'Handbook of Arabia. Vol II. 1917' [‎373] (377/542)

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HYGIENE AND DISEASE 373
of syphilis—not that the two diseases have any sort of common
origin—Ehrlich's discovery of salvarsan for syphilis was tried for
the treatment of relapsing fever, with excellent results.
Protection against body vermin is protection against relapsing
fever. The clothing next the skin must be carefully searched, espe
cially at the seams, and must be boiled or ironed, or dabbed with
kerosene, as occasion may require. A mosquito net can keep out
bugs and ticks. A bed well off the ground, with string soaked in
kerosene wound round its feet, and pyrethrum powder or Keating's
powder dusted inside the sheets, is good protection : and a light
at night is also useful. Infested persons and places—rest-houses
of caravans and native huts—must be avoided.
Sand-fly Fever (phlebotomus fever, three days' fever, Chitral
fever). Sand-flies are very minute, delicate, long-legged, yellowish
or brownish midges. They are to be found in most tropical and
sub-tropical countries: genus Phlebotomus, and many species.
They hatch out on damp surfaces, such as the walls of cellars and
latrines and crevices of damp earth. They convey a fever (germs
not discovered) which lasts only three or four days. The incubation
period varies from one to six days ; the onset is sudden, there are
no complications, and the mortality is nil. Sand-flies can pass
through the meshes of a mosquito net. It is said that a bright light,
by attracting the flies, affords some protection at night.
Effects of Heat. It is generally held that the conditions which are
called sunstroke, heat-stroke, &c., may be classified under three
principal forms, but of course they do not absolutely exclude each
other ;
(1) ' Heat-exhaustion.' A man in perfect health, suitably clothed,
or half-stripped, and not overworked, can stand, as we all know,
exposure to very great heat : for example, glass-blowers, sugar-
boilers, and stokers. But a man over-fatigued, or with health
impaired by malaria or intemperance or any other bad influence,
may faint from exposure to heat, either in the sun or in the shade.
In a simple faint from heat-exhaustion a man lies quiet, with face
pale, skin chilly, pulse weak, breathing soft (not noisy), temperature
not raised ; he may soon come round, perhaps with a very bad
headache. The treatment of these cases must be gently stimulant,
not depressing : no violent cold douching.
(2) ' Siriasis.' This Greek word for 'sunstroke' has come into
use again for what seems to be truly a tropical disease. Manson
deflnes it as an acute disease, developing in the presence of high
atmospheric temperature, and characterized by sudden very high
fever, coma, and intense congestion of the lungs, ' It is not met