226 AROUND THE WORLD VIA INDIA. 



In the medical wards I found here, as in all hospitals 

 in India, the greatest variety of malaria and its mul- 

 titude of complications. A large part of the hospital 

 space is occupied by malarial patients and the physi- 

 cians here have an excellent opportunity throughout 

 the entire year to study malaria in all its endless clini- 

 cal and pathologic aspects. 



What an excellent place Bombay or Calcutta would 

 be for a great school for the study of tropical dis- 

 eases! The material is here, and not in London nor 

 Liverpool, and if utilized to greatest advantage it must 

 be studied here and not thousands of miles awav from 

 where the diseases had their origin. 



Typhoid fever is not so common as we would suspect 

 after an inspection of the water supply and insani- 

 tary environments of the masses of the natives. The 

 native prefers to draw his water from the well that has 

 served his ancestors for centuries rather than from the 

 tap of the modern water-works. If it is at all within 

 reach, water from the sacred , Ganges is his favorite 

 drink. Most of the cases of typhoid fever I examined 

 in the different hospitals of India were of a mild type, 

 and the mortality from this disease as published in the 

 hospital reports is not great. 



India has its share of pulmonary tuberculosis, but for 

 reasons that can not be explained tuberculosis of hones 

 and joints is very rare as compared with the frequency 

 with which this disease attacks our childhood popula- 

 tion. In any of our large hospitals we see ten cases of 

 joint and bone tuberculosis to one in the hospitals of 

 India, and on the streets of Chicago ten cripples from 

 this disease to one in India. The same remarks apply to 

 tuberculosis of the lymphatic glands and genito-urinarv 

 organs. Diarrhea, dysentery and malaria are the pre- 

 vailing diseases of India and it is these affections that 

 tax ino-t heavily the therapeutic resources of the physi- 

 cians, both in hospital and private practice. In this 

 as well as in all clinical hospitals of India, much stress 



