SCARLATINA IN INDIA. TO THE EDITOR
OF
THE
"
GAZETTE." the discussion in your columns the following remarks which
INDIAN MEDICAL
Sir,?At the commencement of of the above subject, I put down I now place at your disposal: ?
" I cannot conceive that all the ills set forth in the new nomenclature of diseases" were contained in the body of our first parent, and that his descendants have ever since been industriously propagating them; consequently all the various diseases therein named must have arisen, and do still arise, in a way on which, as yet, we have but imperfect ideas or no ideas at all. One of the objects the medical man of the present day has in view is to discover the causes of disease, and to this end, a writer in the Lancet suggested, some few months ago, from observations he had made, that the poison of scarlatina may arise from decomposing blood in imperfectly cleansed slaughteryards or elsewhere. His facts appeared to me sufficient to warrant such a possible source of origin, certainly quite as probable as the malarial theory, and it will be very interesting if aiiy medical man in India can trace such a source in any suspicious case. That the poison may be carried about in clothes every one will admit, but still this cause will not explain all cases. Not very long ago, typhoid fever was denied in India, yet no one disputes it now. Why, then, should not scarlatina exist without importation ? If all the cases of scarlatina or typhoid fever that have ever taken place in the world have arisen through human intercourse, the question still remains,?how did the first case arise ? It must have arisen in some way, and we cannot blasphemously attribute it to the will of Providence. There is no reason under the sun why any one
disease,
26S known to
THE INDIAN MEDICAL GAZETTE.
us now or hereafter to become known to us, should not occur in any part of the world, given certain combinations to produce that particular set of symptoms or disease ; hut that any one disease should occur more frequently in some climates than in others, is easily to be understood when we consider the powerful effects of the polarised rays of the sun, moisture and stagnation of air which increase or decrease the rapidity of cell actions in ^the various latitudes. And it is the varying force and intensity of the above-named trinity which determines the geographical distribution of disease in quantity. In cold climates, woollen clothes are not washed so frequently as in India, and, if, I may say so, they seem to nurse an infectious disease. But in hot climates, the intense heat of the sun and frequent washing decompose virus, and it is probable that scarlatina virus is rarely presented to the recipient in so concentrated a form as in colder climes ; hence the mildness of the symptoms. I remain, Sir, Your obedient servant, 9th October, 1871Charles Moore Jessop.
[December 1,
1871.
OF
THE
"
GAZETTE." the discussion in your columns the following remarks which
INDIAN MEDICAL
Sir,?At the commencement of of the above subject, I put down I now place at your disposal: ?
" I cannot conceive that all the ills set forth in the new nomenclature of diseases" were contained in the body of our first parent, and that his descendants have ever since been industriously propagating them; consequently all the various diseases therein named must have arisen, and do still arise, in a way on which, as yet, we have but imperfect ideas or no ideas at all. One of the objects the medical man of the present day has in view is to discover the causes of disease, and to this end, a writer in the Lancet suggested, some few months ago, from observations he had made, that the poison of scarlatina may arise from decomposing blood in imperfectly cleansed slaughteryards or elsewhere. His facts appeared to me sufficient to warrant such a possible source of origin, certainly quite as probable as the malarial theory, and it will be very interesting if aiiy medical man in India can trace such a source in any suspicious case. That the poison may be carried about in clothes every one will admit, but still this cause will not explain all cases. Not very long ago, typhoid fever was denied in India, yet no one disputes it now. Why, then, should not scarlatina exist without importation ? If all the cases of scarlatina or typhoid fever that have ever taken place in the world have arisen through human intercourse, the question still remains,?how did the first case arise ? It must have arisen in some way, and we cannot blasphemously attribute it to the will of Providence. There is no reason under the sun why any one
disease,
26S known to
THE INDIAN MEDICAL GAZETTE.
us now or hereafter to become known to us, should not occur in any part of the world, given certain combinations to produce that particular set of symptoms or disease ; hut that any one disease should occur more frequently in some climates than in others, is easily to be understood when we consider the powerful effects of the polarised rays of the sun, moisture and stagnation of air which increase or decrease the rapidity of cell actions in ^the various latitudes. And it is the varying force and intensity of the above-named trinity which determines the geographical distribution of disease in quantity. In cold climates, woollen clothes are not washed so frequently as in India, and, if, I may say so, they seem to nurse an infectious disease. But in hot climates, the intense heat of the sun and frequent washing decompose virus, and it is probable that scarlatina virus is rarely presented to the recipient in so concentrated a form as in colder climes ; hence the mildness of the symptoms. I remain, Sir, Your obedient servant, 9th October, 1871Charles Moore Jessop.
[December 1,
1871.
