London vestries and their sanitary work : are they willing and able to do it? : and may they be trusted in the face of a severe epidemic? : being a speech delivered August 8th, 1865, at a meeting of the Vestry of St. George-the-Martyr, Southwark / by W. Rendle.

  • Rendle, William, 1811-1893.
Date:
1865
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: London vestries and their sanitary work : are they willing and able to do it? : and may they be trusted in the face of a severe epidemic? : being a speech delivered August 8th, 1865, at a meeting of the Vestry of St. George-the-Martyr, Southwark / by W. Rendle. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    applicable more or less to all epidemic and infectious diseases. It should be remarked, that almost all epidemic diseases become infectious, with overcrowding superadded upon other depressing causes. One word from Dr. Murchison, as to very late removal in cases of fever. “ Re- moval of the patient to hospital at an advanced stage of the disease, of itself often adds to the danger. This was a point much insisted upon by the late Dr. Alison, and I have repeatedly known patients die from exhaustion, caused by their conveyance for several miles in a shaky vehicle.” On the tenth day of his attack of fever the man was removed to the Fever Hospital, some miles from his home, and he died a few hours after he was admitted. There is another matter which may or may not be of importance in this case. The woman and her sister state that she must now leave the house within a few days, or have her goods seized. She owes, she says, some rent, and has lived there eight years. The agent says she owes more than £2. She and her sister both state that the agent had told her, upon the authority of our Sanitary Inspector, that she was very troublesome to the Yestry, and had brought it all on herself. The agent and the inspector both deny this. Still, whichever way the truth is, it is very unfortunate indeed that when good could have been effected, by getting the people out and cleansing the house, it was not done; and that now nine persons have been attacked and three dead, the fever all but over, and the placed cleansed, that now it should be done and made to wear the appearance of a sort of revenge, because the woman who has lost both her husband and her mother dared to complain. No doubt, if this is the local impression, it will have a very bad effect upon poor people in seeking assistance in like cases. Some further remarks I have to make upon this case. However dissipated people may be, they do not from that take fever; they may have other and worse diseases, but not fever; but when they so herd together as to vitiate the air, breathing one another's breath, then, as in times of old jail mismanagement, they take fever, and they give it as well as take it. It has been tried to keep off fever with wine and nourish- ment, but with vitiated air it cannot be done; but with even the scantiest simple food and plenty of fresh air, you may defy fever. And this is a practical lesson for us. The parish doctor says, in his evidence, that it was about a week from the first appearance of the illness upstairs when the people were removed. He is mistaken.