A report on hemoglobinuric fever in the Canal Zone : a study of its etiology and treatment / by W.E. Deeks and W.M. James.

  • Deeks, W.E.
Date:
1911
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: A report on hemoglobinuric fever in the Canal Zone : a study of its etiology and treatment / by W.E. Deeks and W.M. James. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service. The original may be consulted at London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service.

    14/204 (page 8)
    and other etiological factors in the development of hemoglobinuric fe\er, malaria, and other diseases can be adduced, data which we believe to be substantially accurate, and certainly, as far as we have been able to ascertain, more complete than those hitherto reported from any one locality in a given period. In undertaking this study of the factors concerned in the etiology of hemoglobinuric fever, we have been neither guided nor governed by any preconceived hypothesis. Our object has been solely to collect data, and to find if any definite conclusions could be induced from them. That these data are reliable, a study of the following charts and tables will show. There is a substantial uniformity in the results that have been obtained. When it is considered that these results depend upon observations and diagnoses made by many physicians in the period from January, 1905, to September, 1910, the uniformity that is manifested at all times is in itself a proof of the correctness of the data. We do not believe that any mistakes were made in the diagnosis of the 230 cases of hemoglobinuric fever in this series. While it is true that a microscopical examination of the urine was not made in every case, in the cases in which such a urinary examination was made, the characteristic findings in hemoglobinuria were always present. More- over, every fatal case, so far as we have been able to ascertain, was correctly diagnosed before death, as the autopsy findings subsequently proved. In order to make this study as complete as possible, we shall dis- cuss the subject of our paper under the following heads, a considera- tion of which we believe to be necessary to a comprehension of the factors that enter into the problem of the etiology of hemoglobinuric fever in the Canal Zone: I. The influence of the topography of the Canal Zone on the prevalence of malaria. II. The racial distribution of the employees of the Canal Commis- sion and their manner of living. III. The prevalence of malaria in the Canal Zone. IV. The distribution of malaria among the employees of the Com- mission. V. The relationship between malaria and hemoglobinuric fever. VI. Length of residence in a malarial country as a factor in the etiology of hemoglobinuric fever. VII. An hypothesis as to the etiology of hemoglobinuric fever; the part played by quinine in the production of the disease; and the treatment of the malady.