Tropical diseases : a manual of the diseases of warm climates.

  • Patrick Manson
Date:
1907
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Tropical diseases : a manual of the diseases of warm climates. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

    75/920 page 49
    Chap. III.] Classification of Parasites. malignant parasites a crescent. A principal clinical clifFerence between the two is that whereas the benign parasites rarely give rise to pernicious attacks, the malignant parasites frequently do. The benign parasites are of two kinds : One, the quartan 'parasite., having a cycle of seventy-two hours, causing a fever recurring every three days—quartan fever ; the other, the tertian parasite, with a cycle of forty-eight hours, causing a fever recurring every two days—tertian fever. The malignant parasite has three forms, perhaps more*: a pigmented parasite, the suh-tertianf of forty-eight, or approximately forty-eight hours’ cycle ; a pigmented parasite—pigmented quotidian—of ap- proximately twenty-four hours’ cycle ; and an unpig- mented parasite—unpigmented quotidian, also ap- proximately of twenty-four hours’ cycle. We may arrange them thus :— Benign jMalignant ant/ Quai'tan 1 -r, £ * Tertian j form crescents Sub-tertian ; Form crescents. Quotidian—pigmented ' Supposed to ( Quotidian—unpigmented j form crescents C'liiiicnl classification.—-Formerly, classifica- tion being based entirely on clinical phenomena, malarial diseases were divided into quotidian, ter- tian, and quartan intermittents or agues, and * Many authorities refuse to recognise more than one species of malignant parasite, the differences in length of cycle and l)igmentation described in the text being regarded merely as variations depending on circumstances, and not as sj)ecific differences. t This parasite has received several names, none of them cpiite appropriate. Thus the Italians call it “ sestivo-autumnal,” a term appropriate enough in Italy where the infection is ac(iuired only during the summer and autumn months, but manifestly inappro- priate in the troihcs, where it may be acquired at any season. Koch calls it the “tropical parasite,” a name equally unsuitable, seeing that the range of the parasite embraces countries far beyond the tropic belt. The term “sub-tertian” I have adopted, fol- lowing Sambon’s suggestion. It implies no error either as regards clinical habit, seasonal or geographical range, and it has the additional recommendation of approximating to the name hemi-tertian, applied by Hippocrates and the ancients to the class of fevers it gives rise to.
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