On the mortality of Edinburgh and Leith, for the year 1848 : with remarks on the mortality prevailing in the chief towns of Scotland during that period / by James Stark.

  • Stark, James, 1814-1883.
Date:
1849
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the mortality of Edinburgh and Leith, for the year 1848 : with remarks on the mortality prevailing in the chief towns of Scotland during that period / by James Stark. 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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    dommencecl in the early part of the Christmas week, when the number of cases, as reported by the Board of Health, num ere 87 on the Monday and 84 on the Tuesday of that week, yet tie number of cases increased daily from that date up to the ot l o January, on which day 239 cases were reported. Even on the 9th of January the cases of cholera numbered 163, or were double the number they had been when the house-to-house visitation was commenced, and after it had been in full operation for nearly a fortnight! That this practice saved some lives seems undoubt- ed ; but the facts by no means warrant the assertion that the dis- ease was thereby materially arrested. In confirmation of the opinion advanced, that the subsidence of the cholera in Dumfries and in Glasgow was owing to the natural progress of the malady, and not to the preventive measures employed, the following facts may be adduced. In all places in Scotland from which I have been able to procure special returns, when cholera was severe it either confined its ravages within a month, or if it continued with any degree of severity beyond that period, it attained a maximum or maxima of severity, at the end of every monthly period from the date of its outbreak until it reached its acme, and generally terminated at the end of a monthly period. In fact, this disease appeared to be as much under monthly influence as the menstrual function in women. In Edinburgh the cholera attained its maximum of severity first on the completion of the 4th week from its first appearance; and secondly, it attained a second maximum on the completion of the 8th week from its outbreak. It appeared in Edinburgh on the 2d of October, and attained its first maximum on the 28th of the same month, on which day 20 cases were reported. After this it gradually declined till the 29th day of November, on which day 6 cases were reported, this number being the daily average of the previous week. On the 30th, however, the cases again rose suddenly to 18, thus constituting the second maximum which the disease attained here. In Edinburgh, it is to be borne in mind that, as the cholera was not in general attended with pre- monitory diarrhoea, house-to-house visitation was uncalled for. The disease was allowed to progress or abate unchecked. The phenomena, therefore, regarding its attaining a maximum of in- tensity on any particular day, may be regarded as the natural phasis of the disease. In Leith the same phenomenon was observed. Cholera broke out there on the 9th of October, and attained its maximum on the 6th of November, exactly a lunar month after its outbreak, when the cases numbered 18. On the 9th of November, how- ever, exactly a calendar month from its first appearance, the cases numbered 19, or one more than on the 6th. The disease wholly disappeared just before the completion of the 8th week from its outbreak.