Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1881-04-07
Madness and Malaria.

Baltimore sun.
There are fashions in pathology and
medical practice as in other things, and,
while 1t is net very scientific to see
doctors running after the new disease
or the new remedy as fanatically as
ladies pursue q new mode OF dressing
the hair or arranging the furbelows,
still newfangled theories are sometimes
useful as furnishing pegs to hang facts
and phenomena upon. The newest
fashion in medical practice, which il as
much in vogue almost as the new REM
edy-salycin and its preparations-is to
attribute every symptom which cannot
be readily ascribed to some other visible
causes to malaria. As we do not know
exactly what malaria is, it is easy to set
to its charges, as housemaids do with
''the cat, all sorts OF obscure disorders.
Malaria, malarious fever, "a malarious
condition" now do no end OF service in
medical practice. Their function is as
lsge and iadeterminate as the "psoric
faint" used TO be in the olden days oil
homeopathy, as "periodicity" in the
practice OF Charles Reade's doctor in
"Hard Cash" Malaria, meaning primsr-
lily "bsd air" now stands for the cause
OF great many Of the disorders affect
ing all conditions OF life and all ages
outside the range of acute disease. Ma
lsrial fevers are not necessarily those OF
the ague or bilious type, but may simu-
late almost any other form OF fever, il
indeed they do not actually partake of
their leading characteristics. The only
unity in malarial disorders is that they
are sscribable, or supposed to be so, to
q common cause, and that cause is inn
agined to lie outside OF ourselves and in
certain atmospherical conditions. The
practical result OF this new theory il
that while the diseases NAV be treated
by palliatives, the only real and perma-
nent remedy Is exterior to our persons,
and sanitary and hygienic rather than
topical. OF course the complete estab-
lishment of any such theory will mark
q great advance in the practice OF medi-
cine and vastly simplify and perfect our
means of handling disease. 1t will re-
mode many facts OF social science and
greatly enlarge the functions OF govern
ment and each citizens relation to it, by
identifying much more closely than ever
before, mans duty to himself with his
duty TO his neighbor. But meantime,
whether the theory shall gain general
acceptance or not, the application OF the
doctrine OF malaria to a great many
classes OF diseases not before connected
with it Is undoubtedly making rapid
progress. One OF the most noticeable OF
these recent groupings OF obscure effects
under the one cause is in the case OF
q 81 ~
ticularly that form which goes under
the general name of melancholy" Mel.
sncholy, lacking an obvious cause
outside, was by all the old
schools regarded as being Pc
culiarly inherent, as to its origin, in the
individual himself-it was his "idiosyn-
crasy," his Temperament" and the Ga
lenists even found the antecedent types
OF il in his complexion. But this mental
disorder is now not only the known re-
Election OF diseased bodily condition,
but that condition is traced more or less
satisfactorily to external and removable
causes. Melancholy, in effect, is now
looked upon as in many instances ma
larial affection OF the body, which is re-
Elected upon and clouds the mind. The
gloom and brooding habit, the prone
ness to exaggerate real trouble to un-
controllable proportions, the loss
OF confidence and hope, the pressure OF
ckagrins and the tedium OF life, are all
now said to be due to the subtle and in
sidious incursions of malaria and its in
vasions OF the liver, spleen and digestive
functions. Expel the poison, restore
the organs, and, prestissimO, the melan-
choly is dispelled. The man who
dreamt only OF rope and dagger, pistol
and poisoned bowl, who Stunned his
friends and was ever bowed down under
the intolerable weight OF causeless woe,
now thinks of nothing but "strathpeys
and reels" OF reveling in banquets and
auafling the odors of flowers. \
little Alternative medicine, some tonlcs,
a fortnight in the hills or at the sea-
shore have wrought all the change. The
recent medical journals record some re-.
markable cases of this sort, and ali OF
them bear cumulative testimony to the
protean manifestations and lDilIences
of malarial poison. One OF the greatest
revolutions this new phase OF medical
science is likely to effect is the happy
removal OF large groups OF diseases now
despaired Of into the classes OF durable
affections, and further, the tendency
which it continually develops to look
upon all disorders OF the human body,
ali disturbances Of the human health as
being, in the strictest sense OF the word,
| preventable.