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Robert Armstrong, The Influence of Climate, and other agents, on the human constitution: with reference to the causes and prevention of disease, among seamen: with observations on fever in general, and an account of the epidemic fever of Jamaica. London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longman: E.W. Cole, Stonehouse, 1843, 102-104.

“Changes of climate, independent of their more immediate effects upon the human constitution, produce impressions of a more remote, and less obvious nature. Young men in the vigor of life, and of sound constitution, shall resist for a series of years the influence of climate in every region, and escape actual disease. The actions of life, however, are maintained in a state of constant excitement, to resist the effects of heat in the warmer latitudes, and of cold, or the subtraction of heat, in the colder regions of the earth. This wear and tear, if the phrase may be permitted, inseparably connected with their mode of life, is the cause of that premature old age which is so conspicuous among our seamen. 

On examining a ship’s company, men in their fortieth or forty-fifth year, appear ten or fifteen years older than they really are. The hair becomes grey, or falls off; the pulse is slower and less expanded; secretion is tardy; the step is less firm and elastic; there is a certain flaccidity of muscle, and they are subject to chronic rheumatism, and various other ailments. Few men, who have attained the age of forty-five, are fit for the active duties of seamen. A few years ago, when it became necessary to increase the naval force, there was some difficulty in obtaining a sufficient number of active young seamen. Men, who were in the receipt of pensions for former services, were allowed to re-enter; and many were induced to take advantage of this regulation, with the view of completing a longer period of servitude, and obtaining an increase of pension. During the fitting out of the ship, they were generally incapable of much exertion; many were sent to the Hospital, and other invalided, and discharged as unfit for active service.

Various writers on the diseases incidental to Europeans in warm climates, have attached much importance to the process of seasoning, or preparing the body for the new climate. To effect this change in the constitution, it has been supposed, that previously to sending troops direct to the West Indies, it would be an advantage to place them for a time at Gibraltar, some station in the Mediterranean, or at Bermuda, where the heat was less intense, with the view of gradually preparing the constitution for a greater change. On several occasions, this has been done, and apparently with advantage; while in other cases, it afforded no protection.”

Compass Points

• Note the author’s emphasis on the “seasoning” or acclimatization of European bodies to warmer climates. 
• Consider why the author would use the case of naval seamen as his main example.
• Think about why the author mentioned “preparing the bodies” of European troops through gradual heat exposure before arriving in the West Indies.
• Note the author’s focus on gender and age.

F.N. MacNamara. Climate and medical topography in their relation to the disease-distribution of the Himalayan and Sub-Himalayan districts of British India: with reasons for assigning a malarious origin to goitre and some other diseases. London: Longmans, Green, and Co, 1880, 63, 64, 66-67.

“The following table shows the recorded mortality from fevers amongst the civil population of the Punjaub [in India], and the admissions for fevers amongst the native troops, during the distinctly epidemic months. The table also shows the rainfall registered during July, August, and September of 1869, and the average aggregate rainfall of those months” (63).
“Surgeon J.R. Johnson, in charge of the corps of Guides stationed at Murdan in the Peshawur valley, writes [in Medical Reports of Native Army of Bengal]: ‘Autumnal malarious fevers prevailed throughout the district to an extent seldom or never before experienced. No house or family escaped the visitation. The attacks, although prostrating, were seldom followed by fatal results (amongst the troops), and the disease never assumed a relapsing or typhoid form. It was in fact pure malarious fever, and probably caused, or at any rate greatly aggravated, by late and heavy rains.’ ‘Intermittents commenced towards the end of August, and increased so gradually and insidiously, that it would be difficult to say when they became epidemic. A most decided increase in the number and severity of the attacks was observed about September 20, and from that date to the end of October the disease was at its work.’” (66-67)

Compass Points

• Note the general pattern of increase in deaths or hospital admissions from the malarial fever.
• Monsoon rains lasted until October. Consider why the author would provide the average aggregate rainfall in this chart.
• Think about why there were different sets of data for the civilian population and the native troops.
• Consider why specificity of districts and numbers would have been useful for a work on climate, medical topography, and disease distribution.

