The Hospital Record

Marsh fever

Marsh fever, called Kessel fever in the highlands, is endemic to the Osmoor and the lower Ostra. It presents in the reed-cutting season with a tertian fever, and in the towns along the river after a wet autumn. The Ministry of the Interior has attributed a share of civilian deaths to fever in every return since 1804; the share has fallen with drainage, piped water and the manual described below. Deaths among the Marsh Regiments on the Reed Line are returned by the War Ministry under its own heads and do not appear in the civil tables.

The Kessel manual

Emil Aschen (1812–1889), surgeon, born at Kessel. Regimental surgeon, 1st Marsh Regiment, then in private practice at Kessel. Author of a manual on marsh fever that remained the standard text for forty years. The manual prescribes quinine bark, the boiling of marsh water, the burning of reed stubble after the cut and the removal of the sick from the ground floor; hospitals of the Osmoor still follow it.

Deaths attributed to fever, by decade

Civilian deaths from the official returns; the fever share as tabulated by the Ministry. Rate per ten thousand of the population at the opening of the decade, per year.