In every attempt at the colonization of malarious regions
it will be necessary to combat for a long time the diseases caused by
malaria, and we must seek for a method of combating them by a means which
is in the possession of everybody, and which shall not be dangerous to the
general economy of the human organism. Those who do not know from actual
experience the miseries of a malarious country, think only of combating
the acute forms of infection, which often place the patient in danger of
death. But this danger, though great, is for the most part imaginary,
provided that assistance be obtained in time. But that which desolates
families, and which causes a physical degradation of the human race
exposed to the attacks of malaria, is the chronic poisoning, which
undermines the springs of life and produces a slow but progressive anaemia.
This infection often resists all human therapeutic measures, and is even
aggravated by the use of quinine, which is given during the recurrent
paroxysms of fever. Quinine is, when given for a long period of time, a
true poison to the vaso-motor nerves. The question, then, is to replace
quinine, and the alkaloids which possess an analogous physiological
action, by an agent the efficacy of which against, chronic malarial
poisoning may be greater and the dangers of its employment less.
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