Dr. Thorne Thorne's report to the local government board on the circumstances attending an extensive diffusion of scarlet fever in Great Massingham and other villages in the Freebridge Lynn Rural Sanitary District, and on certain points relating to the sanitary administration of the district.

  • Thorne, R. Thorne (Richard Thorne), Sir, 1841-1899.
Date:
1877
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Dr. Thorne Thorne's report to the local government board on the circumstances attending an extensive diffusion of scarlet fever in Great Massingham and other villages in the Freebridge Lynn Rural Sanitary District, and on certain points relating to the sanitary administration of the district. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service. The original may be consulted at London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service.

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    Dr. Thorne Thorne’s Report to the Local Government Board on the Circumstances attending an Extensive Diffusion of Scarlet Fever in Great Massingham and other Villages in the Freebridge Lynn Rural Sanitary District, and on Certain Points relating to the Sanitary Administration of the District. Edward C. Seaton, M.D., Medical Department, July 24, 1877. I.—General Description. The village of Great Massingham, in the Freebridge Lynn Union, in Norfolk, is situated about 13 miles east of King’s Lynn. It occupies an exposed and elevated site in a slight basin having an outlet to the east. The soil is stated to consist of sand and gravel to a depth of about 10 feet to 15 feet, beneath which is Boulder Clay overlying Chalk. The houses are scattered round numerous open spaces. These spaces are to a great extent occupied by shallow sheets of water, which, besides causing nuisance at times owing to the sewage they receive, must greatly add to the natural dampness of the site. The population, which is mainly agricultural, numbered 887 in 1871. II.—Sanitary Circumstances. In many respects the sanitary circumstances in Great Massingham are unsatisfactory in the extreme.—Though the water-supply is derived in part from several deep wells which are sunk in the chalk, and which are stated to he so constructed as to prevent soakage into them from the surface soil, it is also to a not inconsiderable extent derived from shallow wells in the sand and gravel. These latter wells are in several instances so situated that they must run constant risk of being fouled by surface soakage, and, in one instance, one of them, which is largely resorted to, is situated in dangerous proximity to one of the sheets or pools of water which receives sewage.— Here and there some provision has been made for drainage in the village, but the liquid refuse is in these cases almost invariably conveyed to the pools. In many instances, however, there is no drainage provision, and the slops and liquid filth are in consequence thrown either into privy-pits, or into open receptacles for ashes and refuse, or still more frequently on to the ground around the houses. Some of the yards were, owing to this cause, in an indescribably filthy condition, being in parts quite flooded with filth.— Common privies form the general means for the disposal of excrement, but they are very deficient in number, as many as from three to six cottages having in several instances but one privy between them. The pits in connexion with them are sunk in the porous surface soil, into which their contents soak. Many of the privies are the source of great nuisance. Some are filthy and dilapidated, and the contents of' one was found to soak into the cottage against which it was built. More than one was quite unapproachable owing to the filth surrounding them, and from this cause several households have been compelled for months past to do without any form of closet whatever. III.—Prevalence of Epidemic Disease. Owing to circumstances to which I shall refer, but little trustworthy information could be procured as to the past sanitary history of Great Massingham, and an examination of the death registers afforded no assistance in this respect, for until 1875 (when the provisions of the Act to Amend the Law relating to the Begistration of Births and Deaths in England came into operation) the causes of death were but rarely certified. Thus, out of a total of 65 deaths registered in the five years 1870-74, the cause of death was only certified in two instances. Certain groups of cases of “ low fever,” probably enteric fever, were heard of as having occurred some few years back, but there had been no recent cases of this type. In the autumn of 1874, however, scarlet fever became epidemic in the village, the number of cases up to the end of the following March being variously estimated at from 100 to 200. The attacks were, however, of a comparatively mild type, and only three of them appear to have terminated fatally. Early in 1876 occasional cases occurred in the village of Grimstone about five miles west of Great Massingham, in the highway to King’s 42390. 100.—7/77. Wt. 3914. A