On mycetoma, or the fungus disease of India / by H. Vandyke Carter.

  • Henry Vandyke Carter
Date:
1874
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On mycetoma, or the fungus disease of India / by H. Vandyke Carter. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

    49/172 (page 39)
    CHAP, i]' IN TIME AND SPACE a tropical fungus. Already known localities of the disease are tke following :—in jN’ortliern India, the Punjaub from Jhelum to Hissar; Bbawalpur, Jeypur, Ulwar, Bicanir and other native states in Northern and Western Bajputana; thence on the one hand, in Sinde the disease is not uncommon; and in Kutch, Kattiawar and Gujerat; on the other hand, by report I understand that it prevails in the North-West Provinces; and it has been seen in Lower Bengal. Known districts of Western India, besides the above named, are the Deccan upland, and the Ooncan sea-board; and, as outlying localities, I may mention the occurrence of the affection (black variety) in a native of Bussorah on the Persian Gulf, whom I saw in Bombay; and Aden has been named by one observer. In Southern India, the disease is common in districts as widely separated as Guntoor and Madara, as well as the intervening ones of Bellary and Cuddapah: to these portions of the Madras Presidency may be added Mysore, Trichinopoli and Pondicheri. Thus, excepting the Central Provinces, respecting which information is yet deficient, there are, it will be seen, few districts of large size in which the fungus-disease is not already ascertained to occur; and as regards these last, it may reasonably be supposed that when the complaint becomes better known, their number will diminish. Nay, it is probable that countries external or contiguous to British India, may eventually be found to belong to this list: to say more would be to enter upon mere speculation, but it is hoped that the present memoir will be of use in exciting, as well as directing, the researches of some of the numerous competent observers, who are suitably located in the country. That an affection essentially identical with the fungus-disease of India i's ever seen in Europe, may be doubted; the presumption, indeed, is that none such occurs. Owing to the circumstance of the earlier examples of Mycetoma having been seen in localities where the soil is of that kind—namely, the reg?ir or black soil—best suited for the growth of cotton, the idea was long entertained that this affection is either limited to, or much more frequent in, such localities; but a wider experience has shown that it would be incorrect to suppose that the fungus-disease occurs only among people living on cotton-soil, and it now appears doubtful whether the affection is really more common in cotton-districts than elsewhere. I am not aware of any data precise enough to settle this last question; and will therefore only remark, that should there eventually appear such a preference in the habit of Gliionyplie, as makes it to flourish best on a certain kind of soil, the fact would be a sufficiently intelligible explanation of some endemic features of the fungus-disease. That a certain mould grows best on earth derived from magnesian limestone, and on cotton-soil (which also contains a quantity^of magnesium-compounds), or best on plants, &c., peculiar to such soils, is a reasonable enough supposition; but it must be remembered that not by any means seldom does the same mould (according to my views) prevail upon arid, and even sandy, soil, and in semi-desert regions, where rain-fall is scanty and heat intense. The chemical composition of such soils, e. g. of Sinde, Kutch, Rajputana, &c., may, however (so far as I know), show a similar peculiarity; and this subject is clearly one of those needing elucidation. On a priori grounds one might suppose an alluvial soil periodically soaked or overflowed (as in the many deltas of Indian rivers), to be an especially suitable one; and this point might also be taken into future considerations. Speculation apart, it may be remarked that the chances of detecting in its natural habitat, the parent-mould of Mycetoma, are much increased by this its wide dis- tribution over so many parts of India. Systematic search should be entered upon ; and if