Report on the mortality of cholera in England, 1848-49.

  • Great Britain. General Register Office.
Date:
1852
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report on the mortality of cholera in England, 1848-49. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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

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    REPORT ON THE MORTALITY OF CHOLERA IN ENGLAND, 1848-49. If a Foreign Army had landed on the coast of England, seized all the seaports, sent detachments over the surrounding districts, ravaged the population through summer, after harvest destroyed more than a thousand lives a day for several days m succession, and, in the year it held possession of the country, slain fifty-three thousand two hundred and'ninety-three men, women, and children—the task of registering the Dead would be inexpressibly painful; and the pain is not greatly diminished by the circumstance that ill the calamity to be described the minister of destruction was a Pestilence that spread over the face of the island, and found in so many cities quick poisonous matters ready at liand to destroy the inhabitants. In following cholera through its fatal way, however, the inquirer meets with some grounds of consolation. He sees places on every side which the epidemic passed over, leaving the inhabitants in the serene enjoyment of health and complete immunity. And the hope is perhaps not fallacious, that an examination of the results of the second may be the mean:? of mitigating, if not preventing a third invasion ; for whatever may be the immediate cause of cholera, it will appear evident that in England it is only seriously fatal under certain known physical conditions, which admit to a great extent of remedy. It is not necessary to describe here the nature of the disease. The task devolves on others of analysing the changes which the frame suffers under cholera ; of investigating the effects of medicine ; of relating the steps which were taken to relieve the population attacked in various places; of discussing in detail the various theories which have been produced to explain the phenomena ; and finally of portraying in this epidemic the moral effects, which, as historians have not failed to perceive, possess the highest interest in tlie great catastrophes of mortality.* Under the Act for the Registration of Births, Deaths, and Marriages, the name, sex, age, and occupation of every person who dies in England—as well as the time, place, and cause of death—are ret^istered. The whole of this system of observation and record was in operation when cholera broke out. The quarterly abstract of deaths for the whole kingdom, and the London tables which are published weekly—presented notices of its rise, progress, and decline in particular dii-tricls. When the epidemic was over, it appeared desirable to give a complete abstract of the facts. Accordingly a list of every case of death from cholera and diarrhoea, in 1849, was transcribed from the * See the Report of the Board of Health ; and the appended Eeports of Dr. Sutherland and Mr. Grainger, whose active and arduous labours in tlie epidemic deserve the liighest praise. The College of Physicians lias, it is understood, appointed a learned committee to report on the suliject. The chemistry of the disease is ably discussed by Ur. R. D. Thomson, Trans, of Royal Medical and Chirurgical Society, vol. Nxxiii. The disease is well described by Dr. Budd, in the Cyclo|)Pcdia of Practical Medicine, and sketched in the Lectures of Dr. Watson, with his accustomed felicity and accuracy.