Climate : its influence in the production and prevention of phthisis and other disease / by John Parkin.

  • Parkin John, 1801-1886.
Date:
1882
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Climate : its influence in the production and prevention of phthisis and other disease / by John Parkin. 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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    is no reason to suppose, therefore, that the European troops, attacked with Phthisis, carried the seeds of the disease with them. They must have been quite as likely to contract it there as in England. This inference is confirmed by a very remarkable case, mentioned in the Madras Eeport for 1843. It is that of a pensioner, who had been resident in India upwards of 60 years, dying of Phthisis at the advanced age of 97 years. It also appears, that the children of European parents, resident in India, are attacked with Phthisis, and to the same extent as adults. In the Bengal Presidency, accord- ing to Mr. McPherson, the annual mortality from diseases of the lungs, during 8 years, 1846—54, was as foUows :— European officers ... ... 1.9 per 1,000 „ soldiers ... ... 4.3 „ „ women ... ... 3.9 „ „ children ... ... 4.2 „ As a large proportion of these children were born in India, we must seek for the cause of the disease in the climate, unless we conclude that they inherited it from their parents. This inference, however, is negatived by another fact; this is, that the native children are also subject to Phthisis the same as the European. In Bombay, in 1861, 4 per cent, of the deaths were caused by thoracic diseases in native children, under six years of age. It is thus certain, that Phthisis is to be found in aU locali- ties and in all climates, to a greater or less extent; and that it is a general, not a local, endemic peculiar to certain countries and latitudes. Of what benefit, then, we may ask, can it be for a patient to leave his native shores, the comforts of home, and the solace of friends, in the hope of avoiding