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24
In the appended list of cases of Malaria reported on ships arriving at Gravesend,
it will be noticed that one vessel arrived from Dakar on 17th November and reported
that no cases of Malaria had occurred. This ship was followed by arrivals from the
same port reporting 12, 2, 16, and 3 cases respectively. She was anchored for two days
in the inner harbour, Dakar ; four grains of quinine were given to each member of the
crew daily, and no one was allowed on shore. The crew consisted of 16 British and
43 Asiatics.
The incidence on ships arriving ceased about the middle of November.
It was noted that stocks of quinine and elementary knowledge of its use on some
of the infected ships were insufficient for preventive and curative administration.
In September a ship put in at Ascension Island, very many of the crew being
down with reported " Relapsing " Fever. She had arrived there from Dakar in the
height of the Malaria season, and it seems possible that the disease was Malaria, not
Relapsing Fever. Other echoes from this port are found in reported cases in men who
visited Dakar during the Malaria season and have undergone relapses of the disease
during subsequent voyages, and in a fatality with sudden coma as onset occurring in a
discharged seaman in a private practice in London. In this case the history of a visit
to Dakar was the only clue the medical attendant had to the true nature of the illness.
The diffusion of knowledge of the mosquito as cause, and quinine as cure, of
Malaria amongst owners, ship masters and officers, should in future prevent any severity
of incidence and illness on shipboard such as has been found this year.