Report on certain associated cases of enteric fever following Stirling County Ball, on 1st October, 1895 / by A. K. Chalmers ; with a bacteriological report by R. M. Buchanan.

  • Chalmers, Archibald Kerr.
Date:
[1895]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report on certain associated cases of enteric fever following Stirling County Ball, on 1st October, 1895 / by A. K. Chalmers ; with a bacteriological report by R. M. Buchanan. 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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    fact that all the food stuffs supplied during the entertainment had been purveyed by a well-known firm of Glasgow restaurateurs. Moreover, the daily prints at the time reflected the popular opinion that the cause of the outbreak lay in the oysters con- sumed; and the known conditions of impurity which attend oyster culture in many places tended to strengthen, if it did not indeed formulate, the opinion which thus found expression. These oysters likewise, while purveyed by the firm referred to, had been imported by one of the leading oyster merchants in the city, and a great part of the investigation, as will afterwards be described, was directed toward ascertaining the conditions under which they were grown. NATURE OF THE DISEASE. At first sight it would appear to be unnecessary to discuss this aspect of the question. The patients were each under different medical supervision—three in Glasgow, five others in various parts of Scotland, two in England, and one in Venice. So far as precise information was obtainable, we learned that two had sickened on the 14th October, one on the 15th, and one on the 19th. One illness was recognisably Enteric Fever on the 17th; and in another the eruption appeared on the 19th. In general, there- fore, the dates of sickening extended from late in the second till early in the fourth week, dating from exposure—a period quite within the maximum variation in the duration of the incubation period of this disease. Three of these attacks ended fatally, and in several of those now recovering the symptoms present have been characterised by marked severity. There need exist, there- fore, no hesitation in regarding them as genuine cases of Enteric Fever. Tt was observed, however, in two at least of the attacks, that the earlier symptoms were accompanied by evidence of local inflammation, which in one instance ended in a superficial abscess. This is not a feature of uncomplicated Enteric Fever at its onset,