The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser. (Upper Marlborough, Md.) 1882-1925, 1899-05-05
A Lecture upon Malaria.
by DR.. WM. :. TUAIER.

malaria in an hours talk is rather
difficult problem, and trust that You
will pardon me for the necessary in
completeness of my remarks. 1t has,
however. seemed to me, that it might
hc of interest to this association to hear
few words treating particularly of
the nature of the disease and the rela
ton of it's manifestations to the para
sites which have been shown to be the
exciting cause 1t may also interest
you to learn little concerning recent
observations which have been made
with regard to the manner in which
the disease Is acquired.
That fevers, commonly associated
with chills, which show a marked ten
dency toward periodicity, are common
in warm, swampy and marshy regions,
has been known for centuries; and with
the introduction Of quinine (the crude
cinchona bark was then used) in the
seventeenth century, it was discovered
that large class of these ttvcrs re-
spondcd immediately to treatment 10y
this drug That the term ''malarla
became applied to this affection, is an
interesting indication of the views held
bv old observers as to the manner of
origin of the disease. The word 'ma-
laria" represents the two Italian words
''mal'aria" signilying bad air.
But while the term was at one time
limited to fevers which yielded to treat
ment by quinine, it has since been ap-
piled in a general way to all sorts of
fcbrile and non-fcbrilc conditions, many
of which have, in reality, nothing to do
with the clearly defined disease which
we now know as malarial fever To
complain, as is so common, that we suf
fer from 'malaria" when we are tired,
or have headache, or are run down >
from ovcrwork, is about as rational a
|
proceeding as if we were to say that
we had smallpox or diptheria or
measles. Malaria is, in fact, 4 disease
as sharply defined and as easy of dag
nosis as any of these affections.
For many centuries, indeed from
period before the Christian era, malaria
has been supposed to be due to some
animal or vegetable poison which en-
tered the body with the drinking water
or the respired air. But it was not
until 1880 that the existence of 2 para
site causing the disease was definitely
proven. Laveran, a French army sur
geon. at that time stationed in Algiers,
discovered that the blood of patients
suffering with malaria contained living
organisms which developed within and
at the expense of the red corpuscles.
He considered himself justified in as
suming that these parasites were the
cause of the disease, because they were
invariably present in patients suffering
from the affection, and never found in
other individuals; and further because
they disappear rapidly, and Synchron-
ously with the subsidence of the symp-
toms of the disease under treatment by
quinine Five years after this, Golgi,
in Italy, followed later by a number Of
other observers, described the life his
tory of these parasites within the cir
culation. Studies in Italy, America,
Russia and Germany, since then have
shown that there are three distinct va
rieties Of the malarial organisms; one
in which the parasite passes through
its complete cycle of development i'll
about seventy-twO hours, the gnnrtan
parasite; one in which the cycle of de-
velopment lasts about forty-cight hours,
the tertion parasite; and one in which
the cycle Of development is more or
less irregular, being completed some
times within twenty-fnur hours, in
| other instances extending ,vcr period
of forty-cight hours or even more.
This parasite, which is associated with
ievers which in temperate climates oc-
cur during the later summer and fall,
has been called the ;sstipo-outumnui or
grn sm. The several types Of parasites
have certain morphological differences
which are easily recognizable by the
skilled mcroscopist.
The tertian and quartan parasites in
their youngest forms are represented
| by small colorlcss, hyaline bodies which
| lie within the red corpusclcS. These
| bodies show active ammboid moye-
mcnts. A they increase in size they
develop small dark brown pigment
granules, which are thrown into active
motion hy undulations of the proto-
! plasm of the parasite. The pigment is
developed apparently from the disin-
tcgratcd substance of the red blood
corpuscle. Eventually at the end OF
- or 4S hours, according to the variety
OF the parasite, the red corpuscle is en-
! tircly filled by the organism which is
now ripe for speculation. The pigment
! then gathers into a small clump or
! block at one point, usually in the mid
die Of the parasite which breaks up
into from six to twenty or thirty small
clear hyaline bodies. These are more
numerous in the trrtian than in the