Malaria : a neglected factor in the history of Greece and Rome / by W.H.S. Jones ; with an introduction by Sir R. Ross ; a concluding chapter by G.G. Ellett.

W. H. S. Jones

Date:: [1907]

Credit: Malaria : a neglected factor in the history of Greece and Rome / by W.H.S. Jones ; with an introduction by Sir R. Ross ; a concluding chapter by G.G. Ellett. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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$sign of “melancholy,”1 i.e. of malarial cachexia. In another place the same writer says that in autumn (the malarial season) occur cases of “ melancholy.’’2 And so one of the most striking symptoms of malaria, and of the anaemia which follows it, is said by modern observers to be nervousness, resulting in cross- ness of temper and mental depression. In short, the three cognates i*£kayyo\ia, ixe\ayyo\iKo<i and jueXay^oXco show that malaria was common, that it was supposed to influence the character, and, incidentally, that it probably became endemic during the last quarter of the fifth century. And it must be carefully remembered that the main point to prove is, not when malaria was first introduced, but when it first took a firm hold of the inhabitants. Since the bilious complexion which suggested the term /xeXay^oX/a is a more obvious symptom than splenic enlargement, it is not unnatural that the former, rather than the latter, gave a new word to the Greek language. Nevertheless, the works of the medical writers do suggest that <nr\*]v and its derivatives hovered on the verge of becoming part and parcel of the popular speech. It is interesting to note that we still call a hot-tempered person “ splenetic,” although the derivation is seldom present to the consciousness. In any case the 1 a<f>opuriAol, Kuhn, III. 752: (pofios ical dvadifilr] -irovkbv xp^vov dcareXerj, fj.e\ayx<>\u<bv to toiovtov. 2Ibid. 724, rov <f>divoTribpov ... ra fjLe\ayxdXiK&.$