Reprints of articles contributed to medical journals, 1895-1909 / by John D. Gimlette.

  • Gimlette, John D. (John Desmond), 1867-1934
Date:
1911
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Reprints of articles contributed to medical journals, 1895-1909 / by John D. Gimlette. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    105/160 (page 101)
    there is often much to be desired in the cleanliness of their attire. Children at the age at which puru is common wear little or no clothing. Social position has probably no influence at all as a predisposing cause of puru among Malays. In Kelantan it is as common in the dwellings which form the native palaces as among the cluster of huts which make up the smallest hamlets. His Highness the Rajah of Kelantan, for example, has suffered from puru as a child, and the princes frequently contract puru in childhood. The hygienic conditions of Malay life are similar however, both in the high-born and in the low-born native as regards house accommodation. The sanitary condition of nearly all their houses is bad, and, although they are raised from the ground, they are ill-drained, ill-lighted, ill-ventilated and ill-cleaned. The daily household slops (mostly dirty liquid refuse from cooking) are thrown through loose bamboo floor- ings and allowed to soak into the ground beneath, so as to form a permanent slush under the kitchens. On the other hand, in the rural districts, where for the most part puru is very prevalent, it is very often common for natives to dwell upon bamboo rafts, which are made in the form of house-boats. The mass of the Malays, in fact, live either on rafts or in comparatively small huts built along the banks of the rivers. The Malay States are well watered by innumerable rivers and streams, and it is fortunately seldom necessary, therefore, to store water in this part of the East. The only instance of the bad effect of stored water in the Federated Malay States is, I believe, an epide- mic of zinc poisoning which occurred in Pahang in 1900 among a half company of Sikh soldiers, which might have been attributed to the climatic effect on the corrugated iron roof from which a supply of rain- water was derived [18]. Preceding Illness.—At first sight puru apparently