Page 704 - PERSIAN 4 1899_1905

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160 ADMINISTRATION REPORT ON THE PERSIAN GULF POLITICAL
7. The diseases most commonly treated in the Dispensary were diseases of
the eye, tubercular affections (including pulmonary phthisis, scrofula, tubercular
diseases of bones, joints and skinl, affections of the digestive organs, rheu­
matic affections, intestinal worms, diseases of the skin, affections of the oar
and venereal diseases.
8. Eye diseases.—The commonest forms of eye disease met with in this
place are those of catarrhal and granular conjunctivitis, comeal- ulcor, and
a number of affections resulting secondarily from the two latter, such as
triohiasiB, corneal opacity, pannus, staphyloma, etc. The chief causes which
favour the prevalence of these diseases (which are primarily duo to the action
of micro-organisms) are the dry olimate of the place with the prevalence of
dust-laden winds, and the dirty habits of the people, whereby the infection is
conveyed from one eye to another. Simple irritation of the eye is also caused
by the use of salt water for washing, and new arrivals in the Gulf often
suffer from such irritation. rJ he number of blind people in this as in other
places in the Persian Gulf is very large, in fact there is hardly any faauily
in which there are not one or more blind members, the blindness being due
either to senile cataract or some other affection of the eye. Eye affections
are bo common that the people look with utter indifference to such affections
in their early stages and rarely seek for treatment until the eye is seriously
damaged or totally lost.
9. Tubercular affections.—A11 forms of tubercular diseases are extremely
common. Pulmonary phthisis accounts for a large proportion of the mortality
of this place. It is to be found at nil ages except the very young. 8crofula
is also very common, and though not rapidly fatal, gives rise to prolonged
suffering, unsightly disfigurement, and finally kills by extension of the disease
to the internal organs. Tubercular diseases of the bones, joints and skin are
also common—the former often giring rise to fatal results from exhaustion
brought on by prolonged suppuration, lhe specific bacillus which gives rise
to these diseases enters the body eithpr through the food eaten or the air
inhaled or through breaches of continuity in the skin. The common practice
of eating together out of the same plate and drinking out of the same cup—
breach of which is looked upon as bad manners among the Arabs—favours the
conveyance of the infection from one person to another. The dryness of the
climate whereby the sputa of phthisical patients and the discharges of
tuberculous sores are rapidly dried up and blown about with the wind
also favours the spread of the diseases. The Negroes seem to possess
less resisting power against pulmonary phthisis than the Arabs and
succumb readily to the attack of the disease, but as regards scrofula the
susceptibility of the Negroes and Arabs seems to be about equal. It is possible
that in some cases tubercular diseases are conveyed to human beings through tbe
milk or meat of diseased animals as no steps are taken to prevent the sale of
sack articles, but at any rate this mode of conveyance plays a very unimportant
part In the spread of tbe disease in comparison to the other methods. As to the
nature of the food there seems to be a common notion among the people that
fish eating conduces to scrofula. I do not think there is much truth in this,
but I am inclined to believe that fish diet supplies good pabulum for the
development of tbe tubercle bacilli, because 1 hare repeatedly seen the dis­
charge of scrofulous sores to increase io q<rantity and the granulations to
assume an unhealthy character, after a fish diet
10. Diseases of the digestive organs are also very common. These arc
aooounted for by the voracious appetite of tbe Arabs and tbe indiscriminate
measure of their food. Tbe Bedouins also take food only half, or very
improperly, cooked. The same causes combined with the habit of excessive
coffee drinking give rise to oft repeated irritation and congestion of the liver
and stagnation of blood in the portal vessels and thus favour the occurrence of
piles and fistulas from which also the people of this place suffer very largely.
Tbe occurrence of these diseases is among the town-dwellers further favoured
by their sedentary habits of life. The habit of excessive eating combined with
•excessive office-drinking, tobacco-smoking and undue sexual indulgence
rise to another clast of affections characterised by headache, lassitude, vertigo*

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