Commercial. No. 29 (1883). Despatch from Sir Edward Malet, inclosing a report by Surgeon-General Hunter on the cholera epidemic in Egypt.

  • Malet, Edward, Sir, 1837-1908.
Date:
1883
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Commercial. No. 29 (1883). Despatch from Sir Edward Malet, inclosing a report by Surgeon-General Hunter on the cholera epidemic in Egypt. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service. The original may be consulted at London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service.

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    1 Population of Damietta, about 35,000. Table of the general Death-rate of the Week of the 19th to 26th June in 1882, compared with the same Week in 1883. June 19 1882. 3 1883. 6 „ 20 2 4 „ 21 1 1 „ 22 3 14 „ 23 2 23 „ 24 7 25 „ 25 3 24 We then sought information as to the atmospheric condition of the place during the days preceding the appearance of the disease, and found that during the three days, 19th to 21st June, there was a marked rise in the temperature and no wind. At the same time the yearly feast of the Mouled of Sheikh el Chateb brought to Damietta, from various parts of Egypt, some 15,000 persons. It further appears from what we learnt from the Governor and doctor of the place, that an increase in the number of sick cases and of deaths was noticed on the 22nd June; the number has since then gone on increasing. Our own investigations confirmed this information. Eor the first two or three days the disease showed itself in the quarter near the river and along the Ealig; it afterwards overstepped these limits and spread to several parts of the town. Apart from its lying between the Nile and the lakes of Menzaleh, low damp soil near rivers, Damietta is in a bad hygienic state. The town is traversed by a halig, which receives the contents of the drains of the mosques, and the houses on its banks, and the water of which is, nevertheless, used as drinking-water by a part of the population. Many latrines and open drains, especially near the mosques, give out unwholesome gases. Persons worthy of belief told us that a great many dead animals are brought down by the river and deposited near the town. The meat of animals that have died of bovine typhus appears to be clandestinely offered for sale at a very cheap rate, and this every day. We must add that the food of the inhabitants of Damietta is bad; it consists principally of salt fish called “ fessihs.” Examination of Cases. I.—The Evening of June 24. The members of the Cairo Committee have examined:— 1 and 2. Two adult men of about the same age, 30 to 35, living in the same house. The first has been ill for two days, and presents the following symptoms:— Extremities cold, trunk still warm, skin furrowed, face choleric, voice scarcely audible, pulse almost entirely absent. Has had vomitings, diarrhoea and cramps. These latter symptoms have now disappeared. The second presents symptoms which appear to us to belong rather to rheumatic fever. Nothing suspicious. 3. In the same quarter, a young man of 18, belonging to a tolerably well-to-do family, whose father had died during the day with suspicious symptoms ; he arrived in the morning from Mansurah and caught the disease. Extremities not quite cold, tongue red and dry. Vomitings, whitish diarrhoea, rumblings in his stomach. 4. A man of 50, taken ill in the morning with diarrhoea and fever. Tongue loaded, pulse strong, head heavy. Does not appear to us to present any well-defined suspicious symptoms 5. A young man of 30, belonging to the tolerably well-to-do class, attacked in the morning with vomitings, diarrhoea and cramp. When we saw him, at 10 o’clock at night, low temperature was general, skin furrowed, extremities showed slight cyanosis, eye-balls sunk, pupils dilated and fixed, aphony, collapse. Died at 3.30 a.m.