Many individuals gained thereby a
complete immunity, others a partial immunity, that is to say, they were
sometimes attacked by the fever, but it never, even in very malarious
districts, assumed a pernicious form, and was easily subdued by very
moderate doses of quinine. Last year, for example, in the district of
Borino, where the malaria is very severe, M. Ricchi experimented upon
seventy-eight employes of the southern railroads, dividing them into two
equal divisions, one of which received no prophylactic treatment, while
the other was submitted to a systematic arsenical treatment. At the end of
the fever season it was found that several employes among the first half
had been attacked by fevers of a severe type; while thirty-six of those in
the second division had enjoyed a complete immunity, the three others
having been attacked, but so lightly that they cured themselves by quinine
without seeking medical aid.
Facts of this sort are very encouraging, and the more so as the general
health of those submitted to the prophylactic treatment was much improved.
It was found almost invariably, upon the termination of the experiment,
that there had been an increase in bodily weight and an amelioration of
the anaemia which is so common in milarious districts.
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