On atmospheric conditions influencing the prevalence of typhus fever / by Thomas Wrigley Grimshaw.

  • Grimshaw, Thomas Wrigley, 1839-1900.
Date:
1866
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On atmospheric conditions influencing the prevalence of typhus fever / by Thomas Wrigley Grimshaw. 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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    ATMOSPHERIC CONDITIONS INFLUENCING THE PREVALENCE OF TYPHUS FEVER. [Read before the Medical Association of the King and Queen's College of Physicians in Ireland, on January 17, 1866.] The frequency with which typhus fever has prevailed of late, and unfortunately still prevails in Dublin, together with the well- marked character and violence of the disease, as now seen in our hospitals, aifords rare opportunity for the study of this formidable disease. I do not propose to discuss the cause of typhus, whether contagion is necessary to its commencement, or whether it may arise, de novo, in a locality into which the seeds of contagion have not been imported, but to consider some of those causes which are favourable to its spread (and, of course, vice versa), and which are therefore likely to assist its origin, if it do originate, de novo, in a locality. It must have been observed by all those attached to fever hospi- tals, and by those familiar with typhus, that at all times, and especially during an epidemic, sudden rises take place in the num- ber of patients attacked. This is especially remarkable in hospitals, where at one time we find ourselves quickly reducing the number of occupied beds, while in the succeeding week or ten days we shall find ourselves compelled, as rapidly, if not more rapidly, to increase our hospital accommodation. On becoming attached to the Cork- street Fever Hospital, these sudden rises and falls in the rate of admissions at once attracted my attention, as worthy of inquiry as to their cause. On discussing the question with my friend and