Article ID: CBB001421975

Arthur Conan Doyle (1859--1930): Physician During the Typhoid Epidemic in the Anglo-Boer War (1899--1902) (2014)

unapi

When the Anglo-Boer War broke out in October 1899, Arthur Conan Doyle, a retired ophthalmologist, was already famous as the creator of Sherlock Holmes. Motivated by patriotism and adventure, Doyle joined the medical staff of a private field hospital endowed by philanthropist John Langman (1846--1928). Langman Hospital opened in Bloemfontein, South Africa, at the height of that city's typhoid fever epidemic which raged from April to June 1900. There were nearly 5000 cases of typhoid and 1000 deaths but official statistics do not truly reflect the magnitude of the suffering. Doyle argued that the British Army had made a major mistake by not making antityphoid inoculation compulsory. Because of the new vaccine's side effects, 95% of the soldiers refused immunization. Despite his strong opinions, Doyle failed to press the issue of compulsory inoculation when he testified before two Royal Commissions investigating the medical and military management of the war in South Africa. One can only imagine how the army might have benefited from the new idea of prophylactic vaccination in preventive medicine if Doyle had not let these opportunities slip away. As a consequence, antityphoid inoculation was still voluntary when Great Britain entered World War I in August 1914.

...More
Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB001421975/

Similar Citations

Article Low-Beer, Daniel; Smallman-Raynor, Matthew; Cliff, Andrew; (2004)
Disease and Death in the South African War: Changing Disease Patterns from Soldiers to Refugees (/isis/citation/CBB000770519/)

Book Villiers, J. C. de; (2008)
Healers, Helpers and Hospitals (/isis/citation/CBB001020639/)

Article Brumpt, Lucien; Petithory, Jean-Claude; Ardoin, Francoise; (2008)
Une épidémie de fièvre typhoïde parmi les troupes allemandes à Paris à Noël 1941 (/isis/citation/CBB000933227/)

Article Eyler, John M.; (2009)
The Fog of Research: Influenza Vaccine Trials during the 1918--19 Pandemic (/isis/citation/CBB000932685/)

Book Willrich, Michael; (2011)
Pox: An American History (/isis/citation/CBB001212485/)

Article Sarah Rafferty; Matthew R. Smallman-Raynor; Andrew D. Cliff; (2018)
Variola minor in England and Wales: The geographical course of a smallpox epidemic and the impediments to effective disease control, 1920–1935 (/isis/citation/CBB204012556/)

Article Junaidi; (2023)
Smallpox vaccination in Nias Island, Indonesia, 1854-1915 (/isis/citation/CBB724936721/)

Book Özdemir, Hikmet; (2008)
The Ottoman Army, 1914--1918: Disease & Death on the Battlefield (/isis/citation/CBB000951809/)

Book Espinosa, Mariola; (2009)
Epidemic Invasions: Yellow Fever and the Limits of Cuban Independence, 1878--1930 (/isis/citation/CBB001020061/)

Article Kuznetsov, Vyacheslav A.; (2014)
Professor Yakov Yulievich Bardakh (1857--1929): Pioneer Of Bacteriological Research in Russia and Ukraine (/isis/citation/CBB001421990/)

Article Cooter, Roger; (2003)
Of War and Epidemics: Unnatural Couplings, Problematic Conceptions (/isis/citation/CBB000770498/)

Authors & Contributors
Smallman-Raynor, Matthew
Cliff, Andrew D.
Jones, Spencer
Junaidi
Sarah Rafferty
Kuznetsov, Vyacheslav A.
Concepts
Medicine
Medicine and the military; medicine in war
Epidemics
Vaccines; vaccination
Public health
Disease and diseases
Time Periods
20th century, early
19th century
Places
South Africa
United States
Great Britain
England
Germany
Indonesia
Institutions
International Red Cross
American Public Health Association
Comments

Be the first to comment!

{{ comment.created_by.username }} on {{ comment.created_on | date:'medium' }}

Log in or register to comment