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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    prevalence in both places of typhus fever, scarlet fever, and cho- lera. When the year opened, typhus fever may be said to have been the only prevalent epidemic, inasmuch as influenza was nearly gone, measles very rare, hooping-cough by no means frequent, and scarlet fever not then broken out as an epidemic. During January 1848, the mortality from typhus fever amounted to 209, having fallen from 334, which was the mortality of the same dis- ease in December 1847, when influenza raged. From this date the mortality of typhus fever slowly but steadily declined ; the deaths therefrom numbering 201 in February, 128 in March, 102 in April, 67 in May, 52 in June, 41 in July, 42 in August, 24 in September, 31 in October, 26 in November, and 42 in December. One conclusion from these facts seems clearly de- ducible, and that is, that, though the prevalence and fatality of typhus fever are fearfully aggravated by the presence of that pe- culiar condition of the air which gives rise to or attends the out- break of influenza, the same disease does not appear to be at all influenced by the epidemic constitution of the air which gives rise to or attends either scarlet fever or cholera. During the past year, 965 persons died of typhus fever in Edin- burgh, and 127 in Leith, being in the proportion of 17'6 per cent, of the total deaths in Edinburgh, and 10*4 per cent, of the total deaths in Leith. Of the 965 persons dying in Edinburgh, 594 were males, and 371 females ; thus showing a numerical preponderance of male cases, in consequence of the influx of Irish labourers to Edinburgh. In Leith, on the other hand, which is not subject to the same influences, the proportion of males and females was almost equal, 64 being males, and 63 females. In last annual report it was pointed out that the typhus fever which had prevailed in Edinburgh during the greater part of 1847 was an imported disease ; and various facts were referred to in proof of this position. It was also stated that from the month of October of that year it had assumed more the type of a regular epidemic. During 1848 it retained this character; and, instead of limiting its attacks to the immigrant Irish, and to the few na- tive Scots with whom they came in contact, it attacked a large pro- portion of the lowest resident Scottish population. This changed character of the disease is rendered strikingly apparent by noting the varying proportions of Scots and of Irish admitted into the fever wards of the Royal Infirmary at different periods of the years 1847 and 1848, extracted from returns kindly furnished to me by Alex. M‘Dougall, Esq., treasurer and superintendent of that valuable institution. Of 473 fever patients in the Royal Infir- mary on the 10th of June 1847, no fewer than 379 were natives of Ireland,—but only 87 of Scotland, and 7 of England. On