Rinderpest (also called cattle plague) is an infectious disease affecting cattle, sheep, goats, camels, deer and similar animals. It was endemic in central and south Asia during the 1920s and occurred in Western Europe only rarely through the importation of infected cattle, a notable instance occurring in 1872 as a result of the importation of infected cattle from Germany. Research Rinderpest
In Banyarwanda mythology Imana was the creator and supporter of the universe. He ruled all living beings, and guaranteed them immortality by huntingDeath, a savage wild animal. When he was hunting, his orders were that everything in creation was to stay in hiding, so that Death would have no refuge. But one day in the quietness of the hunt, an old woman crept out to hoe her vegetable garden - and Death hid under her skirt and was taken inside with her. Imana tried a second way of cheating Death by telling the old woman's relatives to bury her body but leave cracks in the earth above her, so that she could hear him calling her back to life. But the old woman's daughter-in- law who hated her, filled the cracks with earth and banged the surface hard with her pounding stick - and Death became endemic. Research Imana
Beriberi is a disease, endemic in east and south Asia, caused by a dietary deficiency of thiamine. It affects the nerves to the limbs, producing pain, paralysis, and swelling. Research Beriberi
Cholera is an acute, infectious, often fatal disease caused by the micro organism Vibrio cholerae. It is endemic in India and some other tropical countries and occasionally spreading to temperate climates. The symptoms of cholera are diarrhoea and the loss of water and salts in the stool.
In its more ordinary form it commences with sickness, vomiting, or perhaps two or three loose evacuations of the bowels; after which follow a sense of burning at the praecordia, an increased purging and vomiting of a white or colourless fluid, great prostration of strength, spasms at the extremities, which increase in violence with the vomiting and purging. Such cases may last from twelve to thirty- six hours; after this the patient generally sinks into a state of extreme collapse, and this stage in most cases passes by a gradualtransition into a febrile one, which in a majority of instances proves fatal. Sometimes the patient is suddenly stricken down and dies, collapsed within a few hours without diarrhoea or vomiting.
In severe cholera, the patient develops violent diarrhoea with characteristic 'rice-water stools,' vomiting, thirst, muscle cramps, and sometimes circulatory collapse. Death can occur as quickly as a few hours after the onset of symptoms. The mortality rate is more than 50 percent in untreated cases, but falls to less than 1 percent with proper treatment. Treatment consists mainly of intravenous or oral replacement of fluids and salts. Packets for dilution containing the correct mixture of sodium, potassium, chloride, bicarbonate, and glucose have been made widely available by the WHO. Most patients recover in three to six days. Antibiotics such as tetracyclines, ampicillin, chloramphenicol, and trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole can shorten the duration of the disease, but have their own long term risks in damage to the immune system.
Cholera first appeared (in recognised form) in Europe in 1829, and reached Britain in 1831, spreading thence to America. Western Europe was again visited by it in 1847, 1853, 1865, 1873, 1875, and in 1885. In 1892 Russia and Western Europe suffered severely.
By 1905 it was ascertained that the primary and essential element in the production of cholera was a constituent of the excreta of cholera patients. At the time it wasn't known what the agent was, but that it is an organism capable of propagating itself when it is taken into the alimentarycanal in food, impure water, or the like, was beyond a doubt. Dr. Koch asserted that the essential cause was a bacillus, having the form of a curved rod, hence then called the comma bacillus, and that the disease was caused by the multiplication of this organism in the small intestines.
A method of protective inoculation against cholera was tried in India, with some success around 1900. At the same time it was established that the contagion of cholera is not so likely to be conveyed by personal intercourse as by residence in an infected district. Sanitary measures proved to be the only efficacious means of arresting an epidemic; insanitary conditions decidedly favour it - quite obvious as the disease is spread through contact with infected faeces.
