Disease and Conquest

Jennings, Eric T.

doi:10.1057/978-1-137-55967-8_2

Eric T. Jennings³

Part of the book series: Palgrave Series in Indian Ocean World Studies ((IOWS))

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Abstract

This section examines how and when Madagascar earned successive reputations for being “colonizable,” or, conversely, eminently unhealthy. It focuses on early French colonial experiments on Nosy Be and Sainte-Marie islands, off the coast of Madagascar from the early to the late nineteenth century. Using the reports of medics on board ships, as well as those of the island colonies just mentioned, the chapter investigates ways in which medical knowledge was both acquired and transmitted. It is especially interested in understanding how early medical experiences in Madagascar shaped, or failed to inform, strategies used during the conquest of the island in 1895.

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Notes

1.
Guy Jacob, “La France et Madagascar de 1880 à 1894” Ph.D. Thesis, Université de Paris IV, 1996, pp. 90–92.
2.
“Lettre adressée aux Chambres de Commerce au sujet de Madagascar,” Journal commercial et maritime, November 21, 1885, p. 1.
3.
Quoted by Gwyn Campbell in: “Crisis of Faith and Colonial Conquest. The Impact of Famine and Disease in Late Nineteenth-Century Madagascar” Cahiers d'études africaines (1992) 32: 127: 425.
4.
CCM, MQ 52/45.
5.
Curtin, Disease and Empire: The Health of European Troops in the Conquest of Africa (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998), p. 180; Françoise Raison-Jourde, Bible et pouvoir à Madagascar au xix ^e siècle: Invention d’une identité chrétienne et construction de l’État (Paris: Karthala, 1991), pp. 684–685; Gwyn Campbell, An Economic History of Imperial Madagascar, pp. 148–151; Eric Jennings, Curing the Colonizers: Hydrotherapy, Climatology and French Colonial Spas (Raleigh: Duke University Press, 2006), chapter 5.
6.
ANOM Mad 5(5) D6, report on Tazon Avaradrano.
7.
Raison-Jourde, Bible et pouvoir à Madagascar, pp. 684–685.
8.
E. F. Knight, Madagascar in War Time (London: Longmans, Green and co., 1896), p. 125.
9.
Le Roy de Méricourt, “Sur un mémoire de M. le Dr. Villette concernant les Fièvres du plateau central de Madagascar,” Bulletin de l’Académie de Médecine, 32 (1894): 320–328.
10.
Alfred Grandidier, “Madagascar: M. Georges Muller,” Société de Géographie: Comptes-rendus des sciences 15 (November 3, 1893): 390.
11.
ANOM 53 APC 1, Poésie patriotique sur Madagascar.
12.
Curtin, Disease and Empire, p. 181.
13.
Samuel Sanchez, “Plans de colonisation, idées chimériques? Nosy Be et Mayotte dans les projets français d’expansion dans l’océan Indien occidental et vers Madagascar (1839-1857),” in Norbert Dodille, ed., Idées et représentations coloniales dans l’océan Indien (Paris: PUPS, 2009), pp. 163–170.
14.
Arthur Collas de Courval, “Notes médicales recueillies devant une station dans les parages de Madagascar,” Thesis in Medicine. Paris: Rignoux, 1862, pp. 6–7.
15.
M. Jehenne, Renseignements nautiques sur Nossi-Bé, Nossi-Mitsiou, Bavatoubé, etc. (Paris: Imprimerie royale, 1843), pp. 31–32 (including footnote 1).
16.
Samuel Sanchez, “Plans de colonisation, idées chimériques?” p. 182.
17.
Dominique-J. Daullé, “Cinq années d’observation médicale dans les établissements français de Madagascar” Thesis in Medicine. Paris: Rignoux, 1857, p. 58.
