in the spleen and liver. As the precise nature of the l...