Malaria / by Sir Joseph Fayrer.

  • Joseph Fayrer
Date:
[1882]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Malaria / by Sir Joseph Fayrer. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    1/14 (page 15)
    /^r 15 MALARIA. By Sir JOSEP, M.D., F.R.S. %o-cuLkLy (Read: Feb. 1st, 1882.) The subject of the following communication was suggested by some allusions made by Dr. Ewart in bis paper last month, and by remarks offered in reference to them, in the discussion that followed. The question raised was the old and still unanswered one, What is Malaria ? It is not with any hope or intention of supplying the in- formation we so much desire, that I address you, but, that after referring briefly to the present state of our knowledge, I would invite such discussion as may elicit your views and gather from your experience something that may throw light on this obscure subject. It is one that has often been dis- cussed in speech and in writing, but I doubt if ever it has been presented to an assembly better qualified than this, by experience and knowledge of every kind, to do it justice, and to put before the world such facts and explanations as may clear away the doubts that now surround it. I know I am addressing men who have had the largest opportunity of wit- nessing the operations of malaria, who have studied the subject practically as well as by the light of rapidly advancing knowledge of micro-pathology, and who are capable, from every point of view, in which such a subject can be studied, of investigating and revealing its nature and characters. Therefore, I venture to place it before you for discussion as one, than which there can be none more appropriate for your consideration. What do we mean by this term, which is so familiar every- where, and here especially ? one that means so much, and yet conveys so little. The Italian word is of comparatively recent origin, and is not the one in popular use in Italy either, for there they talk of the “ Cattiva-aria”, though that of course means precisely the same thing, and is the popular, as distinguished from the scientific, term. It was in Rome, about two hundred years ago, that Lancisi first pointed out the connection of agues with marshes and their emanations, and called them fevers, and the exhalations