18.
ANOM 4Z 105.
19.
ANOM, 4Z 60.
20.
Daullé, “Cinq années d’observation médicale, p. 55.
21.
ANOM SG Madagascar 297, d. 741, Récapitulation des mouvements de l’hôpital, August 29, 1806.
22.
ANOM SG Madagascar 297, d. 742, Note pour l’administration des colonies, December 11, 1886.
23.
ANOM 4Z 119 (1870).
24.
ANOM 4Z 119 (1871), avis du service sanitaire.
25.
ANOM 4Z 119, arrêté du 10 janvier 1870.
26.
ANOM 4Z 119, arrêté du 6 janvier 1870.
27.
ANOM 4Z 119, décisions du 4 août et du 8 novembre 1871.
28.
Philip Curtin, Death by Migration: Europe’s Encounter with the Tropical World in the Nineteenth Century (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989), p. 72.
29.
ANOM 4Z 119, circulaire du 17 mars 1871.
30.
ANOM SG Madagascar 286, d. 703, Nosy Be report dated 1858; Dr. Thomas Drago, “Rapport de Campagne du Croiseur Le D’Estaing,” Archives de médecine navale 53 (1890), p. 419.
31.
ANOM GGM 4Z 120, 1875.
32.
ANOM SG Madagascar 297, d. 744, medical note dated February 24, 1888.
33.
ANOM GGM 4Z 120, décision N 32, May 9, 1874.
34.
ANOM GGM 4Z 131, letter dated August 7, 1885.
35.
Daullé, “Cinq années d’observation médicale,” p. 59.
36.
ANOM SG Madagascar 297, d. 742, December 1895.
37.
ANOM SG Madagascar 286, d. 703, Nosy Be report dated 1858.
38.
ANOM 54 APC 1, Nosy Be en 1880.
39.
ANOM 54 APC 1, Nosy Be en 1880.
40.
Bulletin de la société de géographie commerciale de Paris, 17 (1895), p. 630.
41.
See for instance: Mark Harrison, Climates and Constitutions: Health, Race, Environment and British Imperialism in India, 1600-1850 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999), pp. 3, 11–12; Philip Curtin, Death by Migration: Europe’s Encounter with the Tropical World in the Nineteenth Century (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989); David Livingstone, ‘“Tropical Climate and Moral Hygiene’: the Anatomy of a Victorian Debate,” British Journal for the History of Science 32 (1999): 93–110; David Livingstone, “Human Acclimatization: Perspectives on a Contested Field of Enquiry in Science, Medicine and Geography,” History of Science, 15 (1987): 359–394; Karen O. Kupperman, “Fear of Hot Climates in the Anglo-American Colonial Experience,” William and Mary Quarterly, 41 (1984): 213–240; Dane Kennedy, “The perils of the midday sun: climatic anxieties in the colonial tropics” in John Mackenzie, ed., Imperialism and the Natural World (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1990); David Arnold, Warm Climates and Western Medicine (Amsterdam, 1996); Warwick Anderson, “Climates of Opinion: Acclimatization in nineteenth-century France and England,” Victorian Studies, 35 (1992): 2–24; Mark Harrison, “‘The Tender Frame of Man’: Disease, Climate and Racial Difference in India and the West Indies, 1760–1860’, Bulletin of the History of Medicine, 70 (1996): 68–93.
42.
See Samuel Sanchez, “Le long xix^e siècle de Nosy Be et de la baie d’Ampasindava,” PhD Thesis, Université de Paris VII, 2013, pp. 153, 273.
43.
See Eric Jennings, “Le club des hauteurs: savoirs, réseaux et stations d’altitude coloniaux” in Hélène Blais, Florence Deprest, Pierre Singaravélou, eds., Territoires impériaux: Une histoire spatiale du fait colonial (Paris: Publications de la Sorbonne, 2011), pp. 297–316.
44.
Jehanne-Emmanuelle Monnier, Esclaves de la canne à sucre: engagés et planteurs à Nossi-Bé, Madagascar, 1850-1880 (Paris: L’Harmattan, 2006), pp. 154–158 and Sanchez, “Le long xix^e siècle de Nosy Be,” p. 412.
