[Report 1900] / Medical Officer of Health, Plympton St Mary (Union) R.D.C.

  • Plympton Saint Mary (England). Rural District Council.
Date:
1900
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1900] / Medical Officer of Health, Plympton St Mary (Union) R.D.C. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    its mildest form he was not seen by a medical man and therefore not isolated. His home was a cottage in which was a small dairy, and from which milk was not only sold in the village but also sent into the borough of Plymouth. The boy’s mother, who helped in the work of the dairy, acquired the disease, and as a direct consequence infected the milk and the disease soon therefore appeared amongst the consumers of the milk. Of the residents in the village eight people were infected, and in the borough of Plymouth nearly fifty persons were stricken with the disease. Dr. Williams. Medical Officer of Health of Plymouth, and myself thoroughly investigated every case and we were convinced that the infection was spread by the milk. The evidence we obtained was most striking, e.g. : A house-to-house inspection and enquiry was made in Egg Buckland and in the particular streets in Plymouth in which it was known that the suspected milk was sold, and it was almost invariably found that the houses which were infected were those and only those which took the milk from the suspected dairy, and further that in the infected houses the disease attacked more particularly those inmates who were in the habit of taking the milk uncooked, i.e,: unboiled. The whole history of the outbreak afforded a most striking proof of the folly of drinking uncooked milk. Immedi¬ ately Dr. Williams and I had knowledge of the first case we took steps to prevent the further infection of the milk, and with very gratifying results. As the dairy was in many ways an un¬ satisfactory one, I was ultimately able to close it. Puerperal Fever. No case was reported during the year. Closure Of Schools. No Schools had to be closed during the year. Infant Mortality. In response to a circular received from the County Council, I carefully investigated the cause of the Infant Mortality of 1899. My investigations were embodied in a report which was sent on to the County Council. The chief points of the report were as follows:—