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EPIDEMIOLOGICAL SOCIETY. MONDAY, MARCH 5TH, 1855.
460 At the time he left Sible Hedingham there were forty-eight There had been, moreover, five or cases under treatment. six fatal cases of cholera during the last year. Dr. Camps concluded his paper by readingsome extracts from the Registrar’s notes, as showing still further the close connexion that exists between the general sanitary condition of many places in England, and the greater or less prevalence of epidemic disease, and especially of fever.
EPIDEMIOLOGICAL SOCIETY. MONDAY, MARCH 5TH, 1855. DR.
BABINGTON, PRESIDENT. (Concluded from p. 436.)
ON THE OCCURRENCE OF FEVER AT COWBRIDGE, GLAMORGANSHIRE, SOUTH WALES, IN THE AUTUMN OF 1853. BY WILLIAM
CAMPS, M.D. Dr. CAMPS commenced his paper by remarking that, towards the end of the past year (1854), in consequence of an outbreak of cholera at Bridgend, in Glamorganshire, he visited that place by order of the General Board of Health, and whilst there his A Guide to the Practical attention was on several occasions directed to the occurrence of Study of Diseases of the Eye; with an Outline of their Medical and Operative Treatment. By fever, in the autumn of the preceding year, at Cowbridge, in JAMES DIXON, Surgeon to the Royal London Ophthalmic the same county. Cowbridge is a small town, situated beHospital, Moorfields ; formerly Assistant-Surgeon to St. tween Bridgend and Cardiff, having a population not greatly Thomas’s Hospital. 8vo, pp. 400. London: Churchill. exceeding one thousand persons. Horse-races are held at Cow1855. bridge at stated periods, and during these races it has been cusALL who have attended Mr. Dixon’s clinique at the Moortomary for the neighbouring gentry to assemble at one or more balls. In November, 1853, two balls were held, separated by fields Ophthalmic Hospital will be prepared for the remarkable one intervening night; and it was immediately after these excellence of this work. We doubt if there be any surgical that many of those persons present were seized with symptoms of alarming disorder, which in many instances terminated practice in the metropolis of a more conscientious and careful fatally. This disorder presented all the characters of a bad kind than Mr. Dixon’s attendances at that institution; and it and malignant fever. There was this amongst other striking is sufficient security for the value of the publication before us, particulars connected with the Cowbridge fever, that, no to know that it represents the very large experience of so carematter what part of the country those present came from or ful an observer and so skilful a surgeon. returned to afterwards, very many of them suffered, and some Mr. Dixon’s volume opens with a very useful chapter on died, of a disorder described as fever, attended with extreme depression and prostration of strength, and in some of the fatal Examinations of the Eye, and on the Use of the Ophthalmocases, with haemorrhage from the bowels. These balls were held scope. In the following fifteen chapters an anatomical arrangeat the chief inn in Cowbridge, in rooms partially, if not alto- ment is adopted, which brings before the student in succession gether, fitted up for the occasions. Dr. Camps stated that the diseases of the conjunctiva, sub-conjunctival areolar tissue, there are some slight discrepancies in the statements made by I different persons in regard to the number of individuals of both cornea, sclerotic, choroid and retina, vitreous body, lens and its capsule; those which involve all the tissues of the eyeball; sexes who were present, as well as to the number of those who became ill afterwards, and even of those who died ; yet, in the those which are of uncertain seat; those of the lachrymal main, there is such an agreement between them that these apparatus, of the eyelids, and of the orbit. Then follow three various statements are in nowise invalidated. At this on Operations ; and the book terminates with an distance of time from the outbreak of the fever, it was by no chapters Appendix (which we would gladly have seen much extended) means easy to procure exact statistics, in reference to those who were present, or to those who were attacked containing a few very interesting cases. The author says in his preface, that he has made it a primary with the disorder, or to those who died. From the most reliable evidence he could collect, it is probable, that from object of his work to assist the student in observing for him. one hundred to one hundred and forty persons were present. self; and the manner of his descriptions and arguments is well It is certain that many of these were attacked with fever ; and suited to fulfil this intention. The style of the book is excel. it is almost certain that not less than eight or ten persons, lent. It is both and copious precise. It shows how much possibly more, died in consequence of this disease ; and it matter should be remembered that this occurred in a class of persons may be packed into 400 pages, when an author knows commonly designated as the gentry of our country. Dr. Camps his subject, writes unaffectedly, sticks to his point, and avoids then read several extracts from the Report of the Inspector of repetition. Nuisances as to the state of Cowbridge, soon after this outbreak The utility of Mr. Dixon’s work, as a practical guide, will of fever, as serving to illustrate the conuexion between the exincreased by its very sparing employment of literary quotabe istence of epidemic disease and the