Report on the health of Dublin for the year 1867 : to which is added a yearly report of analysis of food etc.

  • Mapother, E. D. (Edward Dillon), 1835-1908
Date:
1868
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report on the health of Dublin for the year 1867 : to which is added a yearly report of analysis of food etc. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    the parasitic diseases of lower animals. There is some reason to regard the disease as allied to scurvy, and promoted by want of vegetable food. As purples in the pig, and splenic apoplexy in cattle, were rife at the same time, and were somewhat like the human ma- lady, it was suggested that eating the liesli of such animals might have produced it; but as families were never attacked, but single individuals only, this seems improbable. It did not appear to be catching. The pestilence is so appaling, and its causes so obscure, that an investigation by physicians commissioned by Government is most desirable. During 1865, 1866, 1867, 70, 23, and 1 persons died of small-pox, many of the victims having been unvaccinated. The parents or other responsible persons in any house where a case had occurred were urged to bring their children, or all other un- vaccinated persons, to the dispensary of the district, its address and regulations being given; and they were informed that they subjected themselves to a penalty for not so doing. Information was also given to the dispensary medical officers of any unvac- cinated children. The freedom from this disease in 1867 is most extraordinary. Scarlatina, in 1865, produced 43 deaths, and was most prevalent during August; and in 1866, 63 died from the disease, the great- est number being in September; and in 1867 it destroyed 199, of whom 42 died in November. As the poison of the disease is known to be most virulent and tenacious, the use of the disin- fecting chamber was insisted on. The furnace is lighted twice weekly, 2^ cwt. of coal being suffi- cient to raise the chamber to 300°, and keep it so for eighteen hours. 613 articles belonging to 53 persons attacked with conta- gious disease have been disinfected gratuitously, since the chamber was finished in January. The chamber cannot be fully utilized without the co-operation of the fever hospitals, for when the patients are being brought to these, their bedding and bed-clothes might also be taken to the disinfecting chamber. In the fever hospitals the clothes are puri-