The nurse in hot climates / by Edward Henderson.

  • Edward Henderson
Date:
1903
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The nurse in hot climates / by Edward Henderson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    MAtARIA. If the nurse is at any time specially exposed to the poison of malaria, in addition to the careful use she makes of her mosquito net—a matter already fully detailed and insisted on as regards her patients —she should take a small dose of quinine daily. Three to five grains is a sufficient quantity, and the dose is one which may be continued for a month or two at a time without harm or inconveniénce. Properly regarded the mosquito net is not only a protection for the healthy, but an important means of isolating the sick. For if the mosquito could no longer obtain access to blood in which the parasite of malaria was circulating, its 7éle in con- tinuing the life of that parasite in its own body, and eventually transmitting it in an altered form to man, would be ended. It would indeed be well if it were possible that everyone in whose blood the malarial parasite was known to exist could be kept under cover till cured. Patients suffering from malaria should certainly have the full benefit of mosquito nets, both for their own sakes and for the sake of others. It is very desirable that the nurse who goes abroad should acquire some knowledge of the mos- quito and its habits. Anopheles is the name given to that variety of the insect which, so far as we know at present, is alone capable of infecting man with the parasite of malaria. If the nurse is able to recognise the anopheles larve, floating as they do horizontally on the surface of stagnant pools, she might, armed with a little Jeyes’ fluid or kerosene oil, materially improve thé sanitary condition of her immediate surroundings so far as malaria is con- cerned. In a malarious district however, and indeed wherever mosquitoes are at all troublesome, it is advisable that an addition of Jeyes’ fluid or kerosene oil be made to all stagnant pools in the neighbour- hood of dwelling houses, as a routine practice not necessarily dependent on any special knowledge of
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