Statements relative to the present prevalence of epidemic fever among the poorer classes of Glasgow : together with some suggestions, both for affording more adequate assistance to the sick, and for checking the farther progress of the contagion in a letter, addressed to the Honourable, the Lord Provost of Glasgow / by Richard Millar.

  • Millar, Richard.
Date:
1818
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Statements relative to the present prevalence of epidemic fever among the poorer classes of Glasgow : together with some suggestions, both for affording more adequate assistance to the sick, and for checking the farther progress of the contagion in a letter, addressed to the Honourable, the Lord Provost of Glasgow / by Richard Millar. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    no very accurate account of him. From what was gathered, after he had been recruited by cordials, however, and before he died, and he survived in misery more than a fortnight, it appeared that he had been lying for several weeks, in some cellar about the Goosedubbs, his feet either entirely without covering, or immer¬ sed in water, and in other respects, totally un¬ provided with any of those comforts, and con- veniencies, suitable to his condition. * * Another instance of hard heartedness, and from the same cause, fear of infection, has just now, occurred. Elizabeth Howe, confined to bed, with fever, during several days, was on the 12th of the present month, deliber¬ ately expelled her lodgings, by her Landlord, into the Street, the man, at the same time, telling her, that he would not harbour his own sister, if in the same condition; and that, besides, she must be conscious, she had no money to subsist upon, during her illness.—The poor woman, thus turned out, betook herself, for refuge, tc different neighbours and acquaintances, who had the humanity to receive her, moving about from house to house. In the course of this perambulation, she was, for 72 hours, without a bed to lie upon, but was always suffered to recline, or remain by the fire, in the night. Kindness, however, became exhausted, her neighbours and ac¬ quaintances grew tired of her, and she was again turned into the Street. After this second expulsion, having lain down in a stair, she was discovered by one of the District Surgeons, and through his humanity conveyed to the Infirmary, where she at present remains, under my care.—This is a relation that requires no comment.—I have often thought, that were all the scenes of wretchedness, occasioned by our Epidemic, even those only which pass daily under the eyes of our District Surgeons, with others of the profession, who visit the mansions of the poor, collected into one narrative; they would form a curious, and certainly, no in¬ considerable, chapter, in the history of human misery. What a noble