The history and circumstances of a peculiar outbreak of febrile disease in St. Mary's Roman Catholic Industrial School for Boys, Glasgow, March, 1888 / by James B. Russell ; with note on the clinical aspect of the disease by Samson Gemmell.

  • Russell, James Burn, 1837-1904.
Date:
1888
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The history and circumstances of a peculiar outbreak of febrile disease in St. Mary's Roman Catholic Industrial School for Boys, Glasgow, March, 1888 / by James B. Russell ; with note on the clinical aspect of the disease by Samson Gemmell. 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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    ment on their present site urged by the Government Inspector, but they remain. The reason is that referred to in his Report for 1863-^ They have to contend with the usual difficulty of institu- tions of this kind for Catholic children in England and Scotland, viz., very scanty pecuniary resources (p. 69). B. It is surely obvious, nevertheless, that something must be done. (1) The only control which Government can exercise is by reducing the numher of inmates for which they are licensed. Some sacrifice must be made. The children sufier from air-hunger. If they cannot be transferred to the country, then an endeavour must be made to reduce their number and thereby raise the proportion of such air-space as the site afibrds. At present they ai-e exactly in the position of the inmates of an overcrowded house in which, while there is every condition which induces disease, there is no possibility of separating the diseased from the healthy when in life, or even the dead from the living. (2) Such a high death-rate necessarily means an equally high sick-rate. Yet there is practically no accommodation for the sick in the Boys' School, and inadequate accommodation in the Girls' School. The number of inmates should be so reduced that space for a large hospital ward may be obtained. Skilled attendance ought to be provided by night and by day for those under treat- ment there, so that such a thing as a child dying unseen should be impossible; not to speak of the inevitable inference that if children die unseen those who survive must be neglected. In the light of medical opinion now-a-days as to the communicability of Phthisis, the prevalence and fatality of this disease in those Schools, taken along with the want of commodious apartments for their treat- ment, raises the gravest suspicion that Phthisis is not only induced by the prevailing air-hunger but is propagated by infection. Care is prescribed as to the disposal of Phthisical expectoration by medical attendants in their private practice, and wherever it is possible isolation in bed and living arrangements is thought to be an ordinary precaution. (3) A Mortuary outside the main building, away from the sleeping and living apartments, must also be provided. It is bad enough that in the small houses of Glasgow the dead should be laid out beside the living; but it is intolerable that in a public Institu- tion corpses should be stored away in drug-stores and bedrooms. (4) A Probationary Ward is also wanted in both schools. Children when admitted may bring with them the seeds of