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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    East Wood- hay (North- wood). Burghclerc. Origin of the disease. 4 and vision were affected. On the other hand, the medical man who attended them said they were a very delicate family, and that the illness amongst the children had been nicerated and enlarged tonsils with no symptoms of diph¬ theria, adding that he had had no diphtheria in the locality. Two other cases ' of sore throat which presented symptoms suspicious of diphtheria occurred in women, who told me they thought they caught the disease from people with whom they associated in the harvest field. The two isolated cases now remain to be considered. The first occurred in a solitary cottage at Northwood, about three-quarters of a mile to the N.W. of Kingsclere. The family consisted of husband, wife, and four children, ages varying from two to nine years. One of the children suffered from mumps in the spring, and all four had measles. The two eldest went to a day school. The third child was in the harvest field with its mother during the first week in September, and was at the chapel Sunday school on the 9th September. On the following day she was taken ill, and on the evening of the 11th her mother took her to Mr. Maples’ surgery, when he saw her and examined her throa,t; he did not see the child again, and she died on the 13th of September, the death being registered as due to diphtheria. Mr. Maples could not remem¬ ber the particulars of this child’s case, and upon my questioning the mother I could learn nothing definite from her as to the presence of symptoms of diphtheria, so, taking all the circumstances together, the precise nature of the case may be open to doubt. The second isolated case occurred in a spinster, aged 45, residing with her father and two adults in a small farmhouse remote from other dwellings. She was taken suddenly ill on December 19th with sore throat, aching in her bones, &c. She sent for Dr. Thomson on the 23rd, and he pronounced it to be typical diphtheria. During convalescence she suffered from diphtheritic paralysis. It was stated that there had been no previous diphtheria in the neighbourhood, and the sufferer had not been away from home. Very few people went to the house, and these only the regular customers for milk, none of whom got diphtheria. As an example of peculiar predisposition to con¬ tract the disease, it may be mentioned that this female had suffered from three previous attacks of diphtheria. The first in 1861, the second about three years afterwards, and the third at an interval of another three years. Her vision and voice were affected on each occasion. I should add that she had lived in the same house from her childhood, and that on each occasion she was the only sufferer from diphtheria. The five outbreaks included 47 cases and 11 deaths distributed amongst 24 families. The dates of primary attacks in families with other particulars are shown in the Appendix, Table No. 1. Table No. 2 is prepared to show the sex and ages of the persons attacked and of those who died. It will be observed that females suffered to a much greater extent than males, 16 cases occurring in the latter against 31 in the former. I have no record of the number of each sex in families, but at Ashford Hill school there were 54 boys and 42 girls, and here 11 girls suffered against five boys. On the other hand, the rate of deaths to attacks was greater amongst boys than girls, five out of 16 cases proving fatal among the boys, and six out of 31 amongst the girls. The mortality was exceedingly high in children under five years of age, nine cases out of 14 proving fatal. To some extent this high rate of mortality may have been due to many chil¬ dren being in a weakly state from previous attacks of measles. The question as to the origin and manner of spread of the diseases in the several localities has now to be considered, and to this end inquiry is concerned with the conditions and circumstances under which the people lived. My inspection was not confined to the 24 infected dwellings, but comprised 190 cottages, viz., 120 at Ashford Hill and neighbourhood, and the remaining 70 at Headley Common, East Woodhay, and other places. I also visited the schools and examined the school register and logs which afforded me valuable information as to children who had been absent from school through sickness. The localities under consideration are mainly on the London Clay and Lower Bagshot Beds, but neither geological formation nor the physical characters of site appeared to have any relation to the prevalence of diph-