Enteric fever : its prevalence and modifications, ætiology, pathology and treatment as illustrated by Army data at home and abroad / by Francis H. Welch.

  • Welch, Francis H.
Date:
1883
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Enteric fever : its prevalence and modifications, ætiology, pathology and treatment as illustrated by Army data at home and abroad / by Francis H. Welch. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    65/226 (page 49)
    Malta.—The statistics show that so far as the garrison was concerned the enteric cause from i860 was a very fluctuating element in the production of sickness and mortality, varying in yearly admissions between ‘8i and I5'i6 per 1000 of strength. In the causation of the total mortality among the troops this disease takes a higher position in this is- land than in any other station, home or foreign. In amount it is about six times as much as in the United Kingdom, and much more severe. It is not always possible to ascertain the result of exposure to this island climate of “ new comers but out of 22 newly arrived corps, between 1868-78, 10 are shown to have returned enteric cases within the first 12 months. In 1872 the individual corps are particularised, and if this year be taken as a fair exponent it is clear that, as a rule, new regiments are not long resident without some of their members encountering the conditions necessary for the produc- tion of the fever and exemplifying such exposure, thus:—the i/i8th arrived from Ireland in January and during the year returned 4 cases, and in 1873, 3 ; the 1/13th, which had suffered from enteric fever in 1869 at Gibraltar, arrived in January or February and gave 6 admissions, and 3 in the following year ; the 28th regiment also from Gibraltar, at same time, gave 4 admissions, 1 in 1873* * in 1874; the 74th also from Gibraltar, at same time, gave no enteric fever case, but 2 in 1873. The exemption of one corps, and the paucity of cases in the others, are noteworthy features. The medical history of the island is, that during the first hot weather at least, febncula, simple continued fever, the so-called