Dr. S. Monckton Copeman's report to the Local Government Board on an outbreak of enteric fever in the borough of Eccles, Lancashire, due to the consumption of ice-cream.

  • Copeman, S. Monckton (Sydney Monckton), 1862-
Date:
1911
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Dr. S. Monckton Copeman's report to the Local Government Board on an outbreak of enteric fever in the borough of Eccles, Lancashire, due to the consumption of ice-cream. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    involved. The results of such enquiries as had already been made disclosed the interesting fact that of sixty-six persons attacked, whose ages had been ascertained, only ten were over the age of twenty, while the ages of fifty-two ranged between five and eighteen years. This unusual age-distribution naturally suggested the possibility of infection through the consumption of sweetmeats of one or another description, and from the officials of the sanitary authority I learnt that an impression was prevalent that “ parkin,” a kind of oatmeal cake, or black treacle-toffee, both of which are made locally, and had been sold in considerable quantities in the town for a week or two previous to Guy Fawkes’ Day (November 5th), might be at fault. Some, at any rate, of the children attacked by enteric fever had undoubtedly partaken of one or other of these delicacies within the possible incubation period of the disease. In three of the notified cases a history of the consumption of ice-cream had been obtained. Subsequent to my conference with Dr. Hamilton, I made, in his company, a round of visits to invaded houses in certain streets of an area of the town which, from the information in possession of the medical officer of health, appeared to be specially affected. And on the following day a further and more extended round of visits to invaded houses was made, on which occasion I had the additional assistance of Mr. Laskey, the chief sanitary inspector to the borough, the chairman of the sanitary committee also joining.us in the course of our round. During the next few days all households in respect of which notifications of cases of enteric fever had been received, were visited by the medical officer of health and his staff, and eventually, with the assistance of two extra inspectors whose services were put at the disposal of the Eccles Health Department by the Salford Corporation, a house-to-house visitation of practically the whole of the infected area of the town was accomplished. As the result, a certain number of persons evidently suffering from the disease who, however, were not being medically attended, were discovered and removed to hospital. Enteric Fever in Eccles. The outbreak of enteric fever now under consideration com- menced, so far as notifications of the disease were concerned, in the second week of November, 1910, but, as it appeared later on, certain of the cases then notified had been ill for varying periods of time before the medical attendant was called in. The largest number of notifications was reached within four days of the apparent commencement of the epidemic, subsequently to which they gradually decreased in number, although variations in one or another direction occurred from day to day. The actual number of persons attacked, up to the end of November, is recorded day by day in the table on p. 5. The cases of enteric fever notified in Eccles during the months of November and December, 1910, may be more or less roughly