Dr. Ballard's interim report to the Local Government Board on an inquiry at Middlesbrough and its neighbourhood, as to an epidemic of so called "pneumonia", but which was infact a specific "pleuro-pneumonic fever" / [Edward Ballard].

  • Ballard, Edward, 1820-1897.
Date:
1889
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Dr. Ballard's interim report to the Local Government Board on an inquiry at Middlesbrough and its neighbourhood, as to an epidemic of so called "pneumonia", but which was infact a specific "pleuro-pneumonic fever" / [Edward Ballard]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    OFFICIAL COPY. Dr. Ballard’s Interim Report to the Local Government Board on an Inquiry at Middlesbrough and its neigh¬ bourhood, as to an Epidemic of so called “ Pneumonia,” but which was in fact a specific “ Pleuro-pneumonic Fever.” George Buchanan, Medical Department, March 15th, 1889. Towards the end of May 1888, the Board received a communication from Dr. Malcomson, the medical officer of health for the borough of Middlesbrough, to the effect that a very fatal epidemic of pneumonia had for some weeks been prevailing there and that it was occasioning popular alarm ; and he asked the Board’s assistance in investigating its cause. I was instructed to visit Middlesbrough and undertake the inquiry. At a later period when it became apparent that the epidemic was not limited to the borough of Middlesbrough, but had been prevailing also in the adjoining Local Board districts of Ormesby, Normanby, and Eston, the Board instructed me to include these districts in the inquiry. The inquiry was a novel and a difficult one ; novel, because, although the Board had on various occasions noted in annual reports of the medical officers of health statements as to pneumonia having been epidemic in various parts of the country, these epidemics had never been reported to be so extensive as this one at Middlesbrough, and thus none of them had been made subject of investigation; and difficult, because there was nothing to guide me as to causation, except the analogy of the mode of causation of other epidemic maladies; that is, by one or another sort of infection. Nor did medical literature, so far as it was then available, help me materially. Concurrently with my etiological investigation, I had to study the disease clinically and pathologically. Having spent two months upon the spot, and having received the assistance of Dr. Klein for the microscopical and experimental part of the pathological investigation, I am yet obliged to limit my present account of the outbreak to those points which appear of most immediate importance, and to defer to a future report much of the evidence obtained as to the nature and causation of the disease. But in satisfaction of the very natural desire of the sanitary authorities of the districts concerned, it has been considered desirable that I should prepare this interim report, and that it should embody the principal results, pathological, clinical, and etiological, which up to this time have been arrived at. The town of Middlesbrough stands on the south bank of the river Tees, about seven or eight miles from the mouth of its estuary, and the Local Board districts of Ormesby, Normanby, and Eston are situated between Middlesbrough and the sea on the same bank of the river. The greater part of the population of Ormesby is concentrated in the townlet of North Ormesby, of the population of Normanby in the little town of South bank, and of the population of Eston in the little town of Grangetown. Middles¬ brough and each of these townlets has its own separate system of sewers, but the water supply of all of them is from the same system of mains. In the LONDON: PRINTED FOR HER MAJESTY’S STATIONERY OFFICE, BY EYRE AND SPOTTISWOODE, PRINTERS TO THE QUEEN’S MOST EXCELLENT MAJESTY. And to be purchased, either directly or through any .bookseller, from EYRE and SPOTTISWOODE, East Harding Street, Fleet Street, E.C. ; or