Report of First Expedition to South America 1913 [antikvár]

INTRODUCTION The first expedition from the Harvard School of Tropical Medicine was undertaken for the purpose of investigating certain forms of tropical disease in South America, particularly verruga peruviana, as well as with the idea of collecting material to be used for the instruction of students in the various courses of the School, opened in 1913. The expedition proceeded first to Kingston, Jamaica, and from there to Colon and Panama. Observations were made concerning the prevailing diseases in these localities and considerable pathological material was collected. In Kingston, malaria, uncinariasis, amoebic and bacillary dysentery, and filariasis are common diseases. An obscure condition known as " vomiting sickness " has been reported as occurring in Jamaica for many years. Since 1904 it has been more widely discussed in medical literature. More recently the investigations of Scott and Seidelin have attracted attention to it. It would appear that while microörganisms have been found associated with this disease, its etiology is still not definitely determined. Further observations regarding this condition are desirable. The sanitary conditions in the Canal Zone and the diseases prevailing there have been already widely discussed elsewhere, and therefore no account of our observations made in these localities will be given in this report. The wards of the Panama City hospitál contain many patients afflicted with various tropical diseases, and in the government hospitál at Ancon a large number of individuals suffering with malaria may be found. The voyage was next continued down the west coast of South America to Buenaventura, Colombia. This city is situated upon an island at the mouth of the San Jüan river in s