Malaria and Greek History Author:William Henry Samuel Jones Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER II. Malaria In The Non-medical Greek Writers. " In fact," says Daremberg,1 " the great disease of Greece (islands and mainland), that which puts it... more »s impress on almost all the other affections of the country, is this remittent or pseudo-continuous fever." If to remittent malaria be added the intermittent forms of the disease, the statement is perfectly correct, and represents a truth of great importance for the student of Greek life and Greek history. In considering the question it will be convenient to divide the enquiry into two parts, and to examine separately the non-medical and the medical evidence. The first mention of -irvperos, the most general term for " fever," is in Homer,2 who states that the dog-star brings much irvperos upon miserable mortals. As summer and autumn are the times when malaria is most prevalent in modern Greece, it has been supposed that here there is conclusive evidence that malaria was well known in the prehistoric period. If this view be correct, it should be remembered that the words of the poet must not be taken to include the whole of Greece, but only that part of it (probably the west coast of Asia Minor) with which he was best acquainted. The term iri/prro? might be employed to designate typhoid, which also is an autumnal disease, but I should certainly be inclined to identify it with malaria were it not for the comment of the scholiast upon this passage. It is as follows:— " Notice that the word irvperos is to be found only here, and that it is used in the ordinary sense of the word,and not, as some take it, to signify the heat of the atmosphere." l The commentator notices, in fact, that iTvperos occurs but once in Homer, and that there was some authority for the interpretation " heat." Now " fever " is certainly the more natura...« less