Lymph-stasis, or, Retardation of lymph, as an element in the causation of disease : especially in regard to scrofula and tuberculosis / by Wayland C. Chaffey.

  • Chaffey, Wayland C.
Date:
1890
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Lymph-stasis, or, Retardation of lymph, as an element in the causation of disease : especially in regard to scrofula and tuberculosis / by Wayland C. Chaffey. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Ormond Street. London, during the time that I officiated as Medical Eegistrar. I am particularly indebted to the various members of the staff of that hospital for the very kind way in which they placed the material at my disposal. The ages of the patients mostly ranged from two to twelve years, but there was a certain proportion of younger children. I endeavoured to make the histories as accurate as possible with reference to measles and whooping-cough and to the family history of consumption, believing that some diseases differ widely from others in their association with those particulars. No statement was accepted unless made by the parents or life guardian of the child. It must be understood that it is not my purpose to demon- strate a definite causal relationship between the disease and what preceded so much as to record these circumstances among the antecedents, and to point out the manner in wbicli certain of these antecedents are associated with each other. For measles or whooping-cough may alone precede, whilst in other cases either may precede or follow the other, and each of these may or may not be associated with consumption in the family ; or the patient may have contracted neither of these infectious diseases. The term consumption in the family embraces consumption in the parents or grandparents, uncles or aunts. Cases of consumption in the brothers or sisters of the patients without other evidence of consumption were dis- carded, as the parents' statements were in many instances in- definite, such terms as consumptive bowels being made use of. The manner in which these antecedents were associated with each other and with the 1303 cases of all kinds is shown in Table I, from which the following, among other points, may be elicited: 1. That 366 out of the 1303 cases were preceded by measles alone, whilst only 121 were preceded by whooping-cough alone. 2. That whooping-cough followed measles closely in 121 cases, whereas measles followed whooping-cough closely in only 12 cases. 3. That a much larger proportion of the cases of measles following whooping-cough was associated with a history of con- sumption in the family than where the reverse order obtained.