Dr. S. Monckton Copeman's report to the Local Government Board on an outbreak of epidemic skin disease in the Enfield workhouse of the Edmonton union / [S. Monckton Copeman].

  • Copeman, S. Monckton (Sydney Monckton), 1862-
Date:
1896
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Dr. S. Monckton Copeman's report to the Local Government Board on an outbreak of epidemic skin disease in the Enfield workhouse of the Edmonton union / [S. Monckton Copeman]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    .,bV»L. Local Government Board on an Outbreak of Epidemic Skin Disease in the Enfield Workhouse of the Edmonton Union. It. Thorne Thorne, Medical Officer, March 14th, 1896. In consequence of a report received from the Medical Officer to the Enfield Workhouse to the effect that an outbreak of skin disease, apparently similar to those which have recently occurred in several of the Metropolitan workhouse infirmaries, had broken out in the institution under his charge, I received instructions from the Board to visit the workhouse and to investigate the circumstances of the outbreak. I found that at the date of my visit 26 cases had come under treatment, of which the first was detected on the 9th April of the present year (1895). I further found that there was no special “infirmary” in connexion with this workhouse, all the inmates being more or less infirm, hut that one small block and two or three other wards were set apart for such cases as were specially ill. At the date of the occurrence of the first case of this disease, the inmates of the establishment numbered 158, of whom 92 were of this special class. In the first place I visited the various wards, accompanied by the Medical Officer, Dr. Collyer, with a view to examine the cases which at the time were under treatment, and to satisfy myself that they were really of a similar nature to those which I had previously met with in other Poor-law institutions. As the result of such visit, I have no doubt that the malady from which the patients were suffering was that which, in my former report, has been spoken of as “ epidemic skin disease.” I learnt from the Medical Officer that the onset of the disease was very uniform in the several cases, gastric symptoms—including a coated tongue, nausea, loss of appetite, and in some cases actual vomiting—having preceded, by a longer or shorter interval, the appearance of the rash. The rash itself appeared in every instance to have been preceded by irritation, and a sense of heat and tingling of that portion of the skin whereon the rash subse¬ quently appeared. The subjective symptoms subsided slightly before the rash itself appeared. In most instances the rash first appeared on the arms and hands, soon, however, manifesting itself on other portions of the body. In some few cases only, the rash commenced on the head about the temporal LONDON: PRINTED FOR HER MAJESTY’S STATIONERY OFFICE, BY EYRE AND SPOTTISWOODE, PRINTERS TO THE QUEEN’S MOST EXCELLENT MAJESTY. And to be purchased, either directly or through any Bookseller, from EYRE and SPOTTISWOODE, East Harding Street, Fleet Street, E.C.; or JOHN MENZIES & Co., 12, Hanover Street, Edinburgh, and 90, West Nile Street, Glasgow; or HODGES, FIGGIS, & Co., Limited, 104, Grafton Street, Dublin, No. 100, 1896. Price Threepence.