existence of certain wellmoderation all the more praiseworthy, since it is quite tions-a known sources of such diseases. from the perfect pertinence of such references as are evident, a Dr. CAMPS likewise read paper as well as from special papers which Mr. Dixon has made, ON THE OCCURRENCE OF TYPIIUS FEVER AT SIBLE HEDINGHAM, ESSEX. previously published, that he knows the literature of his sub. The author remarked that there had been so great an amount ject no less intimately than its practice. The student who of an epidemic disease-typhus fever-in the parish of Sible wishes quickly and thoroughly to know how he may best Hedingham, almost throughout 1854, and which increased so diagnose an incipient cataract, or treat a nebulous cornea, is much towards the end of that year, that the Board of Guardians grievously hindered and disappointed when he finds an author of the Halstead Union, acting upon the report of their medical him, not what is right and what is wrong, but what telling officer, made application for aid to theGeneral Board of Health, for a medical inspector to visit that place and report upon its has been guessed and counter-guessed, argued and countersanitary condition. Sible Hedingham is situated in that part argued, by every writer since Æsculapius. He wants one good of the county of Essex adjoining-within a very few miles- beacon for his course, not this galaxy of rushlights. It is very the county of Suffolk. Its population amounts to 2346 persons. small comfort for his perplexity that the Browns and Smiths As might be expected, it is precisely in those parts of the paraded before him are great Teutonic Brauns and Schmidts, parish where the foulest nuisances existed that fever has most or French or Italian versions of these important originals. extensively prevailed. The first house containing fever patients the author says :that the author entered contained six or seven inmates, who " As it is my object to speak of diseases as I have seen them, either had been attacked with, or were then suffering from, the disease. Close to the churchyard, and below the level of without entering upon theoretical or controversial matters, I the churchyard walls, was a group of cottages unfit for use as have as much as possible avoided encumbering my text with human habitations. In these fever had most fearfully raged; literary references. Those which it appeared necessary to for in one family ten or eleven persons had been attacked, and make are for the most part taken from works easily attainable in another eight or nine, and in many cases here the disease by English students. In respect of treatment, I have eddeahad proved fatal. Since the end of March, 1854, there have voured to limit myself to general rules, and briefly and plainly been no less than 122 cases of fever under treatment, and to record what my own experience has led me to prefer. Most during that year, there had been upwards of thirty fatal cases. gladly would I have avoided all criticism on the opinions of
Reviews and Notices of Books.
,
‘
.
EPIDEMIOLOGICAL SOCIETY. MONDAY, MARCH 5TH, 1855. DR.
BABINGTON, PRESIDENT. (Concluded from p. 436.)
ON THE OCCURRENCE OF FEVER AT COWBRIDGE, GLAMORGANSHIRE, SOUTH WALES, IN THE AUTUMN OF 1853. BY WILLIAM
CAMPS, M.D. Dr. CAMPS commenced his paper by remarking that, towards the end of the past year (1854), in consequence of an outbreak of cholera at Bridgend, in Glamorganshire, he visited that place by order of the General Board of Health, and whilst there his A Guide to the Practical attention was on several occasions directed to the occurrence of Study of Diseases of the Eye; with an Outline of their Medical and Operative Treatment. By fever, in the autumn of the preceding year, at Cowbridge, in JAMES DIXON, Surgeon to the Royal London Ophthalmic the same county. Cowbridge is a small town, situated beHospital, Moorfields ; formerly Assistant-Surgeon to St. tween Bridgend and Cardiff, having a population not greatly Thomas’s Hospital. 8vo, pp. 400. London: Churchill. exceeding one thousand persons. Horse-races are held at Cow1855. bridge at stated periods, and during these races it has been cusALL who have attended Mr. Dixon’s clinique at the Moortomary for the neighbouring gentry to assemble at one or more balls. In November, 1853, two balls were held, separated by fields Ophthalmic Hospital will be prepared for the remarkable one intervening night; and it was immediately after these excellence of this work. We doubt if there be any surgical that many of those persons present were seized with symptoms of alarming disorder, which in many instances terminated practice in the metropolis of a more conscientious and careful fatally. This disorder presented all the characters of a bad kind than Mr. Dixon’s attendances at that institution; and it and malignant fever. There was this amongst other striking is sufficient security for the value of the publication before us, particulars connected with the Cowbridge fever, that, no to know that it represents the very large experience of so carematter what part of the country those present came from or ful an observer and so skilful a surgeon. returned to afterwards, very many of them suffered, and some Mr. Dixon’s volume opens with a very useful chapter on died, of a disorder described as fever, attended with extreme depression and prostration of strength, and in some of the fatal Examinations of the Eye, and on the Use of the Ophthalmocases, with haemorrhage from the bowels. These balls were held scope. In the following