Manuscript on Malaria by Dr. Alonzo Lashbrook Blalock, M. D., of Madison County, Florida.

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recently a prominent lady in my town took her child to a neighboring
city to be treated for earache. I presume she paid the specialist
ten dollars for a prescription and the assurance that the child had
an abscess(?) in progress in the ear. What them must the ordinary
doctor do? Do his best, and if the patient has money, insist on a
specialist's fee. Learn to be an expert microscopist and make the
clientele pay for it . In this instance it would be money well
spent. By such a procedure, inestimable suffering and lives would
be saved. In nearly every instance these <prodromes (handwritten)> mean
that infection began a week or more previously and the multiplica-
tion of the parasites is not quite sufficient to produce marked
paroxysms. A properly secured smear or two stained and placed under
the microscope will invariably reveal the parasite in some stage of
its developmental cycle. Be assured, no living vegetable or animal
matter is dormant one minute under favorable conditions.
If, by microscopical examination, a positive diagnosis of ma-
laria can be made, active anti-malarial treatment should be instit-
tuted and continued for at least three days. After which, keep up
for three weeks longer what may be termed prophylactic treatment.
Prescribe a laxative or cathartic, as the symptoms may indicate,
preferably calomel followed in 12 hours by a saline. Then give qui-
nine during the second quarter of every 24 hour period, 20 grains
the first period, 15 grs. the second and 10 grs. the third period.
After three days, the patient should take during the period of three
weeks three or five grains of quinine every night and morning. Med-
ication may then be discontinued provided a microscopical examina-
tion of the blood proves negative with regard to malaria.
This plan will invariably suffice in every case of tertian infec-
tion with intermittent fever; provided, of course, it is graduated
according to the severity of the attack and the age and physical

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