Samuel George Morton. Illustrations of Pulmonary Consumption: its anatomical characters, causes, symptoms and treatment: to which are added, some remarks on the climate of the United States, the West Indies, etc. Second Edition. Philadelphia: Edward C. Biddle, 23 Minor Street, 1837, 191-192, 193.

“I saw in the West Indies a considerable number of officers, professional men, and merchants, who had left Europe in the second or purulent stage of consumption. They sought the tropics as a last alternative, and, in their own phrase, came there to die: yet in some of these persons every pulmonary symptom had vanished, while in others the disease was so far mitigated, as to be seemingly passing away. I may in particular cite Dr. Stedman Sen. of Santa Cruz, who arrived in that island fifty years before my interview with him, (April 1832,) with such fearful symptoms of consumption, that the celebrated Dr. Cullen of Edinburgh assured him that he could not survive another Scotch winter. Notwithstanding the desperate features of his disease, on his arrival in the West Indies, he began at once to improve, his symptoms rapidly left him, nor have they ever recurred in the lapse of half a century. On his subsequent visits to Scotland, he has experienced no inconvenience; and he is entirely of the opinion, that his disease was eradicated by change of climate.

Dr. Heberden mentions a case of hereditary consumption that was radically cured by a removal to a hot climate: for at the time of writing the account, there had been no recurrence of the malady, although twenty years had expired.

…

These facts how, in a remarkable manner, the effects of climate in producing phthisis, as well as in arresting, if not eradicating it” (191-192, 193).

Compass Points

• Note the emphasis on the change of climate on pulmonary health.
• Consider why the tropics of the West Indies would have been considered a ready destination in the nineteenth century.
• Note that the author considers climate to be both the cause and the cure for phthisis, or tuberculosis.

Frederick Corbyn. Instructions to Mothers, on the Management and Diseases of Infants: Embracing rules relative to nursing, diet, and dress; and exhibiting the characters, causes, symptoms, and method of treating, as well as preventing, constitutional derangement during difficult dentition, as it appears under the influence of the Climate of India. Calcutta: And sold by Messrs. Thacker and Co. St. Andrew’s Library, and by other booksellers, 1828, 420-421.

“One effect of heat upon a child is remittent fever, and this terminates in convulsion, with which a child dies, in India, in twenty-four hours. The effect of extreme cold is inflammatory fever, and is equally suddenly fatal. 

If this be a fact, it must be our object, during the dentition period, to guard against a climate where sudden changes and extreme heats prevail. In all the principal stations included within the limits of Hindoostan, it will be found that deaths among children are lamentably frequent and sudden during the months of June, July, and August. 

In Bengal not so much so. The temperature is more equal, and though often sultry, the moisture of the atmosphere prevents excessive heat. Children, however, do not look so well in the latter as in the former climate. In no part of the world is infancy more beautiful than in Hindoostan. Here a child is in a state of perfect repletion, a most enlivening picture of health; and although such a state of infancy is that which the admiring parents desire, yet medical men know that it is one attended with danger. It may be compared to an inflammable body, the least friction of which will set it on fire. So it is with the poor child, who has lived in a fine cool climate, and under the influence of the periodical hot wind, which takes place in June, when calms, and, as a consequence, a sudden occurrence of excessive heat, operate upon this full habit like a match upon combustible matter. In this way children suddenly die in the Upper Provinces… This is not the case in Bengal, where children are generally pallid, sallow, thin, and constantly suffering from bowl complaints; indeed, never out of the doctor’s list; and parents are unceasingly suffering the greatest anxiety and alarm,—for ever wishing themselves out of this “abominable climate.” Nevertheless these little patients seldom die. They continue weakly for some time, and when sent to Europe, often become fine children. It has been the case, that many families, when residing in Hindoostan, have lost all their children from these sudden vicissitudes; but when their destination has been altered to Bengal, the melancholy loss of their offspring no longer ensued” (420-421).

Compass Points

• Note that the author is primarily writing for and referring to European mothers and children living in India, a British colony at the time.
• Consider why and how the author compares Hindoostan and Bengal, connecting place to temperature, wind, and season.
• Think about why the author cautions against places of both excessive heat and cold.
• Consider why the author would write about the health of European children in India.