Dr Airy's report to the local government board on an outbreak of enteric fever at Pemberton and Orrell, in Lancashire.

  • Airy, Hubert.
Date:
1881
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Dr Airy's report to the local government board on an outbreak of enteric fever at Pemberton and Orrell, in Lancashire. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service. The original may be consulted at London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service.

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    Dr. Airy’s Report to the Local Government Board on an Outbreak of Enteric Fever at Pemberton and Orrell, in Lancashire. George Buchanan, Medical Department, January 25, 1881. Information of an outbreak of fever at Pemberton was conveyed to the Board by a Report of the Medical Officer of Health for the Pemberton urban sanitary district, which was received on September 7, 1880, stating that 27 cases had occurred, one being fatal. On my visiting the Pemberton district, by order of the Board, for the purpose of inquiring into the circumstances of the outbreak, it was at once apparent that the epidemic had assumed serious proportions, and that the urban dis- trict of Orrell, adjoining that of Pemberton, had shared in it. I was therefore instructed to include the Orrell district in my inquiry. The Pemberton urban sanitary district, coterminous with the township of the same name, adjoins the western border of the Wigan and Ince-in-Maker- field townships. The boundary between them is formed by the Ince Brook and the River Douglas. Prom the bottom of the Douglas valley at Wigan the ground rises westward to a height of 260 feet at Lamberhead Green, the chief village in the district at its extreme western border. Part of this village lies in the township of Orrell. The ground continues to rise westward in Orrell township to a height of about 300 feet. Northward and north-eastward it falls away to the Douglas, and towards the south the ground slopes more steeply to the Withington brook, which is the southern boundary of Orrell township. Pemberton township extends some distance to the south of this brook. The soil is composed of the clay and shale of the coal measures. At several points along the course of the Withington brook, seams of coal are seen crop- ping out. Several large collieries are established in both Pemberton and Orrell districts. The country is extensively undermined with their workings, and the surface is dotted with pit-mouths, old and new. The population of Pemberton township in 1861, was 6,870 ; in 1871, it had risen to 10,374. That of Orrell was 2,932 in the former year, and 3,561 in the latter. The people are chiefly employed in the coal mines and cotton mills. Putting myself in communication with the Clerk to the Pemberton Local Board, Mr. P. Partington, the Medical Officer of Health, Mr. R. Hartley, and the Inspector of Nuisances, Mr. John Somers, I was furnished with a list of 75 families that had been visited by the sanitary officers, on account of fever, during the week ended September 11. In two instances, the fever was scarlet fever. In the remainder there was no doubt that it was true enteric fever, characterised as it was by diarrhoea, and, in some cases, hsemorrhage from the bowels, with continued fever of low type. It was, however, generally noticed that the rose-coloured spots which constitute an important indication of this disease, were not present, or at least were not conspicuous. Mr. Hartley accompanied me to several houses where cases of fever were then in progress. In one house, a father and two sons lay ill in one bed, and two daughters in another; severe cases of unmistakeable enteric fever. On extending the inquiry into the adjoining urban sanitary district of Orrell, and supplementing from other sources the information first received, the list of recognised fever cases rose to 150 ; and there was reason to think that this enumeration was far from complete. Up to the 17th of September, when I examined the death register, 6 deaths from “ typhoid” or “ enteric” fever, and one (of a male, aged 48) from “ summer diarrhoea,” had been registered in the Pemberton sub-district since June. Subsequently, within the third quarter, the deaths registered from typhoid or enteric fever amounted to nine. It would seem, therefore, that the mortality in this epidemic was not great as compared with the number of persons attacked. In many cases, especially among club patients (of whose treatment record is not always kept by the medical attendant), there was great uncertainty as to the date of attack, and much difficulty in obtaining a trustworthy statement of the circumstances preceding and attending it. The following, however, was the history of the outbreak, as well as I could ascertain with the assistance of the Medical Officer of Health and Inspector of Nuisances. Q 3715. 100.—1/81. Wt. 12/62. E. & S.