Epidemic diphtheria : a research on the origin and spread of the disease from an international standpoint / by Arthur Newsholme.

  • Newsholme, Arthur, Sir, 1857-1943.
Date:
1900
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Epidemic diphtheria : a research on the origin and spread of the disease from an international standpoint / by Arthur Newsholme. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Leeds Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Leeds Library.

    180/208 (page 172)
    rately to compare each district with itself, determining the periods of maximum and minimum prevalence of diph- theria—comparing district with district, or city with city, rather from the point of view of times of incidence of the maxima and minima, than with a desire to weigh or measure the actual amount of the disease. This point leads to a consideration of Dr. Longstaff's investigations, based on the decennial death-rates caused by diphtheria in the different counties of England. His statistics have been continued up to the end of 1895 by Dr. W. R. Smith, the Medical Officer to the London School Board, and the maps accompanying the latter's report furnish a ready means of comparison of each county from 1861 to 1895. But decennial and quinquennial death-rates from infectious diseases do not allow for epidemic influence, and must therefore, as I have already urged, be received with reserve. Waiving this point, a careful study of the maps shows that between 1861 and 1895 there has, on the whole, been much more diphtheria in the eastern and south-eastern than in the western and south-western districts of England. That is, there has on the whole been more diphtheria in the districts characterized by relatively deficient rainfall. There are exceptions to this rule, especially that of North Wales. Thus : Diphtheria : Mean Annual Death-rate per 1000. 1861-70 1871-80 1881-90 1891-95 •18 •29 •18 •11 •12 •20 •15 •13 •16 -25 •17 -19 •10 ^20 •16 -18 In the first two periods, the North Wales death-rate exceeded that of England, in the third it was practically equal to, and in the fourth it was lower than that of