ANATOMICAL NOTES ON MALAY APES, 



BY 



Dr. A . KEITH. 



— :o:o: — 



l. — Preliminary. 



the autumn of 1889 my thoughts were directed 

 towards the Pathology of Fever and Ague. Some 

 years ago, research exposed in the blood an influx 

 of a particular micro-organism during the attack. 

 These microbes may be the actual fever-raising virus ; 

 or they may be the producers of the fever poison ; or 

 they may only be a concomitant of that poison. Be that as it 

 may, the next important step in the evolution of our knowledge 

 of the disease is to determine on what particular part of the 

 body this poison immediately acts. Symptoms, remedies and 

 alkaloids whose specific actions are known, point to a power- 

 ful affection of the great visceral sympathetic system of 

 nerves. This system is probably the butt of the fever poison. 



II. — Object of Research, 



(a) — It seemed well worth determining in a more exact 

 manner than hitherto had been done, the anatomical 

 relations of this nervous system, and I selected the 

 quadrumana of this Siamese Province — Bangtaphan — 

 lying at the eastern basis of the Peninsula. 



(b) — And as about 80% of the natives, along the banks of 

 the river of that Province, suffer to a greater or less 

 degree from enlargement of the spleen, it was of inter- 

 est to see if the quadrumana kept them company in this. 

 But by confining my attention within so narrow limits, 

 I should have committed great havoc among them for a 

 small result. 



