A History of Tropical Medicine

Abstract

THESE volumes contain a history of tropical medicine, using that term in its ordinary wide sense. Starting with the Navy and Mercantile Marine, they tell of the dreadful conditions in which seamen lived a hundred and fifty years ago, whether in or out of the tropics, and the still worse quality of the men haled into the Navy by the press gang, so bad indeed that it was not humanity but their quality, their cost, and the effect on the nation that brought pressing to an end just over a hundred years ago. The steady advance in the Army's health in the last hundred years comes out strongly, and the same lesson is seen in the chapters on the Colonies, Protectorates and Dominions, and on India. The main part of the book is taken up with disease caused by organisms and food; and the chapter on plague is an excellent example of its scope and outlook. A History of Tropical Medicine Based on the FitzPatrick Lectures delivered before the Royal College of Physicians of London, 1937–8. By H. Harold Scott. Vol. 1. Pp. xix + 648 + 3 plates. Vol. 2. Pp. iv + 649–1165 + plates 4–13. (London: Edward Arnold & Co., 1939.) 50s. net.