Diseases

The prevailing diseases in Madeira are tuberculosis, diarrhoea, organic lesions of the heart, apoplexy and other diseases of the brain, pneumonia and bronchitis. Of the 3,631 deaths that occurred in 1917 in the district of Funchal (Distrito do Funchal), 263 were due to pulmonary tuberculosis, 11 to tuberculosis of the meninges, 17 to other forms of tuberculosis, 890 to diarrhoea and enteritis (only 382 of the deceased were over 2 years old), 246 to organic lesions of the heart, 239 to cerebral congestion, haemorrhage and softening, 167 to acute bronchitis, 40 to chronic bronchitis, 155 to pneumonia and 105 to other diseases of the respiratory system.

Cancer occurs frequently, attacking various organs. Acute and chronic hepatitis, acute and chronic rheumatism, scrofula, certain skin diseases and continued fevers of various forms, chiefly the gastric and the ataxo-adynamic, are not rare on the island either. In 1917, 91 people in the whole archipelago died of cancer and other malignant tumours.

Elephantiasis occurs in various localities of Madeira, chiefly among people of the poorer classes. The parishes of Ponta do Sol (‘point of the sun’) and Ponta do Pargo (‘sea bream point’) have the highest percentage of people affected by this disease.

Measles and smallpox have appeared in Madeira on several occasions in epidemic form, always spreading through contagion from people arriving from outside. Among the smallpox epidemics we may mention those of 1801; of 1815, which caused over 2,000 deaths across the island; of 1858 and 1859; of 1870; of 1873; and of 1907. Among the measles epidemics were those of 1751, which caused a remarkable number of deaths, of 1816 and of 1884. In 1905 bubonic plague (see that entry) appeared in Madeira, but not in epidemic form, and in 1907 there were 14 deaths in the parish (freguesia) of Santo António, attributed, so it was said, to infectious pneumonias. Cholera morbus (see that entry) visited us in 1856 and in 1910, rabies (see that entry) in 1892, scarlet fever in 1814, 1825 and 1864, influenza, with many cases of pneumonia, in 1884, cerebrospinal meningitis, in epidemic form, in 1904, and the Spanish flu (a kind of influenza) and pneumonic influenza in 1919. On these last two diseases Dr Nuno Silvestre Teixeira wrote a notable report, which began to be published in the Diário de Notícias in December 1919.

The name ‘influenza’, now given to the grippe that frequently appears in Madeira, was already known here in the second quarter of the 19th century, as documents recorded in the archive of the Funchal Municipal Council (Câmara Municipal do Funchal) show.

In 1847 there were many irritative disorders of the digestive system, caused by famine, and mortality was high. In 1888 there were many cases of a particular anaemia in the parish of Porto da Cruz (‘harbour of the cross’), due, according to the late physician Dr Vicente Cândido Machado, to Anchylostomum intestinale. In 1893 an epidemic of typhoid fever broke out in the parish of Porto Moniz, killing a great many people. Whooping cough seldom develops on the island in epidemic form, and the same may be said of goitre.

There are no endemic diseases in Madeira; there are simply the illnesses common to all countries, which generally take a mild form. The ‘Madeira fever’ spoken of by detractors of the island’s climate is merely a gastric upset that now and then attacks foreigners who eat large quantities of certain fruits not found in northern Europe.

Inadequate clothing, a poor diet, the abuse of alcoholic drinks and certain inexcusable neglect of cleanliness mean that people of the poorer classes are generally more prone to the prevailing diseases of the island than those of the more fortunate classes. Nevertheless, the proportion of deaths caused by these diseases, compared with that of other countries, is quite favourable to Madeira, to which the mildness of our climate and the natural vigour and resilience of our people contribute greatly.