45.
ANOM 54 APC 1, Nosy Be en 1880.
46.
On this topic, see Dane Kennedy, Magic Mountains: Hill Stations of the Raj (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1996) and Eric Jennings, Imperial Heights: Dalat and the Making and Undoing of French Indochina (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2011).
47.
ANOM, 4Z 60.
48.
Dr. Thomas Drago, “Rapport de Campagne du Croiseur Le D’Estaing,” pp. 415, 418.
49.
Ibid.
50.
To date, the main connections that have been drawn between the Great Island and Nosy Be in this era are three-fold: (1) the epistolary ties drawn by Pier Larson, (2) the trade networks studied by Samuel Sanchez, and (3) the great resentment of Nosy Be’s settlers as interest in Réunion and France turned away from it toward the rest of Madagascar. See respectively Larson Oceans of Letters, Sanchez, “Le long xix^e siècle de Nosy Be”; and Guy Jacob, “La France et Madagascar,” pp. 507–10.
51.
ANOM SG Madagascar 168, d 247, report to the Sous-Secrétaire d’Etat, Paris January 12, 1884.
52.
http://latribune.cyber-diego.com/histoire/1285-petite-histoire-des-batiments-anciens-de-diego-suarez-premiere-partie--la-residence.html (last consulted in 2017).
53.
Guy Jacob, “La France et Madagascar,” pp. 510–517.
54.
Drago, “Rapport de Campagne du Croiseur Le D’Estaing”: 410–412.
55.
ANOM, 41 DFC 214.
56.
ANOM SG MAD, 218, Paris, June 29, 1893.
57.
ANOM SG MAD 186, file 322, letter from Froger to the Ministry of the Navy and the Colonies, January 28, 1889.
58.
Gabriel Vasco, “Madagascar: la delimitation de Diego-Suarez” Revue française de l’étranger et des colonies et Exploration: Gazette géographique 20: 204 (December 1895): 712.
59.
ANOM MAD SG 186, file 322, letter from the Foreign Ministry to the Secretary of State to the Colonies, dated January 27, 1892 and letter from Froger to the Secretary of the Colonies, July 3, 1889, and letter from Froger to the Ministry of the Colonies, July 24, 1889.
60.
Michael Osborne, The Emergence of Tropical Medicine in France (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2014), pp. 47–63. A wonderful finding aid exists for the French navy’s medical end of mission reports: Bernard Brisou, Catalogue raisonné des rapports médicaux annuels ou de fin de campagne des médecins et chirurgiens de la marine d’Etat, 1790-1914 (Vincennes: Service historique de la marine, no date).
61.
Eric Jennings, Curing the Colonizers, Chapter 5.
62.
SHMT, Rapports médicaux de fin de campagne, Toulon, Volume 19 # 4, L’Orne.
63.
SHMT, Rapports médicaux de fin de campagne, Toulon, Volume 19 # 13, Le Tarn.
64.
SHMT, Rapports médicaux de fin de campagne, Toulon, Volume 19 # 35, la Naïade.
65.
SHMT, Rapports médicaux de fin de campagne, Toulon, Volume 23 # 9, Notre-Dame du Salut.
66.
Guy Jacob, “Une expédition coloniale meurtrière: la campagne de Madagascar” in Marc Michel and Yvan Paillard, eds., Australes: Etudes historiques aixoises sur l’Afrique australe et l’océan Indien occidental (Paris: L’Harmattan, 1996), p. 161.
67.
Dr. Laugier, “Contribution à la géographie médicale, Madagascar et Mozambique,” Archives de médecine navale, 67 (1897): 279.
68.
SHMT, Rapports médicaux de fin de campagne, Toulon, Volume 23 # 9, Notre-Dame de Salut.
69.