What is called British cholera is a bilious disease, long known in most countries, and is characterized by copious vomiting and purging, with violent griping, cramps of the muscles of the abdomen and lower extremities, and great depression of strength. It is most prevalent at the end of summer or the beginning of autumn. Cholera infantum (infants' cholera) is the name sometimes given to a severe and dangerous diarrhoea to which infants are liable in hot climates or in the hot season. Research Cholera
Cholera Morbus or Asiatic cholera is a strain of cholera first described in 1560 and first appeared in India in 1774 and became endemic in Lower Bengal in 1817 whence it gradually spread until in reached Russia in 1830 and Germany in 1831 killing more than 900,000 persons between 1829 and 1830. Research Cholera Morbus
Goitre or Bronchocele (known in Britain as Derbyshire Neck) is an overgrown or swollen thyroidgland, usually observed as a swelling in the neck. Formerly the disease was endemic in Derbyshire, Switzerland, some parts of France and South America, and in many other parts of the world, chiefly in valleys and elevated plains in mountainous districts. Research Goitre
Pellagra (commonly known as Mal de la Rosa, Mal Rosso, Alpine Scurvy, Asturian Rose, or Psilosis Pigmentosa) is a non-contagious disease caused by a deficiency of vitamin B3 (nicotinic acid or niacin) in the diet, common among people where maize is the staple food, but also among poor peoples in Europe, Africa, Asia and North America. Pellagra is generally endemic and slowly evolves. It is characterised by burning or itching often followed by scaling of the skin, inflammation of the tongue and mouth, diarrhoea, and manic depression. In particular, patients exhibit a rash around the neck which resembles a rosary, from whence pellagra obtains its popular names. The symptoms usually reoccur each year in the same season, usually during the spring but sometimes autumn. The first authentic case of pellagra in Great Britain was reported in 1866, a second in 1906 and a third in 1909. In 1914 the first case in Canada was reported, and in 1920 an outbreak was reported in Nanking, China. During the Great War many Turkish troops and Armenian refugees developed the disease. Research Pellagra
The Republic of Colombia is a country in South America with a total area of 1,138,910 km2. The country was originally inhabited by the Chibcha people, and was discovered by Alonso de Ojeda in 1499 ; it was visited by Columbus on his fourth voyage, in 1502. The first Spanish settlement was made in 1510 at Santa Maria in the Gulf of Darien, and the whole country was formed into a province under a captain-general in 1547.
New Granada declared its independence of Spain in 1811, and after eleven years of warfare succeeded with the help of Venezuela in effecting its liberation. Both states then united with Ecuador, also freed from the Spanish domination, to form the first republic of Colombia; but internal dissensions arising, the three states again separated in 1831, forming three independent republics, which have had a very troubled existence. In 1861 the states forming New Granada by agreement adopted a new constitution, the republic henceforth to be called the United States of Colombia. This title was retained until, by the new constitution adopted in 1886, the state ceased to be a federal republic and became a unitary republic, with the name of Republic of Colombia.
The secession of Panama in 1903 was partly brought about by the dilatoriness of the central government in concluding a satisfactory arrangement with the United States in regard to the construction of an interoceanic canal.
The country may be divided into the elevated region of the Cordilleras in the west, and that of the low-lying lands in the east. The former occupies the greater portion of the country, and presents a richly-diversified surface, being formed chiefly of three mountain chains which stretch north and south in a nearly parallel direction, inclosing between them the valleys of the rivers Cauca and Magdalena. These, the two great navigable rivers of the country, flow northwards, joining their waters about 120 miles from their embouchure in the Caribbean Sea. In the central ridge is the culminating point of Colombia, the volcano of Tolima, 18,315 feet high. The low lands of the east form a transitionary region between the plains of North Brazil and the llanos of the Orinoco region, the drainage being carried to the Amazon and Orinoco.
The chief coast indentation is the Gulf of Darien, which receives the navigable Rio Atrato. The climate is naturally as varied as the surface of the country, but over a great part of the republic is very hot. At Cartagena, on the Caribbean Sea, and on the Pacific coast, yellow fever is endemic at some places; while in the elevated country, as the plain of Bogota, 8000 feet above the sea, the climate is perfectly salubrious, and the temperature seems that of eternal spring.The climate is tropical along coast and eastern plains; cooler in highlands.
Natural resources are crude oil, natural gas, coal, iron ore, nickel, gold, copper and emeralds. The religion is 95% Roman Catholic and the language is Spanish with numerous Indian dialects also spoken. Research Colombia
The Probert Encyclopaedia was designed, edited and programed by
Matt and Leela Probert
Abbreviations
Research Rinderpest
