Relapsing fever in Edinburgh during the first five months of the year 1870 / by Claud Muirhead, M.D.

  • Muirhead, Claud.
Date:
1870
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Relapsing fever in Edinburgh during the first five months of the year 1870 / by Claud Muirhead, M.D. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    stances cease to be quite so prosperous as usual. And, further, not one of those individuals was out of work at the time of entering into hospital, with the exception of the two Englishmen, who arrived from Manchester in search of work, having found their way to Edinburgh after a long journey of some weeks on foot. It is quite possible that they had not lived so well as they had been accustomed to do during their pedestrian tour; at the same time, it must be remembered that they were neither destitute nor entirely without funds, as they immediately located themselves in respectable lodgings in the Grassmarket, not altogether unknown to people of their class, and which rejoices in the name of the Stranger's Home. But, excluding these two men, who in all likelihood arrived here with the disease upon them, I found that most of the patients were in receipt of good wages, ranging from 16s. a week up to 30s. and 35s. In this, of course, I do not include the apprentice boys, who, in addition to their wages, had the advantage of free board and lodging. I shall revert to their case again. And in addition to this, in several instances, more than one member of the family was earning weekly wages, which rendered the keeping up of the household all the lighter for the father, and by this means enabled the family, as a whole, to fare better. Then as regards the Brigade boys. At first, believing entirely in the assertion that destitution has more to do with the generation of this fever than anything else, I was disposed to blame the managers of that institution for trying to overtake more than their income allowed them to do, with justice to the recipients of the charity. But, on inquiry, I find that this was not so; on the contrary, the boys were well and abundantly fed, with one slight error; and this was certainly a grave one, but which has, I under- stand, been now rectified.-^ The fault I refer to was this, that certain of the boys who, as apprentice painters, etc., happened to be engaged at work in parts of the town too distant from the Brigade Home in Grove Street to be able to return to it for dinner, during the dinner-hour, were not provided with sufficient food to make up for the want of the otherwise plentiful meal. They merely took in their pocket a slice and half of bread, with, at times, the addition of a little cheese; and, after this, they got nothing from breakfast time till they returned home in the evening. Without doubt, this was much too scanty a supply of food for growing lads, aged about 15 or 16, especially when they were working hard all that time. Yet, notwithstanding this acknowledged limited supply of food, the lads were by no means in what would be called an ^ Dietary of Industrial Brigade.—Breakfast: Porridge and milk ad Uhitum, and slice of bread. Dinner : Two plates of vegetable broth with beef in it, and a slice of bread; or, herrings, potatoes, and bread; or, rice and bread, in addi- tion to broti), on Friday, Supper : Porridge and milk, and a slice of bread after going to bed.