[Report 1895] / Medical Officer of Health, Barnsley County Borough.

  • Barnsley (England : Unitary authority). County Borough Council.
Date:
1895
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1895] / Medical Officer of Health, Barnsley County Borough. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    year, but were rather levSs numerous in November and December, and 70, or of the whole were removed to the Kendray Hospital, a great improvement on previous years, partly because the advantages of isolation are now getting more recognised, and partly because the new Lambert wing has given us more, and more satisfactory accommodation. The type of the disease was as a rule mild, the deaths having been 16 in number, or 571 per cent, on the cases notified. We found many cases that had not been recognised until other children in the family had taken the complaint in a more severe form, and many no doubt never came to our knowledge at all. In every case prompt notice was sent to the school or schools attended from the house where cases occurred, warning the teachers to exclude all children from the house lor a stated period and in order to help them to distinguish cases which ought to be regarded with suspicion until medically examined, printed instructions were sent to all the schools on the plan adopted by Dr. Niven in Manchester. Diphtheria was notified in 29 cases, or about one-third fewer than in 1894. The usual type seems to have been a mild one, though there was a mortality of about 25 per cent, of the cases notified. In at least 2 cases there was Scarlet Fever in the house. In only 5 or 6 could any sanitary defect be ascertained, there was no predominance of any special milk supply, and in 9 out of the 27 houses affected no children were attending school. There were 7 cases of Membranous Croup, of which 5 were fatal, and in 2 there was also Scarlet Fever in the house. There were also 6 cases of Puerperal Fever, but 3 of them were found to be apparently convalescent a day or two after notification, and only one proved fatal. All but one had been attended by mid-wives but no two by the same woman. Erysipelas was notified in 33 cases ; fatal in 2 cases, in I of them following on Chicken-pox ; in no case was any important sanitary defect discovered.