A contribution to the study of epidemic diarrhoea : presidential address delivered before the Incorporated Society [of] Medical Officers of Health, November, 1899 / by Arthur Newsholme.

  • Newsholme, Arthur, 1857-1943.
Date:
[1900]
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Licence: In copyright

Credit: A contribution to the study of epidemic diarrhoea : presidential address delivered before the Incorporated Society [of] Medical Officers of Health, November, 1899 / by Arthur Newsholme. 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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    milk, even from good dairies, often contained more or less excremental matter. The position of the udder and the absence of hand cleanliness on the part of the milkers, etc., caused much pollution, and it was very important that some steps should be taken to remove such impurities from milk before supplying it to the consumer. He had seen what was done in Berlin, Copen- hagen, and Christiania ; they were far ahead of us. The milk supplied by one company in Berlin was filtered very carefully through sand, and great pre- cautions were taken to supply it in a clean and wholesome condition. Dr. Allan urged that inquiries should be made into all cases of diarrhoea. He had made such inquiries during the last few years, and was astonished at the number of deaths erroneously certified as due to diarrhoea, and, on the other hand, he had discovered that a considerable number of deaths of children certified as due to marasmus, etc., were really due to diarrhoea. Far more attention ought to be given to securing cleanliness in houses and back yards than they found at present. On the whole, the streets were more efficiently cleansed than formerly; now more domestic cleanliness was needed. Dr. Groves had sug- gested that medical officers should speak to the people with whom they came into contact, but more might be done by women health visitors. Much had already been accomplished by such officers in Huddersfield and Birmingham. The President, in reply, said he was much obliged to the Society for the way they had received his address and for the vote of thanks they had accorded him. He heartily agreed with Drs. Groves and Allan as to the importance of education, but he preferred the system of the Brighton Women’s Health Society, which employed ladies to attend mothers’ meeetings and explain simple health matters. In this way much good had been accomplished more rapidly than by visits to individual houses. He agreed with Dr. Murphy that diarrhoea deaths in London had adjusted themselves almost solely according to social conditions, but when comparing one town with another a geographical and meteorological classifica- tion touched more closely the real causation of the disease. Dr. Seaton had spoken of the question of classification. For his part, he felt sure that statistics on the whole did tell them approximately the relative truth for towns when the same year was taken, although, of course, it was very desirable that a proper classification of diarrhoea deaths should be made. With regard to the infectious character of diarrhoea and many other points, they were very im- portant, and should be carefully worked out; but he could not go into them all, and that part of the subject he would have to leave to somebody else. His remarks as to the Jews, Dr. Willoughby would find, were in the nature of a question, and not stated as facts. He did not believe there was any question of race, but was it not possible that Jewish children were more commonly suckled than the children of Gentiles ? Dr. Parsons thought that the fact of the mortality being higher in Lancashire than in Yorkshire towns was an argument against the suggestion that rainfall was a chief factor in relation to prevalence of diarrhoea, but Dr. Parsons would find that the Yorkshire towns to which he (Dr. Newsbolme) referred, i.e., Huddersfield and Halifax, were really Lancashire towns so far as rainfall was concerned. He had statistics illustrating the great excess of diarrhoea mortality among illegitimate infants. It was three or four times as high as that among legitimate children. In conclusion, he hoped the various Branches would consider the subject, so that collective results might be obtained from all parts of the country. Jlcbman, Limited, ] 20, Shaftesbury Avenue, JV.C.