The diseases of the Madras famine of 1877-78 / by Alexander Porter.

  • Porter, Alexander.
Date:
1889
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The diseases of the Madras famine of 1877-78 / by Alexander Porter. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Pancreas. Reproductive organs. Birth-rate. The* average weight of the pancreas was 3’85 ozs. in the 9 plump, as against 2*2 ozs. in 181 emaciated men, and 2*3 ozs. in the 8 plump, as against 1*8 ozs. in 121 emaciated women. These weights give a ratio to body-weight of 1 to 472 in the plump, as against 1 to 560 in the emaciated men; and 1 to 608‘7 for the plump, as against 1 to 539 for the emaciated women. Its greater weight in the well- nourished is no doubt in some part due to the fat deposited between its lobules. Clendinning gives the weight of the pancreas in Europeans to be to 3J ozs. The mammary glands had shrivelled to such a degree in the emaciated women, that their position was only ascertainable by the presence of the nipples; no gland could be seen or felt. Menstruation was not observed in any of these patients, nor was any woman admitted to hospital pregnant. The Sanitary Commissioner, Dr. Cornish, records that only 39 births occurred among some 100,000 famine- stricken who passed through the Madras relief camps in 1877. He also shows that the birth-rate began to fall off early in the famine, and steadily decreased, till some nine months after the height of the famine it reached in the famine districts an annual ratio of 4 to 5, against an average of 29 to 30, per mille of the population as per last census (1871), and that for the whole presidency the births in 1878 were barely half the usual average. This is an aspect of the effects of famine that does not appear to have been noticed by former observers. Dr. Cornish, moreover, considers that the wasting of the mammary glands and ovaries had reached such a stage, that in women over 30 years of age they probably never would recover their functions. I regret that this view did not occur to me, else I would have made microscopical examination of these tissues and possibly been able to clear up this point; however, I expect that this view will be found to be incorrect, as I am of opinion that Nature’s arrangements for the propagation of the species are more difficult to upset even than the above supposition implies. Anaemia was another characteristic of the famine-stricken. Deterioration of the emaciation, liability to local oedema, and the blood. weakness of the circulation with palpitation of