Dr. Parsons's report to the Local Government Board on an outbreak of diphtheria at Camberley and York Town, in the parish of Frimley, in the Farnham rural sanitary district / [H. Franklin Parsons].

  • Parsons, H. Franklin (Henry Franklin), 1846-1913.
Date:
[1889]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Dr. Parsons's report to the Local Government Board on an outbreak of diphtheria at Camberley and York Town, in the parish of Frimley, in the Farnham rural sanitary district / [H. Franklin Parsons]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Diseases of lower animals. Meteoro¬ logical con¬ ditions. Sanitary Conditions. Sanitary state of dwellings and their surround¬ ings- Exhalations from river mud. ff 0 Diseases of Lower Animals.—Inquiries were made on this point, but without finding anything to show that the diphtheria among human beings had had such an origin. The following circumstances, however, were told me:— A little girl who died of diphtheria used to fondle the next door neighbour’s cat. Shortly after her illness commenced, the cat fell ill with fits and vomiting ; it wras at once killed, but no examination was made of its body. Dr. Maunsell informs me that a neighbour of his, who had a valuable flock of carrier pigeons, lost a number of them in June 1888 from “canker,” a disease marked by the formation of a diphtheria-like membrane about the birds’ mouths and throats. Under Dr. Maunsell’s advice he treated them with tincture of iron internally and locally, and cleansed and limewashed their cote, after which the disease subsided. Their dung was thrown on a dung-hill on which Dr. Maunsell’s fowls used to scratch, and in November three of the fowls died; their bodies were unfortunately not examined. The pigeons were all sent away in July, but Dr. Maunsell thinks that the old dung may have been exposed by the removal of the top layers. Meteorological Conditions.—It appears from the meteorological observations taken by the Astronomer Royal at Greenwich, and published in the weekly returns of the Registrar General, that towards the end of October there was a conspicuous change of atmospheric conditions. In the earlier part of October the weather was cold and dry; during the 25 days ending October 24th the mean daily tempera¬ ture was continuously below the average, the average daily deficit being 8*5° F. ; the wind during the same period was variable in direction and small in amount, the horizontal movement of the air being only three-fourths of the average : rain fell on three days only, and to an aggregate amount of only 0‘13 inch. Mild damp weather then set in ; in the 10 days October 25th—November 3rd, the mean daily temperature was 4’9° daily above the average, and rain fell on six days to an aggregate amount of 2‘68 inches. Mild moist weather continued through November, the mean temperature of that month being 4*5° F. above the average. The weather at Camberley at the time when the diphtheria broke out is said to have been foggy. Whether these conditions had to do with the outbreak of diphtheria it is difficult to say; in London the deaths from diphtheria have been in excess of the average from September to December, through both the cold and dry, and the mild and moist period. Dwellings and their Surroundings.—Nearly all the cases of diphtheria have occurred in houses in damp situations. In Obelisk Street and Princess Street, Camberley, the roadways are, or were at that time, unmade, the surface being a filthy quagmire; they have since been partially put into repair. The soil is damp, in places quite boggy, and the water-level in wells is but little below the surface. Pembroke Cottages, near the bottom of Princess Street, form a row of eight concrete cottages, a good deal out of repair. They have no through ventilation, and the floors are almost below the level of the ground. There have been cases of diphtheria in five out of the eight houses, but there were abundant opportunities for the spread of the disease by personal intercommunication between the inmates of different houses. Another group of cases occurred in a low-lying situation near Appley Place, at the Camberley end of York Town, and another again in some new rows of houses in the low meadows off the Frimley Road. Several of the houses invaded were also damp through defective eave-spouting. The houses invaded were for the most part comparatively modern cottages, semi-detached or in rows. The interiors of some were not as clean as they should be; in other cases there was no fault to be found in this respect. They have mostly a good piece of garden ground attached. Accumulations of manure were rarely noticed. Exhalations from River Mud.—Mr. Denny informs me that the bed of the River Blackwater was cleared out last autumn shortly before the diphtheria appeared, and a quantity of weeds and sludge removed. It had similarly been cleared shortly beiore the outbreak of diphtheria in October 1886, and Mr. Power, in his report on this outbreak (page 4), mentions that on a former occasion similar river cleansing operations were followed by an outbreak of diphtheria in their neighbourhood. Probably, however, the connexion is merely one of coincidence. The river is cleansed at the time of year when the water is lowest, i.e., at the end of summer, and outbreaks of diphtheria most frequently commence in autumn.