Blackwater fever : its etiology and parasitology / / [J. Gordon Thomson].

  • Thomson, J. G. (John Gordon), 1878-1937.
Date:
1923
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Blackwater fever : its etiology and parasitology / / [J. Gordon Thomson]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    where there is only the benign tertian type of malaria. Although this is presumptive evidence that pernicious malaria (P. falciparwm) is associated with blackwater or haemoglobinuric fever, yet many clinicians and not a few investigators have been attracted to the hypothesis that there is a special protozoan or spirochaetal parasite. ‘The most recent and apparently convincing evidence in this direction was the work of Blanchard and Lefrou, who by a special technique claimed to have demonstrated a new spirochaete, named by them Spirochaeta biliohaemoglobin- uriae. In an earlier communication® from South Africa Dr. J. G. Thomson conclusively showed by the study cf a series of fifteen cases from the first day of illness to its termination that true spirochaetes did not occur, but that the Blanchard-Lefrou technique gave what he has termed ‘* pseudo-spirochaetes ’’—that is, artefacts or filaments showing Brownian movement and resembling spirochaetes. These non-living pseudo-spirochaetes could also be recovered by the same technique from cases of malarial anaemia and from the blood of cattle with piroplasmosis. In his new preliminary reportt Dr. Thomson frankly adopts the view that blackwater fever is due to infection with the malignant tertian malaria, which gives rise to 96 per cent. of the malaria cases in Rhodesia, and is of the same morphology as in Panama and Macedonia, although there are variations in individual infections. The close monthly relationship in the rise and fall of these two diseases is shown in the striking chart here reproduced of the admissions to the hospitals of Southern Rhodesia for the past ten years of 6,608 cases, and 492 cases of blackwater fever. In discussing this chart Dr. Thomson makes the follow- ing observations By making an analysis of the hospital statistics of Southern Rhodesia for ten years (1913 to 1922 inclusive) I have been able to represent graphically the monthly relationship between malaria and haemoglobinuric fever. This chart shows clearly that as the incidence of malaria rises the cases of blackwater increase, and as the malaria falls we have a corresponding diminution of blackwater fever. *The Common Occurrence of Pseudo-spirochaetes in the Blood of Blackwater Fever Cases and of Normal Human Beings and Animals when using the Technique of Blanchard and Lefrou. Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, August Ist, 1923. + Preliminary Report on the Results of Investigations into the Causa- tion of Blackwater Fever in Southern Rhodesia. By J. G. Thomson, M.B., Ch.B. Presented to the Legislative Council of Rhodesia, 1923. Salisbury : Printed by the Government Printer.
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