BY H. D. SCHMIDT, M.D.
SYNONYMS.—Break-bone fever, Dandy fever.
HISTORY.—The history of this disease dates only from the second half of the last century, though it appears very probable that previous to this time dengue existed in the tropical regions of Africa and Asia, whence it was carried to Europe and America.
In Spain the disease has been known since 1764, when, up to 1768, it prevailed in Cadiz and Seville under the name of la piadosa or la pantomina.1 In 1780 it appeared in the form of an epidemic in Philadelphia, where it was first noticed and described by Rush under the name of bilious remitting fever, commonly called break-bone fever on account of the violent pains attending it. Next it prevailed in Calcutta in 1824, and two years afterward it made its first appearance on the southern coast of the United States, in Charleston and Savannah, where it prevailed to 1827. Toward the close of 1827 another dengue epidemic broke out in the West Indies, whence the disease proceeded to the American continent, reaching New Orleans in the spring, and visiting Charleston and Savannah in the summer and autumn of 1828.2 In 1844 it showed itself in Mobile, and in 1848 in Natchez, whilst in 1850 it reappeared along the Southern seacoast, particularly in Charleston, from which it proceeded even to inland towns, such as Augusta, Ga.3 In 1865 dengue appeared in Teneriffe and other Canary Islands, whilst at the same time and through the years 1866 and 1867 it prevailed in Andalusia and in some other Spanish provinces.4
1 R. H. Poggio, La calentura roja observada in sus apariciones epidemicas de los anos 1865 y 1867, Madrid (reported in Virchow und Hirsch's Jahresbericht für das Jahr 1871, vol. ii. p. 200).
2 G. B. Wood, Practice of Medicine, 4th ed., vol. i. p. 444.
3 S. H. Dickson, Elements of Medicine, 2d. ed., p. 747.
4 R. H. Poggio, Virchow und Hirsch's Jahresbericht für das Jahr 1871, vol. ii. p. 200.
One of the most extensive epidemics of dengue prevailed from July, 1870, to January, 1871, in Zanzibar,5 on the East Coast of Africa, whence it extended to Aden in Arabia and Port Said in Egypt. In December, 1871, the disease appeared simultaneously at Bombay and Calcutta,6 to which place it had been carried by transport-ships from Aden. Proceeding from Bombay in a northern direction along the railroad, it spread over the central regions of the North-western Provinces, the Rajputana states, Cashmir, and the Punjaub. From Calcutta it passed over Assam and Bhotan to Thibet, and thence downward into Burmah and to all the large cities along the coast; while it also extended along the coast of Malabar over Visigapatam to Madras and Pondichery, finally arriving at Mysore. Thus the disease had actually spread over the whole Peninsula from Cape Tutikorin to the foot of the Himalayas, attacking equally all races or nationalities without regard to age, occupation, or position. Forty years previously, however, an epidemic of dengue had prevailed in Burmah. In 1873 it appeared on the island of Mauritius, to which it had been carried from India by an emigrant ship. In the same year a considerable number of cases of dengue were observed in New Orleans. In 1877 it appeared again in Egypt, where it prevailed in Ismailia.