SHMT, Rapports médicaux de fin de campagne, Toulon, Volume 23 # 9, Notre-Dame de Salut. A corroborating account can be found in ANOM SG Madagascar, 297 d. 743, Joseph François report, May 28, 1895.
70.
Jean Lémure, Madagascar, l’expédition au point de vue médical et hygiénique: l’acclimatement et la colonisation (Paris: Baillière et fils, 1896), p. 58.
71.
SHMT, Rapports médicaux de fin de campagne, Toulon, Volume 23 # 9, Notre-Dame de Salut.
72.
SHMT, Rapports médicaux de fin de campagne, Toulon, Volume 23 # 10, Concordia.
73.
SHMT, Rapports médicaux de fin de campagne, Toulon, Volume 23 # 10, Concordia.
74.
Curtin, Death by Migration, p. 181.
75.
SHMT, Rapports médicaux de fin de campagne, Toulon, Volume 23 # 10, Concordia.
76.
“L’Hygiène des expéditions coloniales par Monsieur le professeur Proust” Séances et travaux de l’Académie des sciences morales et politiques 144 (1895): 777–780.
77.
SHMT, Rapports médicaux de fin de campagne, Toulon, Volume 23 # 10, Concordia.
78.
SHMT, Rapports médicaux de fin de campagne, Toulon, Volume 23 # 19, Vinh-Long.
79.
“Les rapatriés” Justice, November 12, 1895.
80.
SHMT, Rapports médicaux de fin de campagne, Toulon, Volume 23 # 18, Shamrock and Jean Lémure, pp. 52–53.
81.
Edouard Hocquart, L’Expédition de Madagascar, journal de campagne (Paris: 1897), pp. 62, 66.
82.
ANOM SG Madagascar 297, d. 743, Magué letter dated February 4, 1895.
83.
SHMT, Rapports médicaux de fin de campagne, Toulon, Volume 23 # 18, Shamrock and for the detail about Guiol, Lémure, p. 53.
84.
SHMT, Rapports médicaux de fin de campagne, Toulon, Volume 23 # 18, Shamrock.
85.
SHMT, Rapports médicaux de fin de campagne, Toulon, Volume 23 # 18, Shamrock.
86.
Hocquart, L’Expédition de Madagascar, p. 72.
87.
SHMT, Rapports médicaux de fin de campagne, Toulon, Volume 23 # 18, Shamrock.
88.
Edouard Hocquart, L’Expédition de Madagascar, p. 80.
89.
Jean Darricarrère, Au Pays de la fièvre, pp. 301, 345–346.
90.
ANOM SG Madagascar 297, d. 743, expédition de Madagascar, sanatorium de Nossi-Comba and Lémure, p. 54.
91.
ANOM SG Madagascar 297, d. 743, Joseph François to the Ministry of the Colonies, March 2, 1895.
92.
E. Legrand-Girarde, “Sanatorium de Nossi-Comba,” Revue du Génie militaire, 13 (1897), 501–514.
93.
Hocquart, L’Expédition de Madagascar, p. 72.
94.
E. Legrand-Girarde, “Sanatorium de Nossi-Comba,” 501–514.
95.
Manassé Esoavelomandroso, La province maritime orientale du ‘Royaume de Madagascar’ à la fin du xix ^e siècle, 1882-1895 (Antananarivo: Foiben-Taosarintanin I Madagasikara, 1979), p. 131.
96.
Jean Darricarrère, Au Pays de la fièvre: Impressions de la campagne de Madagascar (Paris: Stock, 1904), p. xiv.
97.
Dr. Gayet, Guide sanitaire à l’usage des officiers et chefs de détachements de l’armée coloniale (Paris: Octave Doin, 1897), p. 11; Philip Curtin, Death by Migration, p. 177; Philip Curtin, Disease and Empire, p. 187; Gwyn Campbell, An Economic History, p. 339; Guy Jacob, “Une expedition coloniale meurtrière,” pp. 169–170. One estimation from 1904 placed the total number of dead from disease around 8000. Jean Darricarrère, Au Pays de la fièvre, p. xiii.
98.
Philip Curtin, Disease and Empire, p. 189.
99.
Dr. Laugier, “Contribution à la géographie médicale”: 291.
100.
Philip Curtin, Disease and Empire, p. 189; Guy Jacob, “Une expedition coloniale meurtrière,” p. 166.
101.
On this original intention, and the fact that it was not followed, see William B. Cohen, “Malaria and French Imperialism” The Journal of African History, 24: 1 (1983): 30.
