Scientific American Supplement, No. 458, October 11, 1884Various
Science
Scientific American Supplement, No. 458, October 11, 1884
Various
Science -- Periodicals
Having several times had occasion to observe, in malarious regions, that
when recourse was had to arsenic in order to subdue fevers over which
quinine had exerted almost no effect, relapses occurred but rarely; and
having been able to satisfy myself that the arsenical treatment sometimes
procured a permanent, immunity in individuals who are subject to frequent
attacks of malaria, I began in 1880 to employ arsenic (arsenious acid) as
a prophylactic in certain portions of the Roman Campagna. This remedy was
indicated in an experiment of this sort, not only by reason of its durable
anti-malarialæ effects, but also by its low price, by the beneficial
influence it exerts upon all the nutritive functions, and because it has
no disagreeable taste and may therefore be given to everybody, even to
children. My first trials in 1880 were rather encouraging, and I felt
myself justified in engaging some proprietors and the association of our
southern railroads to repeat the experiments on a large scale the
following year, recommending them, however, to use arsenic in a solid form
as offering an easy and certain dosage. This extensive prophylactic
experiment began in 1881, and acquired constantly increasing proportions
in 1882 and 1883, which have become still larger this year. An experiment
of this kind is not easy to conduct in the beginning. The name, arsenic,
frightens not only those whom we desire to submit to its action, but also
the physicians, whose exaggerated fears have sometimes rendered the
experiments of no avail, since they were conducted too timidly and the
doses of arsenic employed were altogether insufficient. But some
intelligent men, especially M. Ricchi, physician in chief to the southern
railroads, were able speedily to triumph over these obstacles, and to
place the experiment on a firm basis. The general testimony of all the
facts which they have collected tends really to prove that when the
administration of arsenic is begun some weeks before the presumed season
for the appearance of the fever, and when it is continued regularly
throughout the whole of this season, the power of resistance of the human
organism to malaria is increased. Many individuals gained thereby a
complete immunity, others a partial immunity, that is to say, they were
sometimes attacked by the fever, but it never, even in very malarious
districts, assumed a pernicious form, and was easily subdued by very
moderate doses of quinine. Last year, for example, in the district of
Borino, where the malaria is very severe, M. Ricchi experimented upon
seventy-eight employes of the southern railroads, dividing them into two
equal divisions, one of which received no prophylactic treatment, while
the other was submitted to a systematic arsenical treatment. At the end of
the fever season it was found that several employes among the first half
had been attacked by fevers of a severe type; while thirty-six of those in
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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