Common infective fevers and the use of disinfectants with notes on the health of children. / By William Squire.

  • Squire, William Stevens 1825-1899.
Date:
1887
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Common infective fevers and the use of disinfectants with notes on the health of children. / By William Squire. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

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    the earlier, and 1878 in the later decennium. We may already add 1882 for the next period. Surely much is due from intelligent effort towards minimising the effect of such epidemical recurrences. The early Spring is always that part of the year when this epidemic is most prevalent and most fatal; at this time, together with croup and laryngitis, it is almost as deadly to young infants as the diarrhoea of the hot season of the year, or the bronchitis of winter. Scarlet fever always extends in the Autumn ; diphtheria mostly in the Winter and Spring; measles has two seasons of greater prevalence, which curiously correspond with children's holiday times. The constant manner in which the autumn fatality from scarlet fever is balanced by the great increase of that from whooping cough in the Spring is a note of difference. Scarlet fever differs also from the diseases above mentioned in not being specially fatal to infants of a year old and under. As the spread of infection is very often less from want of care durinof the illness than from ignorance of the natural historv of the more common infectious fevers, the following points, to be remembered in dealing with each of them, are given in. a tabular form. Table for each infectious disease:—(i), of the time at which it is likely to show itself after exposure to infection; (ii.), the time after separation from infection, when, if no illness appear, we may conclude the disease has been escaped ; (iii.), the time for the rash or other characteristic sign of the illness to appear after the first sickening for it; (iv.), the time from the beginning of the illness to the end of infectiveness :— Usual time Possible For rash or Duration of Name of Disease. of Incubation. interval. other sign. infectiveness. (ii.) (iii.) (iv.) Small Pox 12 days ... 15 days ... 2 to 3 days . .. 3 to 4 weeks Measles 8 to 12 . 18 „ ... 3 ,, 4 ,, .. 3 „ 4 „ Scarlet Fever 2„ 5 tf •'• 8 „ 2 „ . .. 6 „ 8 „ Eubella 10 „ 21 »l 3 weeks ... 1 „ 2 ,, .. 2or3 „ Chicken Pox 10 „ 14 )J • • • 2^ weeks 1 „ . .. a fortnight Mumps 12 „ 21 1) • • • 3 weeks ... 1 „ 5 ,, .. 2or 3 weeks Whooping Cough ... 6„ 12 )) • • • a fortnight ... 1 to 3 weeks i f 6 weeks more [ or less Diphtheria... 2„ 12 )j a fortnight ... 1 to 2 days . .. G or 8 weeks Enteric Fever 5„ 20 - { a month or 110 to 12 „ j ' 4 to 8 weeks more or more Typhus Fever 2 „ 12 )» * • • a fortnight , ,„ 5 days .. 3 or 4 weeks Cholera 2„ 5 t» ... a week sudden .. uncertain It may be noticed in the above table, that, in most cases, the longer the period of incubation, the shorter the duration of infectiveness.