Medical notes on the climate of Burmah and on the diseases which have there prevailed among European troops / by Charles Murchison.

  • Murchison, Charles, 1830-1879.
Date:
1855
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Medical notes on the climate of Burmah and on the diseases which have there prevailed among European troops / by Charles Murchison. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    for we know by experiment that air contaminated with so little as ^^^0 0 of hydrochloric acid gas will destroy the v life of plants,^ and the poisonous principle of malaria must exist in even smaller quantity, for while we can detect the presence of 3 o of hydrochloric acid gas in the atmosphere, that of the poisonous principle of malaria we are unable to demonstrate. The probable existence of such beings was perhaps lost sight of by Dr Ferguson in his observations. But, be the origin and nature of malaria what they may, there can be no question, that at Prome, at the period we have been considering, those circumstances, which in most cases, coexist with the production and noxious effects of malaria existed in a high degree. A few of these may be mentioned. 1. The season in which the troops reached Prome, was that during which malarious diseases in the tropics are known to be most prevalent, viz.: that immediately succeeding the cessa¬ tion of the rains, or, as it is called the “ drying up” of the rains. 2. The country surrounding Prome abounded in dense jungle, and even the sides of the hills, on the summit of which the barracks were built, were covered with copious vegetation. Shortly after the arrival of the troops at Prome, the sides of these hills were cleared, and the brushwood, after drying for some days in the sun, collected and burnt. The propriety of such a step, at this time, seems very questionable, for it has always been found in malarious countries, that clearing the soil, and thereby exposing the earth’s surface to the more direct action of the sun’s rays, has increased disease, and rendered its character more severe. It may be mentioned too, that disease did not shew itself to any great extent among the troops, until after this clearing had commenced, but of course it would be difficult to say how far this was instru¬ mental in producing it. 3. The country surrounding Prome also abounded in low swamps and extensive rice-fields. These swamps and rice- fields are liable to great inundations during the rainy season ; so much so, that in many places the principal communication between the different villages is carried on by means of boats. In the protracted dryness after the rains, these rice-fields become split up by wide fissures through the soil, often two or three feet in depth. Through these fissures the vapour passes up from the lower portions of the soil; and it has been observed, that the vapours which escape from such fis¬ sures are often more noxious than the emanations from a wet marshy ground.^ In connection with this, it may be observed, 1 Ti'aill’s Medical Jurisprudence, p. 124.