Volume 1

The Lettsomian lectures on dysentery : delivered before the Medical Society of London, 1914 / by F.M. Sandwith, M.D. Durh., F.R.C.P. Lond., Gresham Professor of physic; lecturer on tropical diseases, St. Thomas's Hospital.

  • Sandwith, Fleming Mant, 1853-1918
Date:
[1914]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The Lettsomian lectures on dysentery : delivered before the Medical Society of London, 1914 / by F.M. Sandwith, M.D. Durh., F.R.C.P. Lond., Gresham Professor of physic; lecturer on tropical diseases, St. Thomas's Hospital. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    16/80 (page 12)
    ■columns arrived on the camping ground sufficiently early, but frequently it was after dark, and possibly pouring with rain, when the carts were probably filled at the nearest place. Then, as fire and lights were not allowed if the enemy were in the vicinity, it was impossible to boil water, cook food, or dig latrines. Towards the end of the summer water became scarce and the choice of camping grounds was more restricted ; conse¬ quently the same ground was repeatedly occupied and the surroundings became more contaminated. Diseased and exhausted animals invariably make for water, and not having strength left to extricate themselves from the mud lie down and die, so where the banks of the stream are steep the mortality is very great. The Modder River, in particular, was full of the carcasses of animals.6 When Ladysmith was besieged it was a town ripe for an epidemic, with three dangerous factors present: (1) a bad water-supply from the Klip River, already polluted by drainage from the town and from the Boer lines up-river; (2) a perfectly inadequate method of dealing with sewage; and (3) a soil previously polluted and infected. Valiant efforts were made to mend matters. Engineers from H.M.S. Powerful and some railway men con¬ structed a condensing plant with locomotive boilers, but as fuel became scarce the supply had to be limited; rough filters were made, and as long as fuel lasted the water was boiled, and officers noted an apparent improvement in the health of the rren so long as such methods could be used, but they could only be very partially adopted. It was only in the hospital at Intombe that a continuous system of filtering the water through Berkefeld filters could be kept up. During the 120 days of the siege there were 1280 cases of enteric fever with 360 deaths, and 1841 cases of dysentery with 105 deaths. The high death-rate was greatly due to the scarcity of milk and other suitable nourishment. The rations for the troops for the last six weeks of the siege consisted only of three small biscuits and 1J lb. of horse or mule flesh, or its equivalent. The 48 medical officers who were in Ladysmith made gallant efforts, as the following record shows: 5 died, 10 had severe attacks of enteric fever, and 12 others were incapacitated, which shows what a strain must have been thrown upon those who could remain at their posts. On the