Report on the first eighteen months of the fourth yellow fever epidemic of British Guiana / by Daniel Blair.

  • Blair, Daniel.
Date:
[1856]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report on the first eighteen months of the fourth yellow fever epidemic of British Guiana / by Daniel Blair. 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.

    4/96 (page 2)
    The microscopes, used were, one of Pvitchard's for ordinary work, and one of Kosss's for minute observation. The test paper was Griffin's neutral tint, of the old stock. Each patient was furnished with three vessels, and the ejections were kept scrupulously apai't till after examination. The double test for albumen was always applied, and sources of fallacy sedu- lously attended to. The arrangement of the cases will be into aborted, recovered, and fatal, and cases occurring among the dark races : each division including inci- dentally relapse cases, and cases of second or third attack. The number of cases given in each division will bear no relation to the actual number of such cases which are to be found in the hospital-books—that would be a quantitative analysis, which must be reserved tiU the close of the epidemic. All the complete fatal cases will be given—that is, all those in which there has been a post-mortem examination. Almost all the cases in which recoveiy has followed black vomit, will also be given. Cases of special interest, no matter in which division, also will appear. The aborted cases, being short, might admit, with convenience, of a lengthened list; but there is so much uniformity in the march of such cases, that a long array of them would be quite unnecessary for the instruction of the student. Sometimes, however, in this class, the implied definition of them will be found to shift. Thus, cases will occasionally be found that are at once arrested by the larger dose of calomel and quinine, and a purgative; sometimes, auxiliary ti'eatment, and slight a/ter-tveaA- ment, are required in addition. Very seldom do the symptoms in this class run as far as albuminous urine, and never to the stage of acid elimi- nation, which would exclude any such case from the category of aborted cases. Although the hospital cases are appealed to as illustrations of the statements and opinions of the Report, it is to be recollected that the hospital reports were not made by me, but by independent observers; and that though, therefore, they have their peciiliar value as such, that perfect appositeness is not to be expected, nor the development of salient points, 11 or the sufficiency and effijctiveness of individual cases, as if the doctrine and testimony came from the same source; still I believe that the evidence will be found apmle and satisfactory. The Georgetown Hospital, or, as it is known by ordinance, the Public Hospital of Demerara and Essequibo, besides other sjjecial branches, is divided into seamen's and colonial de]jartments, and the wards of each are in separate buildings. The patients of the latter depai-tmeut consist chiefly of the immigrant labouring population, of which a large propor- tion are Portuguese or Madeirans, who are highly susceptible of yellow fever. Most of the cases are admitted in a late stage of the disease, owing, in part, to the insidious nature of the malady, to its being mistaken for harmless intermittent fever, as well as from apathy and indiflTerence of the patients and their friends. The seamen have a superstitious di-ead of hospitals, which is, of course, intensified during the ravages of an epidemic. But, by a salutary law of the colony, the responsibility of obtaining speedy medical relief for sick seamen is thrown on the masters of vessels, respectively. Hence, although the law is often disregarded, the cases from the shipping are generally admitted in better time than