pendix.

CHAPTER XII

SEVEN AVOIDABLE DISEASES

MALARIA FEVER.

Malaria, in its various manifestations, has ever constituted the
principal obstacle to the civilization of all tropical and semi-tropical
countries, and as a consequence vast tracts of the richest and fairest
portions of the world have remained uncultivated and unredeemed from
their primitive savage state. Recent investigations have shown that this
disease can be easily prevented if the matter is taken up intelligently.

Malaria is a disease produced by a parasite belonging to the very lowest
order of animal life--the _Plasmodium malaria_, which is conveyed from
man to man by that genus of mosquitoes called the Anopheles. The parasite
attacks and destroys the red cells of the blood, and produces a poison
that causes the symptoms characteristic of malaria.

_Course of the Disease._--The most common and well-recognized symptoms of
malaria are those that occur in that variety of the disease which is
known as malarial or intermittent fever. In this type the patient--who
may or may not have at intervals for some days noticed chilly sensations,
a feeling of fullness in the head, and general bodily depression--is
suddenly seized with a chill followed by a high fever and subsequent
profuse perspiration; after these symptoms subdue, which generally
requires several hours, the patient returns to a practically normal
condition and feels, on the whole, well until the next attack occurs.
These chills-and-fever paroxysms occur at various intervals depending
upon the character of the parasite inducing them, the most common form
being that which produces a chill every day. In some instances the malady
comes on more insidiously, there being no marked chills but only
periodical elevations of temperature.

In the more chronic forms of the disease the unfortunate victim is
frequently subjected for years to attacks of fever coming on at irregular
intervals, the patient being more or less of an invalid throughout the
course of the disease. In other instances the brain becomes affected,
producing very alarming symptoms; and in quite a proportion of cases the
malady ultimately terminates in chronic Bright's disease.

_Treatment of the Disease._--Most fortunately, we have in quinine, when
properly administered, a medicine that in practically all instances acts
as a specific in this affection; but it should be used only on the advice
and under the directions of a ph