SIGNED The Medical Report of the Rice Expedition to Brazil

Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1918. First edition.

SIGNED COPY OF MEDICAL REPORT ON TROPICAL INFECTIOUS DISEASE BY W. T. COUNCILMAN, DISCOVERER OF THE "COUNCILMAN BODY".

9 1/4 inches tall hardcover, original red cloth binding, spine gilt, many black & white photographic illustrations, a map, and color plate. Inscribed on front free endpaper "To my good friend Miss Maude Patten with affectionate regards, W.T. Councilman".

INTRODUCTION: The expedition, primarily undertaken for geographical research, was organized by Doctor A. Hamilton Rice, and left New York on the steam yacht Alberta, November 16, 1916. The members of the expedition were Doctor and Mrs. A. H. Rice, Mr. Howe, geologist, Mr. Swanson, wireless operator, Mr. Couseris, engineer, Mr. Church, cartographer, and the writers. Stops were made on the way to and from Brazil at Barbados and at Porto Rico. From Barbados we proceeded on the yacht to Para, to Manaos, and to Iquitos in Peru, returning from there to Manaos. At Manaos a river steamer was taken to San Isabel on the Rio Negro, and from there we proceeded to San Gabriel on a launch which was constructed in New York for this purpose, and sent to Manaos on a commercial steamer. The main purpose of the expedition was the study of the physical geography of the Casiquiare Canal (a natural waterway between the Rio Negro and the Orinoco River), the branches of this, and the region. This particular region has enjoyed an unenviable reputation from the great numbers, the variety, and the rapacity of the insects, and from the severe character of the endemic diseases. It is also a region which is rarely visited save by the rubber traders and about which little is known. Owing to the unprecedented low water in the Rio Negro it was not possible to go further up than to San Gabriel, where we waited for three weeks in daily expectation of a rise in the river. The river, however, continued to fall, and reports from higher up were that the canal was not passable even for a large canoe. From San Gabriel the return to Manaos was made on the launch, one of the party only (W. T. C.) coming down the river from San Isabel on a steamer. In the ascent of the Rio Negro the south bank, the usual route, was followed, and the descent to Manaos, which was made in the launch, was to a considerable extent along the north bank, which is little known. Both going and coming stops were made at the small towns and villages, and at many of the rubber estates, and the inhabitants were examined. The prolonged stay at San Gabriel gave a good opportunity for the study of the conditions of the region. In Para, Manaos, and Iquitos the hospitals were visited and the cases in the wards were studied. All of the physicians encountered were most kind, and all medical facilities were freely placed at our disposal. This was in accord with the hospitality shown us everywhere.

WILLIAM THOMAS COUNCILMAN (1854 - 1933) was an American pathologist, remembered for his contribution in a monograph on amoebic dysentery (1891) which described detailed observations of it and its parasite. He is even better known for his work on Yellow Fever. Dr. William Thomas Councilman served as the first pathologist-in-chief at Peter Bent Brigham Hospital. He had arrived in Harvard Medical School earlier in 1892 and was an expert in the study of amebiasis, diphtheria, smallpox, and yellow fever. His vivid morphologic description of changes seen in the liver of yellow fever lives on today as "Councilman body". In 1916, he went with the Rice Expedition, led by Alexander H. Rice, Jr., to the Amazon and Brazil. With Robert Archibald Lambert, he wrote a report and book on the expedition which was published in 1918.

ALEXANDER HAMILTON RICE, JR. (1875 – 1956) was an American physician, geographer, geologist and explorer especially noted for his expeditions to the Amazon Basin. He was professor of geography at Harvard University from 1929 to 1952, and was the founder and director of the Harvard Institute of Geographical Exploration. As a geographer and explorer Rice specialized in rivers. On seven expeditions, beginning in 1907, he explored 500,000 square miles (1,300,000 km2) of the Amazon Basin,[7] mapping a number of previously unknown rivers in the northwestern area of the Amazon Basin reaching into Colombia and Venezuela.