The Common Nature of Epidemics, and their relation to climate and civilizationSmith, Southwood
History
The Common Nature of Epidemics, and their relation to climate and civilization
Smith, Southwood
Communicable diseases; Epidemics; Quarantine
In describing a river on the west coast of Africa, Dr Daniell says—“When
I visited it, I found two vessels moored a short distance from its
mouth, one of which within the space of five months had buried two
entire crews, a solitary person alone surviving. The other, which had
arrived at a much later period, had been similarly deprived of one-half
of its men, and the remainder were in such a debilitated condition as to
be incapable of undertaking any active or laborious duty. Immediately
before, another vessel had sailed from this port in such a deplorable
state as to be solely dependent on the aid of Kroomen to perform the
voyage.”
In the statistical report of Sir Alexander Tulloch it is stated, that
out of 1658 white troops sent out to military stations on the western
coast of Africa, 1271 perished from climatic diseases; while of the 387
who remained to be sent home, 17 died on their passage; 157 were
reported as incapable of further service; and 180 as qualified only for
garrison service; thus leaving only 33 out of 1658 men who were fit for
active service.
As we pass out of the torrid zone a remarkable change takes place in the
general character of epidemics. They lose more and more of their
intermittent type, and become either remittent or continued. The
remittent keeps its hold over the southern part of Europe, and
continually breaks out in the form of Yellow Fever. As we proceed
northward out of the yellow fever zone, that disease wholly disappears,
and typhus and its kindred maladies take its place; typhus commencing
precisely at the point where yellow fever ends.
There is, indeed, one of the ordinary diseases of temperate climes, and
only one, which appears capable of penetrating within the torrid zone,
and of committing greater ravages there than in lower temperatures, and
that is Small-pox. With this exception, the ordinary epidemics of
temperate climates do not enter the tropics, while, on the other hand,
the ordinary epidemics of the tropics every now and then decimate the
temperate regions.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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