Sketches of Brazil ; including new views on tropical and European fever

Front matter

BOUGHT WITH THE INCOME

OF THE

Class of 1872 Fund Ifll

Preface

The principles laid down in the following pages have occupied the writer's thoughts for many years, and in many lands; and a profound conviction of their truth, and of their importance to the preservation of health, and in the treatment of disease, has imposed on him the duty of publishing them.

The Author is well aware that these opinions are in direct opposition to those held by the profession ; and he has, therefore, clearly and briefly, submitted the chief evidence on which, against his own early

VI PREFACE.

convictions, he was led first to doubt, and finally to reject doctrines, sanctified, as it were, by the greatest names in ancient and modern medicine.

As to the rest, the Author cares only for truth. He has performed what he deems a duty to his profession, and waits its final judgment.

Contents

Introductory Remarks — Modern Authorities on Fever : Corniack, Jenner, <fec. — Different Epidemics described — Typhus, Typhoid, and Relapsing Fever, not essentially distinct— Quinine cuts short — Continued Fever, . Pp. 1 — 31

LECTUKE I.

Advantages of extended observation in the Study of Disease— Gouty Diathesis, the precursor of Decay in Europeans returning from the Tropics — Gout rare in Brazil — Cases observed there by the Author — Explanation of the freedom from Gout — History of European Residents after their return from Tropical Climates : their Premature Decay — Vicarious Action of the Skin and Kidneys, explanatory of the " Break-up" — Analysis of Post-mortem Examinations of the Kidneys of Residents in Brazil — Kidneys generally Atrophied — Actual disease of these Organs rare — Practical Deductions — Pernicious influence of the mode of life in the higher ranks of English Society Pp. 32—72