fifteen chapters an anatomical arrangeat the chief inn in Cowbridge, in rooms partially, if not alto- ment is adopted, which brings before the student in succession gether, fitted up for the occasions. Dr. Camps stated that the diseases of the conjunctiva, sub-conjunctival areolar tissue, there are some slight discrepancies in the statements made by I different persons in regard to the number of individuals of both cornea, sclerotic, choroid and retina, vitreous body, lens and its capsule; those which involve all the tissues of the eyeball; sexes who were present, as well as to the number of those who became ill afterwards, and even of those who died ; yet, in the those which are of uncertain seat; those of the lachrymal main, there is such an agreement between them that these apparatus, of the eyelids, and of the orbit. Then follow three various statements are in nowise invalidated. At this on Operations ; and the book terminates with an distance of time from the outbreak of the fever, it was by no chapters Appendix (which we would gladly have seen much extended) means easy to procure exact statistics, in reference to those who were present, or to those who were attacked containing a few very interesting cases. The author says in his preface, that he has made it a primary with the disorder, or to those who died. From the most reliable evidence he could collect, it is probable, that from object of his work to assist the student in observing for him. one hundred to one hundred and forty persons were present. self; and the manner of his descriptions and arguments is well It is certain that many of these were attacked with fever ; and suited to fulfil this intention. The style of the book is excel. it is almost certain that not less than eight or ten persons, lent. It is both and copious precise. It shows how much possibly more, died in consequence of this disease ; and it matter should be remembered that this occurred in a class of persons may be packed into 400 pages, when an author knows commonly designated as the gentry of our country. Dr. Camps his subject, writes unaffectedly, sticks to his point, and avoids then read several extracts from the Report of the Inspector of repetition. Nuisances as to the state of Cowbridge, soon after this outbreak The utility of Mr. Dixon’s work, as a practical guide, will of fever, as serving to illustrate the conuexion between the exincreased by its very sparing employment of literary quotabe istence of epidemic disease and the existence of certain wellmoderation all the more praiseworthy, since it is quite tions-a known sources of such diseases. from the perfect pertinence of such references as are evident, a Dr. CAMPS likewise read paper as well as from special papers which Mr. Dixon has made, ON THE OCCURRENCE OF TYPIIUS FEVER AT SIBLE HEDINGHAM, ESSEX. previously published, that he knows the literature of his sub. The author remarked that there had been so great an amount ject no less intimately than its practice. The student who of an epidemic disease-typhus fever-in the parish of Sible wishes quickly and thoroughly to know how he may best Hedingham, almost throughout 1854, and which increased so diagnose an incipient cataract, or treat a nebulous cornea, is much towards the end of that year, that the Board of Guardians grievously hindered and disappointed when he finds an author of the Halstead Union, acting upon the report of their medical him, not what is right and what is wrong, but what telling officer, made application for aid to theGeneral Board of Health, for a medical inspector to visit that place and report upon its has been guessed and counter-guessed, argued and countersanitary condition. Sible Hedingham is situated in that part argued, by every writer since Æsculapius. He wants one good of the county of Essex adjoining-within a very few miles- beacon for his course, not this galaxy of rushlights. It is very the county of Suffolk. Its population amounts to 2346 persons. small comfort for his perplexity that the Browns and Smiths As might be expected, it is precisely in those parts of the paraded before him are great Teutonic Brauns and Schmidts, parish where the foulest nuisances existed that fever has most or French or Italian versions of these important originals. extensively prevailed. The first house containing fever patients the author says :that the author entered contained six or seven inmates, who " As it is my object to speak of diseases as I have seen them, either had been attacked with, or were then suffering from, the disease. Close to the churchyard, and below the level of without entering upon theoretical or controversial matters, I the churchyard walls, was a group of cottages unfit for use as have as much as possible avoided encumbering my text with human habitations. In these fever had most fearfully raged; literary references. Those which it appeared necessary to for in one family ten or eleven persons had been attacked, and make are for the most part taken from works easily attainable in another eight or nine, and in many cases here the disease by English students. In respect of treatment, I have eddeahad proved fatal. Since the end of March, 1854, there have voured to limit myself to general rules, and briefly and plainly been no less than 122 cases of fever under treatment, and to record what my own experience has led me to prefer. Most during that year, there had been upwards of thirty fatal cases. gladly would I have avoided all criticism on the opinions of
Reviews and Notices of Books.
,
‘
.