Dr. Blaxall's report to the Local Government Board on the prevalence of diphtheria in the rural sanitary district of Kingsclere, Hants / [F.H. Blaxall].

  • Blaxall, F. H.
Date:
[1884]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Dr. Blaxall's report to the Local Government Board on the prevalence of diphtheria in the rural sanitary district of Kingsclere, Hants / [F.H. Blaxall]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    9 Health of the Inquiry into the health of the district showed that in the June quarter of district. ] 883 measles prevailed at Ashford Hill and Headley Common, scarcely a family escaping, and in consequence the Ashford Hill school was closed for 10 days (May 24th to June 4th). Measles was present also, though to a less extent, at East Woodhay. The disease was of a mild type, two deaths only occurring out of some hundreds of cases. Mumps are also reported to have been very general, often occurring side by side with measles in the same family. The particulars of some cases of “ mumps ” gave ground for suspicion as to the true nature of the disease in them, especially at Ashford Hill, where, in six cases of reported mumps amongst the schoolchildren, three are said to have been attended with symptoms indicative of diphtheritic paralysis, such as regurgitation of fluids on attempting to swallow, altered voice, and impaired vision during convalescence. I have, therefore, felt justified in including these three in the returns of diphtheria cases that mark the epidemic with which this Report is immediately concerned.* It would appear pretty certain that mumps and diphtheria were present at Ashford Hill school at the same time, and cases that were afterwards certified as diphtheria were at first mistaken for mumps, both by parents and by the schoolmistress, who, observing the children’s necks to be swollen, sent them home thinking “ they had got the mumps.” Scar¬ latina had been very prevalent throughout the district in the previous year (1882), and I met with undoubted evidence of recent attacks. Throat affections in one form or another appear to have been generally prevalent in the infected localities, not unfrequently accompanying measles, sometimes simple sore throat with little or no constitutional disturbance and of short duration; other cases of a specific character passing in sequence through families, accompanied by fever, headache, and general malaise, leaving the sufferers much debilitated and occasionally with voice and vision affected. The throats were described by the mothers as having a “ tittery ” appearance, a term explained as denoting a resemblance to little white bladders. Diphtheria. (1.) Ashford Hill.—The first recorded appearance of diphtheria dates from the 3rd July 1883, when Mr. Maples was called in to see two children, Rose, aged seven years, and Arthur, aged 3, belonging to Frank Butler, and residing at Ashford Hill. They had been ill for two or three days, and he found them suffering from diphtheria. Arthur died on the following day. Both parents followed with mild attacks. Mrs. Butler told me that Rose went to the temperance fete at Mortimer, seven or eight miles from Ashford, on the 25th of June, and on the following days attended Ashford school as usual up to Friday, the 29th of June, and was at the chapel Sunday school on the 1st of July. Now, 1 am doubtful if this was the first case of diphtheria at the school, for on examining the school log I observed that M. Jefferies, the school teacher, was absent on June 25th, suffering from sore throat, and upon inquiry she informed me that she was taken ill about the 22nd of June, that on the 23rd she drove into Newbury to consult a medical man, who asked her whether there was any sore throat in her neighbourhood. She remained at home Sunday and Monday, but resumed her duties at school on Tuesday, 26th. Evidently this was not a common sore throat, for it rendered her incapable of reading to her class, some of the elder children being employed to read for her: she suffered somewhat from regurgitation of fluids when attempting to swallow, and her vision was affected, thus justifying the con¬ clusion that this was a case of diphtheria. The entry in the school log on the 4th of July further records: “ Considerable number of children absent with mumps and sore throat.” On the 5th July Mr. Maples was summoned to five other families, all of which he found invaded with diphtheria. The sufferers were pupils of the Ashford Hill school, and to this channel most of the mothers ascribed the origin of the disease, but one or two associated it with their children’s trip to the temperance fete. Mr. Maples reported the outbreak, and on the 6th the medical officer of health visited the locality, when, in accordance with his advice, the school was immediately closed. By this time 17 families had become invaded, and it is noteworthy that in 15 out of the 17 primary attacks the sufferers were in attendance at the * One of the sufferers resided with her grandmother, who gave a very graphic description of the child’s altered voice and impaired vision, stating that she spoke through her nose to such an extent they could not understand her, anil asked for her grandmother’s spectacles to help her to read. 22502708031