Mr. Netten Radcliffe's memorandum on the reformatory school-ship "Cornwall".

  • Radcliffe, J. Netten.
Date:
1878
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Mr. Netten Radcliffe's memorandum on the reformatory school-ship "Cornwall". 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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    LOCAL GOVERNMENT BOARD. Mr. Netten Radcliffe’s Memorandum on the Reformatory School-Ship “ Cornwall.” Edward C. Seaton, M.D., - - - - Medical Department, June 4», 1878. This memorandum relates to the inquiry which I was directed by the Local Govern- ment Board, at the request of the Home Office, in March of last year (1877), to make (1) into the sanitary condition of the reformatory school-ship “Cornwall,” lying in the Thames, off Purfleet, especially with reference to recent prevalence of enteric fever among the hoys; and (2) into a suggestion that the health of the hoys probably suffered from the outflow of metropolitan sewage into the river, higher up the stream, at Crossness and Barking. It has only been practicable for me, having regard to the current work of the Medical Department, to give attention to the inquiry at long intervals, and I now propose in this memorandum to state provisionally the results as they at present stand, and ask for additional instructions before proceeding further with it. I. Speaking generally, the inquiry has proved abortive with regard to the particular objects it had in view. This has arisen from a cause not anticipated by me when I began the inquiry, namely, that no proper record exists of sickness among the hoys. The medical officer is required to keep a register in the form annexed (see Note I.) but this duty has been performed so perfunctorily, and the omissions are so numerous, that the register is valueless for the purpose of the inquiry. Even the amount and kind of fatal sickness among the boys cannot he obtained from it. Obviously, then, it has been impossible for me, under these circumstances, to form an independent opinion on the sanitary condition of the ship as gauged by the health of the boys. Further, such help as I might have had from the medical officer of the ship was not available, as this gentleman shortly before the inquiry had resigned his appointment, and at the time of the inquiry was not in England. The sort of inquiry which it was incumbent upon me to conduct as to the health of the boys—an inquiry founded on defined technical data—became thus impracticable. But it is proper that I should offer some observations on the opinion entertained by the Captain Superintendent and others on the general state of health of the boys. The Captain Superintendent lives, with his family, on board the ship, and has the boys constantly under observation. He states that, except when infectious disease is intro- duced among the boys from the shore by new comers, there is great freedom from serious sickness, and that even minor ailments are rarely troublesome. The Committee of the “ Scboolship Society ”—to which Society the ship belongs—entertains a similar opinion ; and this opinion has been accepted by the Inspectors of Reformatory Schools. It seems to me that this opinion should not be received without some qualification. First, because it refers to a matter in which error is easy, if not unavoidable, unless definite facts as to sickness among the boys ai’e forthcoming to support it. Next, because it is not altogether supported by certain entries which do appear in the medical register. Thus from the 22nd August 1876 to the month of May 1877 there appear a succession of entries of “ sore throat ” and “ tonsillitis,” in all 62 in number. In December 1876 scarlet fever appeared among the boys. Fourteen cases of this disease, also five cases of enteric fever, were sent from the ship to the Seaman’s Hospital, Greenwich, during this month. There would seem to have been a suspicion that some of the cases registered as “tonsillitis” and “sore throat” may have been unrecognised cases of scarlet fever. This is not improbable, but after communication with the medical gentleman who, perhaps, saw the greater number of these cases, I accept his opinion that, as a rule, the cases entered as “ tonsillitis ” or “ sore throat,” and certainly the cases under his immediate observation, were instances of the ordinary catarrhal disease so named. They were attributed at the time of their occurrence, as a rule, to iuclemency of weather. But the long continued occurrence of the ailments, from the early autumn of the one year to the early summer of the next, suggests the question whether the feeding and clothing of the boys at the time were all that was desirable. The occurrence of scarlet fever and enteric fever among the boys in December 1876 will be referred to again in a separate section relating to infectious diseases among them. C 901. 100.—6/78. Wt. B 231. E. & S. A