Dr. Parsons's report to the Local Government Board on the recent prevalence of "fever" in the Bedlingtonshire urban sanitary district, and on the general sanitary condition of that district / [H. Franklin Parsons].

  • Parsons, H. Franklin (Henry Franklin), 1846-1913.
Date:
1890
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Dr. Parsons's report to the Local Government Board on the recent prevalence of "fever" in the Bedlingtonshire urban sanitary district, and on the general sanitary condition of that district / [H. Franklin Parsons]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    The deaths under the heading of “ chief zymotic diseases ” have been as follows :— Yeak. Small-pox. Measles. Scarlet Fever. Diphtheria. Whooping-cough. Fever. Diarrhoea. Typhus. Enteric. Other and Doubtful. 1879 - ■ . _ 89 _ 13 ___ 2 2 8 1880 - — 11 31 — 14 — 6 5 19 1881 - 21 — 1 — 1 — 7 2 5 1882 - — — — 1 6 — 3 5 10 1883 - — — 9 1 10 — 13 5 8 1884 . — 3 6 — 6 — 15 1 22 1885 - —. 1 — — 6 — 10 3 10 1886 - — — 3 1 1 — 2 3 26 1887 - — 41 3 2 — 1 1 4 19 1888 - — 1 9 — t ■— 1 5 8 V Average annual 'Bedlington- 1*3 3'6 9-4 0-3 4-0 6-0 8-5 rates per slrire. 10,000 popula-' England and 0-5 4-2 4-2 1*5 4-5 2-6 6-4 tion. Wales. V* It will be seen that in the Becllingtonshire district the mortality from measles and whooping-cough has been slightly, and that from diphtheria greatly, below the average of the whole kingdom. The rates of mortality from small-pox and scarlet fever have been above the average owing to epidemics of the former disease in 1881, and of the latter in 1879-80. The mortality from “ fever,” which has been chiefly of the enteric kind, and from diarrhoea has also been high. It will be noticed that the diseases which spread most directly by infection from person to person, as small-pox, measles, scarlet fever, and whooping-cough, have tended to prevail in epidemics separated by intervals of little or no mortality, while those diseases which, like enteric fever and diarrkceal disease, depend especially upon local conditions have been more or less persistently prevalent. Recent prevalence of “ fever.”' Enteric fever in Bedlington; The Bedlingtonshire district appears to have been comparatively free from fever during the first half-year of 1889, only two deaths from fever of doubtful kinds having been registered. In the third quarter of 1889 six deaths from “ fever’’were registered as having occurred in the Bedlington¬ shire urban district, all from enteric (typhoid) fever, and this prevalence formed the ground of the present inquiry. During the month of October two deaths were registered from typhus fever. The circumstances of the fever prevalence did not lend themselves to very exact investigation, owing to the difficulty of getting dates and other material information. Some of the families in which fever had occurred had removed ; in few had any recollection of the date of the illness been preserved, and as most of the patient-shad been attended by medical men in the course of their colliery practice, no permanent record of them had been kept. By general repute the earliest case of enteric fever in Bedlington this year was that of a man named Jenkinson, in Chapel Row, a narrow filthy street near the east end of the town. The house in which he resided is an old eight- roomed house, “ made down ” into a number of tenements. There are doors front and back, and there are four rooms on each floor. The bottom rooms form two two-roomed tenements, one on each side, which have windows front and back, and doors communicating with the front and back entrances. The rooms on the floor above have no through ventilation ; those in front being approached by a different staircase from those the back. At the back of the house is a narrow confined yard, entered by a covered passage. This yard, though paved, is in a very dirty condition, owing no doubt in part to there being no water at hand to cleanse it with : the nearest water source is a stand- post in the main street, more than 80 yards distant. The interiors of some of the tenements also were very dirty. In the yard is a large open privy midden