Scheme for obtaining a better knowledge of the endemic skin diseases of India / prepared by Tilbury Fox and T. Farquhar.

  • Fox, Tilbury, 1836-1879.
Date:
1872
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Scheme for obtaining a better knowledge of the endemic skin diseases of India / prepared by Tilbury Fox and T. Farquhar. 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.

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    researches of European pathologists, the difficulty of carrying about with them the necessary apparatus for minute and experimental inquiry, and the like. The difficulties referred to will be in great measure lessened by giving a resume of the latest researches and the opinions of European dermatologists relative to the various diseases to which it is thought desirable to direct attention, and by indicating the points of doubt which require to be cleared up, and the line of investigation which should be pursued in the future, for the further elucidation of the nature and causes of particular diseases. By indicating the several points upon which information is specially needed, not only will the main objects of the inquiry be promoted, but the time and labour of Indian medical officers will be greatly economised. The endemic skin diseases of India deserve to be studied for themselves for several reasons. They are a great source of distress to sufferers from their attacks. They are the indications in many cases of morbid action, affecting the body pro- foundly and arising from preventible causes, and when closely studied they afford valuable information as to the causation of disease. They crucially test the action of remedies, whilst a more correct and a wider knowledge of their causation will greatly tend to increase the confidence of man, be he European or native, in the power of hygiene and medicine to relieve suffering. It is not at all unlikely, moreover, from concentration of attention to this, till recently, but slightly cultivated branch of medical science, important facts maybe gained as to the nature and action of remedies which are successfully employed by European and native medical men in India, but with which we are unacquainted in this country. Some of these remedies are frequently mixed up with inert or dangerously active substances which compose tlie lengthy prescriptions of the hakeem, in such a way as to render it a matter of difficulty to determine what the active powers of these medicines indi- vidually are. Already something has been done to define them by medical officers in India, who would be glad to see them attract the attention of the therapeutic student in Europe. Many good drugs have still to be recognised, and they are considered too valuable to be disclosed by the native practitioner. With the progress of education, however, it is to be hoped the prejudices that lead to secrecy will be overcome, and the real or pretended powers of many undisclosed remedies be fully understood. B.—Scheme op the Inquiry. The scheme is, as before indicated, to give under the head of particular diseases, a brief statement of the views of the leading European dermatologists as to the nature of these diseases, to indicate doubtful points and the chief questions to be now determined in regard to them, and to ask for answers to precise questions. The following heads indicate the kind and extent of information sought:— a. The accurate observation of cases, especially with reference to the exact mode of origin of disease. b. The microscopic characters of morbid products. c. Precise information, inasmuch as climatic influences have much to do with the genesis of disease in India, touching the name and character of particular localities in which particular diseases prevail, with exact statements as to the nature and alliances of those diseases. [Situated as medical men are in India, in such varying climates and among such different races acted upon by such a variety of circumstances as to food and clothing, &c., they might gather valuable information about the geography of diseases of the skin. It is notorious that sharp lines seem to cut some diseases off from different parts of the country. This is the case as regards severe forms of itch, leprosy, Madura foot, Delhi sores, &c.] d. The nature and peculiarities of the food and water supply of the affected population. e. The tribes or castes in which particular diseases occur, and the habits of these tribes, ex. migratory or otherwise. [The influence of certain religious practices, such as that of covering the body with ashes and other earths, as followed by fakeers and religious raedicants, deserves notice.] f. The occupation of the attacked.