Book contents
- Frontmatter
- PREFACE
- Contents
- LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
- INTRODUCTION
- CHAPTER I LIVERPOOL TO SIERRA LEONE
- CHAPTER II THE GOLD COAST
- CHAPTER III FERNANDO PO AND THE BUBIS
- CHAPTER IV LAGOS BAR
- CHAPTER V VOYAGE DOWN COAST
- CHAPTER VI LIBREVILLE AND GLASS
- CHAPTER VII THE OGOWÉ
- CHAPTER VIII TALAGOUGA
- CHAPTER IX THE RAPIDS OF THE OGOWÉ
- CHAPTER X LEMBARENE
- CHAPTER XI FROM KANGWE TO LAKE NCOVI
- CHAPTER XII FROM NCOVI TO ESOON
- CHAPTER XIII FROM ESOON TO AGONJO
- CHAPTER XIV BUSH TRADE AND FAN CUSTOMS
- CHAPTER XV DOWN THE REMBWÉ
- CHAPTER XVI CONGO FRANÇAIS
- CHAPTER XVII THE LOG OF THE Lafayette
- CHAPTER XVIII FROM CORISCO TO GABOON
- CHAPTER XIX FETISH
- CHAPTER XX FETISH—(Continued)
- CHAPTER XXI FETISH—(Continued)
- CHAPTER XXII FETISH—(Continued)
- CHAPTER XXIII FETISH—(Concluded)
- CHAPTER XXIV ASCENT OF THE GREAT PEAK OF CAMEROONS
- CHAPTER XXV ASCENT OF THE GREAT PEAK OF CAMEROONS—(Continued)
- CHAPTER XXVI THE GREAT PEAK OF CAMEROONS—(Continued)
- CHAPTER XXVII THE GREAT PEAK OF CAMEROONS—(Concluded)
- CHAPTER XXVIII THE ISLANDS IN THE BAY OF AMBOISES
- APPENDIX
- I TRADE AND LABOUR IN WEST AFRICA
- II DISEASE IN WEST AFRICA
- III DR. A. GÜNTHER ON REPTILES AND FISHES
- IV ORTHOPTERA, HYMENOPTERA, AND HEMIPTERA
- V THE INVENTION OF THE CLOTH LOOM
- INDEX
- Plate section
II - DISEASE IN WEST AFRICA
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 March 2012
- Frontmatter
- PREFACE
- Contents
- LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
- INTRODUCTION
- CHAPTER I LIVERPOOL TO SIERRA LEONE
- CHAPTER II THE GOLD COAST
- CHAPTER III FERNANDO PO AND THE BUBIS
- CHAPTER IV LAGOS BAR
- CHAPTER V VOYAGE DOWN COAST
- CHAPTER VI LIBREVILLE AND GLASS
- CHAPTER VII THE OGOWÉ
- CHAPTER VIII TALAGOUGA
- CHAPTER IX THE RAPIDS OF THE OGOWÉ
- CHAPTER X LEMBARENE
- CHAPTER XI FROM KANGWE TO LAKE NCOVI
- CHAPTER XII FROM NCOVI TO ESOON
- CHAPTER XIII FROM ESOON TO AGONJO
- CHAPTER XIV BUSH TRADE AND FAN CUSTOMS
- CHAPTER XV DOWN THE REMBWÉ
- CHAPTER XVI CONGO FRANÇAIS
- CHAPTER XVII THE LOG OF THE Lafayette
- CHAPTER XVIII FROM CORISCO TO GABOON
- CHAPTER XIX FETISH
- CHAPTER XX FETISH—(Continued)
- CHAPTER XXI FETISH—(Continued)
- CHAPTER XXII FETISH—(Continued)
- CHAPTER XXIII FETISH—(Concluded)
- CHAPTER XXIV ASCENT OF THE GREAT PEAK OF CAMEROONS
- CHAPTER XXV ASCENT OF THE GREAT PEAK OF CAMEROONS—(Continued)
- CHAPTER XXVI THE GREAT PEAK OF CAMEROONS—(Continued)
- CHAPTER XXVII THE GREAT PEAK OF CAMEROONS—(Concluded)
- CHAPTER XXVIII THE ISLANDS IN THE BAY OF AMBOISES
- APPENDIX
- I TRADE AND LABOUR IN WEST AFRICA
- II DISEASE IN WEST AFRICA
- III DR. A. GÜNTHER ON REPTILES AND FISHES
- IV ORTHOPTERA, HYMENOPTERA, AND HEMIPTERA
- V THE INVENTION OF THE CLOTH LOOM
- INDEX
- Plate section
Summary
Great as is the delay and difficulty placed in the way of the development of the immense natural resources of West Africa by the labour problem, there is another cause of delay to this development greater and more terrible by far—namely, the deadliness of the climate. “Nothing hinders a man, Miss Kingsley, half so much as dying,” a friend said to me the other day, after nearly putting his opinion to a practical test. Other parts of the world have more sensational outbreaks of death from epidemics of yellow fever and cholera, but there is no other region in the world that can match West Africa for the steady kill, kill, kill that its malaria works on the white men who come under its influence.
Malaria you will hear glibly talked of; but what malaria means and consists of you will find few men ready to attempt to tell you, and these few by no means of a tale. It is very strange that this terrible form of disease has not attracted more scientific investigators, considering the enormous mortality it causes throughout the tropics and sub-tropics. A few years since, when the peculiar microbes of everything from measles to miracles were being “isolated,” several bacteriologists isolated the malarial microbe, only unfortunately they did not all isolate the same one. A résumé of the various claims of these microbes is impossible here, and whether one of them was the true cause, or whether they all have an equal claim to this position, is not yet clear; for malaria, as far as I have seen or read of it seems to be not so much one distinct form of fever as a group of fevers—a genus, not a species.
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- Information
- Travels in West Africa, Congo Français, Corisco and Cameroons , pp. 681 - 691Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2010First published in: 1897