Medical Notes. 599 



last year, during tlie mouth of September, when the writer 

 of this article passed up the river and happened to be de- 

 tained at the plantation of a Portuguese, some one hun- 

 dred and seventy miles above Para, he was informed by 

 the proprietor that for the last two years there had existed 

 in that section of country, though not immediately in the 

 vicinity of his place, a larger amount of malarial fevers 

 than had ever been known before; and some few cases 

 came under the writer's observation which were decided 

 and severe bilious remittent fevers. At the other places 

 stopped at on the way up to Peru — some eight or ten — 

 nothing was heard of unfavorable to the general reputa- 

 tion which the Amazons enjoys in reference to the subject 

 of malarial disorders. 



At the villages on the Maranon and Ucayali the testi- 

 mony to the freedom from terciana is constantly repeat- 

 ed and believed, and also on the Huallaga, as high up as 

 Urimaguas — the highest point for steam navigation — at 

 Borja, on the Maranon, where the sierras begin, it is to be 

 encountered. In the village of Iquitos, the largest on the 

 Maranon, being composed of a population of some two 

 thousand souls, Indians, whites, mestizos of Spanish, Por- 

 tuguese, and English blood, in the last year I have not en- 

 countered a single case of terciana originating here, and 

 the same testimony is given by the government physician. 

 There have been some cases of re-accession of intermittent 

 fever in those who have come here at varying times from 

 the region of malaria about Borja, high up on the Hualla- 

 ga, or other tributaries of the Maranon. The past expe- 

 rience of intelligent citizens here seems to confirm this 

 statement.* 



* This statement needed in 1873-74 some modification, for in the years 

 stated there began to be noticed cases of intermittent fever in the village 

 among those who had lived there all their lives. This change may probably 

 have been due to the fact of the exceedingly filthy condition of the streets, 