102.
ANOM 44 PA 8, d. 49, instructions médicales.
103.
Cohen, “Malaria and French Imperialism”: 23–36.
104.
ANOM SG Madagscar 297, d. 747, demande de médicaments, 1884 and in the same file, letter from the Commandant de Nosy Be to the Ministry of the Navy and the Colonies, July 21, 1885.
105.
“Le paludisme à Madagascar” Revue de Madagascar 1907: 114; Cohen, “Malaria and French Imperialism”: 30.
106.
CHETOM, 18H 36.
107.
Ibid.
108.
Guy Jacob, “Une expedition coloniale meurtrière,” pp. 162–164.
109.
CHETOM, 18H 36.
110.
CHETOM, 18H 36.
111.
On the light column see Michael Finch, A Progressive Occupation? p. 171.
112.
Quoted in Guy Jacob, “Une expedition coloniale meurtrière,” p. 168, footnote 33.
113.
CHETOM, 18H 36. Guy Jacob in “Une expedition coloniale meurtrière,” p. 169 points out that the officer corps’ mortality was far lower than that of enlisted men in Madagascar, standing at 5.3%.
114.
Alphonse Laveran, Traité du paludisme (Paris: Masson et Cie, 1898), p. 437. Dr. Vincent, “La prophylaxie mécanique de la grippe” Bulletin de l’Académie de Médecine, 80 (1918), p. 355.
115.
“Madagascar” La Libre parole, September 27, 1895, p. 3. “Le paludisme à Madagascar” La Libre parole, October 1, 1895.
116.
CCM, MQ 52/45.
117.
Louis Tinavre, Panoramas et dioramas de la conquête de Madagascar, d’après nature (Paris: Exposition universelle, 1900), pp. 13–14; on mass spectacle see Vanessa Shwartz, Spectacular Realities: Early Mass Culture in Fin-de-Siècle Paris (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1999).
118.
L’Exposition universelle de 1900 (Paris, 1900), p. 128.
119.
ANOM GGM 5(5) D2, annual report, 1900.
120.
On stereotypes and fantasies surrounding Madagascar as a kind of eldorado or far west for Réunion, see Claude Bavoux, “Les Réunionnais de Madagascar au piège de l’ethnicité, 1880-1960” in Prosper Eve, ed., Les quais ou voyages transculturels: Mélanges en l’honneur du Professeur Edmond Maestri (Saint-Denis: CRESOI, 2004) , pp. 229–247.
121.
ANOM GGM 5(5) D2, annual report, 1900.
122.
ANOM GGM 5(5) D2, annual report, 1900.
123.
ANOM GGM 5(5) D2, annual report, 1900.
124.
ANOM GGM 5(5) D5, annual report, 1904.
125.
Ibid.
126.
Ibid.
127.
ANOM GGM 2D 222, Vohémar report April 20, 1897.
128.
Propaganda Fide, Rome, NS 143 Vol. 407 doc. 284 Fort Dauphin May 19, 1907.
129.
Interview with Camille Lefeuvre, La Presse, August 10, 1898.
130.
Ch. Brossard, ed., Les Colonies françaises: Géographie pittoresque et monumentale (Paris: Flammarion, 1906), p. 359.
131.
Special issue entitled “Madagascar” in Bulletin l’Armée d’Afrique, December 1929, p. 368.
132.
Jean d’Esme, “L’Ile Rouge” in La Revue hebdomadaire, 34, August 25, 1928: 458.
133.
E. Laudié, “À Joffreville” in La Gazette du Nord, November 18, 1933: 2.
134.
“Notre Antsirabe” in Le Madécasse, April 29, 1931: 1.
135.
ANOM 174 APOM carton 1, letter from François de la Motte Saint-Pierre to his father, November 13, 1928.

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Jennings, E.T. (2017). Disease and Conquest. In: Perspectives on French Colonial Madagascar. Palgrave Series in Indian Ocean World Studies. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-55967-8_2

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-55967-8_2
Published: 08 September 2017
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