South Africa and the Transvaal war . tive absence of moisture, whichprevail in the Karroo. The rarity of sunstroke throughout SouthAfrica is a clinical observation which establishes the truth of thestatements just made. In the records of a military hospital in theNorthern Karroo during the months from August to April, includingtherefore the hottest time of the year, out of 3000 medical casesnot a single instance of sunstroke was noted. The experiencegained in this hospital has an additional value from the circumstancethat the gifted physician, the late Dr. Washbourn, was the observer,and some
South Africa and the Transvaal war . tive absence of moisture, whichprevail in the Karroo. The rarity of sunstroke throughout SouthAfrica is a clinical observation which establishes the truth of thestatements just made. In the records of a military hospital in theNorthern Karroo during the months from August to April, includingtherefore the hottest time of the year, out of 3000 medical casesnot a single instance of sunstroke was noted. The experiencegained in this hospital has an additional value from the circumstancethat the gifted physician, the late Dr. Washbourn, was the observer,and some of the results he records may be more eloquent thanmany pages of description. Of the medical cases (nearly 3000),546 were enteric, 379 dysentery, 296 muscular rheumatism, 258malaria, 187 continued fever, 152 diarrhoea, 93 jaundice, 70tonsilitis, 71 influenza, and only 43 bronchitis and chest Washbourn acutely remarks, From this list it may be roughlyconcluded that the air in South Africa is good ; the food bad. It 168. < H UJ ; o 22 a:o u XH Health Resorts of South Africa will be noticed that intestinal diseases form more than a third of thetotal. The dysentery was probably due to faulty ingesta and notto the specific organism usually associated with dysentery, sinceamoebae coli could not be found in the stools. Malaria occurs onlyin limited areas in the northern Transvaal and parts of Rhodesia; theKarroo proper and the coast-belt are entirely free. The causationof malaria is now so well understood that it must yearly become amore and more preventable disease. But the great outstandingfeatures of the list, the prevalence of intestinal diseases, the absenceof respiratory troubles, merit closer examination. The intestinaldiseases, under which the muscular rheumatism, (caused by toxines),the jaundice, and much of the continued fever, must be included, aredue to ingesta, food and water. The difficulty of obtaininggood food, and the absence of sanitation
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