Observations on the diseases which prevail in long voyages to hot countries, particularly on those in the East Indies : and on the same diseases as they appear in Great Britain / by John Clark, M.D. fellow of the Royal College of Physicians at Edinburgh; physician to the infirmary and dispensary, at Newcastle; &c. &c.

  • Clark, John, 1744-1805.
Date:
1793
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Observations on the diseases which prevail in long voyages to hot countries, particularly on those in the East Indies : and on the same diseases as they appear in Great Britain / by John Clark, M.D. fellow of the Royal College of Physicians at Edinburgh; physician to the infirmary and dispensary, at Newcastle; &c. &c. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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

    134/598 (page 106)
    Amongft Europeans who undergo much fatigue, and particularly amongft the military, the hepatitis ; fwellings, and obftructions of the liver, are very frequent difeafes ; and a number of the foldiers are annually carried off by fevers and fluxes. It may therefore be concluded, that al- though the coafl of Coromandel is by far the moft healthy of all our fettlements ia India, yet the difeafes which occur there, do not differ from thofe of the more unhealthy fituations; but by their being milder in their nature, and feldom epide- mic. We u the exiftence of the patient. Some died in the firft hour of the attack: others lived a day or two with remif- *' fions; when they died either of univerfal fpafms or an *' apoplexy: on diffe&ion, it appeared that no injury had been fuftained by the brain, liver, gall bladder, ftomach or heart. Dr. Girdleftone, from whom the above account is taken, confiders cold as the moft general exciting caufe of thefe fpaf- modic affe&ions: and it appears that not only the damps from the earth ; but drinking large quantities of cold water after intoxication, and fudden expofition to the winds when wet with perfpiration, had the moft powerful influence in pro- ducing a fudden and dangerous attack. See Girdleftone's efiay on fpafmodic affections in India; and for the cure, the fjw.pter on tetanus, in the following pages.