Dr S. Monckton Copeman's report on an outbreak of enteric fever in the borough of Harwich and its neighbourhood, 1912-13.

  • Copeman, S. Monckton (Sydney Monckton), 1862-
Date:
1913
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Dr S. Monckton Copeman's report on an outbreak of enteric fever in the borough of Harwich and its neighbourhood, 1912-13. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Dr. S. Monckton Copeman’s Report on an Outbreak of Enteric Fever in the Borough of Harwich and its neighbourhood, 1912-13. Arthur Newsholme, Medical Officer, Ttli August, 1913. In consequence of the receipt of a telegram from the Board, while in Suffolk for the purposes of other official work, instructing me to investigate the circumstances of an outbreak of enteric fever in Harwich, I visited that town on January 16tli, 1913, and on subsequent occasions. On arrival at Harwich I was met by Hr. Gurney, Medical Officer of Health for the Borough, and conferred at the Guildhall with Mr. Ward, the Town (Jerk, and other officials and members of the Town Council, and, later, with Dr. Cook, Medical Officer of Health for the Tendring Rural District Council. I learnt from Drs. Gurney and Cook that since the beginning of December, 1912, a number of cases of enteric fever had appeared, not only in the Borough of Harwich (which includes the seaside resort of Dovercourt), but also in Parkeston, distant about a couple of miles from Harwich and one mile from Dovercourt, which, although an urban area practically forming a suburb of Harwich, is, in respect of sanitary administration, a constituent portion of the Tendring Rural District. Parkeston, which derives its name from a former Chairman of the Great Eastern Railway, consists for the most part of a some- what dense aggregation of artisan dwellings inhabited by families directly or indirectly dependent for their living on the harbour and other works in connection with the railway. It, indeed, con- stitutes the headquarters of the Great Eastern Railway Continental traffic between Harwich and Antwerp and the Hook of Holland. Immediately adjoining the station platform is an hotel, also owned by the Great Eastern Railway Company, the principal visitors to which are travellers breaking their journey to or from the Continent. It was, as I subsequently learned, among the employees of this hotel that the first three cases of enteric fever, reported from the Parkeston area of the Tendring Rural District had occurred. In a report which he had submitted to the Tendring Rural District Council on the day previous to my first visit, Dr. Cook set out the result of enquiries which he had made as to a number of cases of enteric fever in the Parkeston area of his district. In this report he stated that the only common factor that could be discovered was that all the Parkeston cases, as well as several cases (30079—21.) Wt. 6925—897. 500. 8/13. D & S. No. 83.