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Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Letter of the day, March 31

Knowing the cause and controlling it were still two different things.

Office of the Surgeon,
Camp Stotsenburg, P.I., Mch 31, 1917.

From: The Surgeon.
To. The Surgeon General, U.S. Army, Washington, D.C.
(Thru Department Surgeon.)
Subject: Mosquitoes.


1. Collection of mosquitoes mailed, this date, to the Curator, Army Medical Museum, Washington, D.C.

2. 55 cases of malaria during the month, as follows:
Aestivo-autumnal, 8
Tertian, 47

3. Average strength of command: 2102.63

4. 2 cases of malaria, members of 15th Cav., casually at post, and 16 cases of civilians in addition to the above, during the month.

[signed, illegible]
Major, Medical Corps.

PCH/lbw

2 comments:

Mike Rhode said...

Note the autumno-aestival fever - they're still having trouble sorting out the causes of fevers, pre-virology. Dale Smith has an excellent paper on the history of this problem.

Brian Spatola said...

Side Note: The NMHM anatomical division has a series of specimens in the NYC Medical Examiner Collection from 1933-34 related to estivo-autumnal malaria among heroin addicts who shared needles. Dr. Helpern was the one who figured this out.