Some account of the last yellow fever epidemic of British Guiana / by Daniel Blair ; edited by John Davy.

Date:
1850
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Some account of the last yellow fever epidemic of British Guiana / by Daniel Blair ; edited by John Davy. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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

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    When the simplex grade prevailed the cases were infallibly cured by a purgative and quinine pushed on to cinchonism.* * [The type of the fever must of course determine the treatment to be employed with the best chance of success. Consequently too much atten- tion cannot be paid to ascertain its exact nature, — first by studying the symptoms, and next by careful inspection of the body in cases of fatal ter- mination. Unfortunately when yellow fever is most malignant and destruc- tive, and the inquiry alluded to is most required, there is commonly, from the pressure of duty, especially in military hospitals, little or no time to engage in it. Medical officers, to serve with advantage in the West Indies, should make yellow fever a special study. It is to be hoped the time will come when instruction will be given on the diseases of the army, by competent teachers, to the candidates for commissions in the medical department. The General Hospital at Fort Pitt, Chatham, with its valuable pathological museum, is admirably adapted for the purpose ; and I have no hesitation in expressing my opinion that competent teachers might be found in the retired medical officers of the higher grades, were the appointments given not by favour but to merit, and were they to be considered in themselves distinctions. This was a subject which Dr. Jackson took much to heart, and advocated strongly; prompted so to do chiefly from considering the treatment of yellow fever in his time, as at present too commonly, one of routine in the army, and of little efficacy. He not only addressed the Medical Board on the measure, but also the General, the then Commander of the Forces in the West Indies. Were there such a system of teaching established, another benefit might re- sult from it: the attention of young men might be directed to inquiry; questions, of which there are so many unsolved, might be proposed, to be investigated as opportunities offered, in their after career, the solution of which would greatly advance medical science, and could not fail to improve medical practice.]—Ed. I
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