Report on the malarial epidemic fever of Mauritius of 1866-67, (with plans of Port Louis and Flat Island, and a map of Mauritius, shaded to show the distribution of the fever districts) / by John Small and W.H.T. Power.

  • Small, John, Surg.-Major.
Date:
[between 1870 and 1879?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report on the malarial epidemic fever of Mauritius of 1866-67, (with plans of Port Louis and Flat Island, and a map of Mauritius, shaded to show the distribution of the fever districts) / by John Small and W.H.T. Power. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    REPORT ON THE MALARIAL EPIDEMIC FEVER OF MAURITIUS OF 1866-67. (With Plans of Port Louis and Flat Island, and a Map of Mauritius, shaded to show the Distribution of the Fever Districts.) By Sui'geon-Major John Small and Assistant-Surgeon W. H. T. Powee, B.A., 2nd Battalion 13th Light Infantry! The small island of Mauritius, the suiferer from the severe epidemic of malarial fever during the hot season of 1866-67, is apparently so favourably situated that one would hardly expect to meet with the sudden appearance in an epidemic form of a genuine malarial fever, which had hitherto occurred only to a small extent in it, and had, up to the end of 1866, been almost entirely confined to emigrants from India, a race who had emigrated from a malarious country, and who, consequently, had a constitution previously modi- fied by malaria, and especially, though not exclusively, those arriving from the Bombay Presidency : hence it will be necessary to give a somewhat detailed account of the general physical features of the island, in order to endeavour to show how the malarial poison was produced. For this purpose we have deemed it necessary to divide the subject under the following heads :— I. Physical features and meteorology of Mauritius, with details of the various districts, especially those in which military stations existed. II. Comparison between the fever and non-fever districts. III. A history of the battalion in relation to the fever to the end of the year 1867. IV. A general account of the fever, its symptoms, pathology, and treatment, v. (As Appendix.) On a peculiar form of dysentery, which attacked the battalion in April 1867, when at Flat Island ; also a few remarks on enteric fever, prevalent during the epidemic in Port Louis. I. Physical Features, Meteorology, &c. Mauritius is situated in the Indian Ocean, its greatest length 40 miles, and 30 miles its greatest width; its area is 432,680 acres, or about 680 square miles. Volcanic in origin, it is made up of lofty rugged mountains with deep fertile valleys, and long slopes of varying incline running from the centre towards the sea. Its central part a high table-land, while a small portion of flat, and in many places sandy, soil, is found along its shore, extending into its greatest area towards the northern part of the island. The general nature of the soil, however, is alluvial, formed by the detritus of the volcanic rocks. It is usually of no great depth, but of great fertility; once clothed by forests, with an undergrowth so dense as to be almost impassable, the only remains of them now to be found are about the summits of the hills in the upper lands of the districts, the forests having been levelled for the purposes of sugar planting and as fuel supply for its enormous population. The island is nearly entirely surrounded by a coral reef. _ Geolopj.—It presents the same general features aa most other volcanic islands-viz., a central and elevated plateau, representing the original crater, T-n aV^^ Its eruptions, has formed the island, surrounded in part by a range of hillsX^he remains of the original crater waU,jwith various ridges running from ,them, and slopes of basalt (once streams of l^va which flowed from theofigiual B 2