Mr. Spear's report to the Local Government Board on the continued prevalence of diphtheria in the Aylesbury urban sanitary district.

  • Spear, John.
Date:
1888
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Mr. Spear's report to the Local Government Board on the continued prevalence of diphtheria in the Aylesbury urban sanitary district. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    18/18 (page 16)
    My inquiries in the town led me to believe that a considerable amount of sickness of an ill-defined character was associated with defects of drainage, such as I have referred to in the report, and the people themselves not unfrequently attribute their ailments to this cause. I may refer to one instance as an example. In a house in New Eoad a child suffered from an attack of diphtheria in January 1888. I could not discover any exposure to infection, but it was noted that a family, certain members of which were convalescent from diphtheria, had moved into the adjoining house in the previous September. The common drain of the two houses was exposed at the time of my visit; it was found to be constructed of open-jointed pipes, and sewage had evidently been saturating the soil around the houses for years. In April 1887 the mother and two children of the family in which diphtheria last occurred suffered from what was described as “pneumonia.” The drainage had at the time been suspected, and foul odours were complained of. III. Meteorological Observations (Aylesbury).* Month. 1884. 1 1885. 1886. 1887. Rainfall in Inches. Mean Tempera¬ ture of Air ° F. Rainfall in Inches. Mean Tempera¬ ture of Air ° F. Rainfall in Inches. Mean Tempera¬ ture of Air 0 F. Rainfall in Inches. Mean Tempera¬ ture of Air ° F. January - 1-8 2-0 CO M 00 3-8 36*4 1-6 36-0 February - 0-8 2-1 45-5 0-6 370 0-9 42*0 March 1-2 1-6 46-4 1-0 41-8 1-2 44-1 April - 1*2 1-6 55-1 1-3 52-8 1-1 52-3 May . * 0-7 2-5 52-8 37 58-9 2-3 56-8 June * 2-2 2-0 68-3 1-5 66-3 1-3 72-8 July - 2-6 0 4 73-5 2 = 1 71-5 0*6 75-4 August - - 2-7 2-0 64-9 1-3 68 7 1*5 73*4 September - 1-7 3-8 59-2 2-0 64-2 3-2 62-0 October '' 1-7 5 • 1 48-9 5-2 55-0 1=3 49-9 November - 1 • 4 4-9 43-1 3 = 6 47-2 3*1 41-7 December - 3*1 0-7 39-8 4-0 38-3 2 ’0 36-2 Twelve months - 21*1 55-7 28-7 52-9 30-1 53-2 20-1 53-5 * Kindly supplied by Mr. James Copcutt.