Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-12-23
MALARIA.
knowledge Of the Ancients-Debt of
World to Discoverer of Peruvian Bark.

World to Discoverer of Peruvian Bark.
From the National Review.
The story begins with the medical writ
ings of the ancients, commencing Win
those of Hippocrates, about 400 b. Z. Inc
Greeks and Romans certainly distinguished
two important points about the so-called
malarial fevers. The first was that these
feyers are not continuous from start TO
finish but tend to be broken up into short
attacks which recur at regular periods one
type which recurs every day. they called
quotidin fever; another, which recurs every
other day, they called tertian fever; and
third which recurs every third day, quar-
tan fever Between these attacks the pa
tient is often free of fever; whereas In the
continued feverS, such as typhoid, his tenn
perature seldom falls to the normal until
the end of the illness. 1t is true that even
in malaria the fever Is often continuous,
especially at first; but this is merely due
to the overlapping of the attacks or parox-
ysms, owing to the fact that the second
one begins before the first has completely
abated. The other point ascertained by the
ancients was that there is connection be-
tween marshes and the disease. This seems
to have been discovered by general expert
ence rather than by the researches of any
individuals; but there are numerous pas
SageS in ancient authors atteSting their
recognition of the fact For example. Strabo
says Qib W, "Omne Latinum felix est ct
omnium rerum feraX, exceptic locis quae
palustria stunt atque morbosa-' They even
seemed to connect the disease with living
organisms; for Varro talks of disease in
marshy places being due to ''animalia quae-
dam minuta quae non poSsunt ocuu conse-
qui." Doubtlessly led by obvious reasoning
on these data the Romans would seem to
have been aware of the effect of drainage
on malaria; for Julius Caesar projected the
drainage of the Pontine marshes, and Mare
Antony tried to make political capital out
of similar scheme. We now know, not
ma he apcientS unite right
garding both the periodicity or malarial
fever and its connection with stagnant wa
tiers, but also the reason of both of these
phenomena; while lastly, the effect of
drainage has been demonstrated in a con-
elusive manner by recent set experiments.
OF course, the middle ages added little to
our knowledge of the subject; and the next
great advance came from South America
1t seems that we owe to villager of NAL
acotos. near Loxa, in Ecuador, the discov-
cry Of the efficiency of Peruvian bark
known in Europe in 1910 by lady who
had been cured by the drug, the Countess
Ell Cinchon, wife Of the viceroy of Peru:
and later and more widely, by the cure OF
Louis XIV by an English "empiric, Tai
bot. From this time the use of the bark be-
came general, and in 1920 Peletier and
Caventon separated its essential alkaloid,
quinine. Approved by two and a half CEN
turtles of use, the bark or it's alkaloid is
now the accepted remedy for the disease
one of the few specifics which we possess
and mas probably saved MILLIONS Oh lives
1t is always strange that the world, which
treasures the names of its principal ty-
rants, fddlers and buffoons, should have
forgotten that Of the benefactor who gave
It such a boon as this drug.
But quinine was not only the specific but
also the teacher. Physicians speedily dis
covered that 1t cures only the periodical
fevers leaving the continued fevers unaf-
fected, and were thus able to separate much
more clearly than before the symptoms of
these two groups of maladies. and to study
each by itself. The wonderful book of Tort
(1712), who without a clinical thermometer
was able to make most exact study OF