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CHOLERA PRECAUTIONS IN THE UNITED STATES.
356
subscription and partly by ;,patients, might be quoted in
low weekly payment by illustration of a method by which others of less wealth may show, and have shown, a like humanity. Another part of the same work, however, seems
to
us
to
a
require development
as
much,
or
perhaps
This is the finding and selecting of suitable ca;-’es of illness among the poor in hospital, or outside of it, in order to render them the necessary assistance. As matters stand, a good many are thus assisted, but a far greater number probably are allowed to recover as they can. If visitors in poor districts and at hospitals will pay attention to this subject, they will do a grateful service to many ’of their more.
kind.
____
in spite of the spell. of high temperature in July, which caused a great increase of diarrhoea fatality among infants, the recent death-rate has been considerably below the average for the season, and betokens the eminently satis. factory health condition of the large towns, and inferentially of the whole country. The deaths in the second week of August in the twenty-eight large towns were fewerby2l8 than those in the previous week;the deaths of infants under one year showed a decline of 164, and the deaths attributed to diarrhcea of 79. The annual death-rate from diarrhceainz the twenty-eight towns declined from 3’7 in the first week of August to 3’2 in the second, the decline being especially marked in Leicester and London ; the rate from this coure, however, was last week equal to 7’4 in Salford and 1M in Preston. The varying periodicity of the outbreaks of diarrhoea in the various towns has never been satisfactorily
CHOLERA PRECAUTIONS IN THE UNITED STATES. ACCORDING to the Illinois State Board of Health, the action of the delegates who were sent from England to the explained. International Sanitary Conference at Rome was based upon THE DIARRHŒA EPIDEMIC IN HULL. -experience mainly limited to India, which led them to deny A PAMPHLET recently issued by Dr. Kelburne King re. the infectiousness of the dejecta and to pronounce disinfection unscientific. This is certainly not correct as regards produces a paper which he has prepared on the serious one of the British delegates, who assisted with the delegate outbreak of diarrhoea with which Hull was visited in March of the United States in preparing the code of regulations as and April last. The outbreak commenced on March 21st, to disinfection which the Conference adopted. The New and the cases ran up from 36 to over 100 a day until World, believing in the possibility of importation and in the the 27th, from which date until April 4th the fresh number infectious character of this disease, intends to rely for the of daily attacks varied from 69 to 116 ; a gradual dimi. exclusion of cholera and other Old World pestilences upon nution then took place, and by April 12th the epidemic, such precautionary measures as can be secured at ports of as such, may be said to have ceased, It is estimated that -_-_-
arrival. This
of the prevalence not less than 20,000the people suffered ; mortality, which mainly affected old people, was, however, small. Dr. King then explains in detail how, owing to a scarcity in the town water service, two new adits were made ; and he then centres attention on one of these, into which, at intervals between Jan, 15th and March 20th, two other water-supplies, alone or mixed, were admitted. Both these latter are described; and chemical analysis of one of them, known as the Sand’ueck water, shows how utterly unfit such water was for distribution to the public. Dr. King is, however, unable to explain why the water should, at the particular date when the epidemic commenced, have acquired injurious properties, whereas it failed to produce notable mischief from Jan. 15th onward; and he is under the impression that, improper as the admixture was, the actual cause of the diarrhcea only had access to the water-supply just before March 22nd, He has no doubt whatever but that it was the town water that caused the outbreak ; and the suddenness of the epidemic, together with other characteristics, bears out this view, It is possible that when the medical officer of health issues his report on this remarkable epidemic, some of the points which are still obscure may be cleared up.
is, indeed, the practice adopted in England, the during
precautionary measures being organised that they shall not fail because they are impracticable, and being supplemented by efforts to secure efficient sanitary administration inland as well as along the coast line. so
THE ABERDEEN INFIRMARY. THE administration of the Aberdeen Infirmary seems in anything but a satisfactory state, if we may judge from a speech lately made and letters written by Dr. Angus Fraser, one of the physicians of the hospital. According to his representations the most glaring sanitary defects exist, and have existed, in spite of his remonstrance, for twelve months. One patient with secondary haemorrhage appears to have received scant atten- tion, with a fatal result. On a recent Sunday Dr. Fraser visited the wards between ten and eleven in the morning. He went through nine wards, and in only one was a nurse present. The Committee of Management allege that they are anxiously investigating the matter complained of. But considering that some of them have had a duration of a year, the investigation seems more prolonged than effective. to be
THE WEATHER AND THE PUBLIC HEALTH. SINCE the 28th of July last the mean temperature has been for the most part below the average, and the last weekly return of the Registrar-General shows a corresponding improvement in the public health, judged by the mortality returns for nearly nine millions of the English population living in the twenty-eight large towns. The annual death-rate in these towns, which had fallen to 17’6 in the middle of June, rose with the increasing temperature, during seven consecutive weeks, to 21’8 in the first week of August. Last week, under the influence of the decline of temperature which set in at the end of July, the death-rate fell again to 20’5. Apart from diarrhoea mortality, the general death-rate from the principal zymotic diseases is just now remarkably low, especially that from scarlet fever, and " fever," principally enteric; and the fatal cases of measles, which were excessive throughout the spring and ,early summer, have since steadily declined. On the whole,
the
course
SALIVARY SEPTICÆMIA OF RABBITS. Foup. years ago Raynaud and Lannelongue injected the saliva of a rabid infant into rabbits. There resulted a disease which was at first regarded both by them and Pasteur -(who repeated the experiment) as rabies, But Pasteur discovered the mistake, and detected in the blood of the rabbits a microbe having a figure-of-S appearance. In the course of time Vulpian showed that the normal saliva of a fasting man produced the same effects in rabbits that some had ascribed to a special microbe, and others (Grimni, for instance) to a simple poisoning. i12D2. BordoneUffreduzzi and E. di Mattei have again investigated the matter in M. Bizzozero’s laboratory. They have detected in normal human saliva a special micro-organism, an ovd bacterium, similar to that which exists in the blood in the septicsemia of rabbits. It is also stated that this bacterium can be cultivated through successive generation in artificial media, and that the product of such cultures
subscription and partly by ;,patients, might be quoted in
low weekly payment by illustration of a method by which others of less wealth may show, and have shown, a like humanity. Another part of the same work, however, seems
to
us
to
a
require development
as
much,
or
perhaps
This is the finding and selecting of suitable ca;-’es of illness among the poor in hospital, or outside of it, in order to render them the necessary assistance. As matters stand, a good many are thus assisted, but a far greater number probably are allowed to recover as they can. If visitors in poor districts and at hospitals will pay attention to this subject, they will do a grateful service to many ’of their more.
kind.
____
in spite of the spell. of high temperature in July, which caused a great increase of diarrhoea fatality among infants, the recent death-rate has been considerably below the average for the season, and betokens the eminently satis. factory health condition of the large towns, and inferentially of the whole country. The deaths in the second week of August in the twenty-eight large towns were fewerby2l8 than those in the previous week;the deaths of infants under one year showed a decline of 164, and the deaths attributed to diarrhcea of 79. The annual death-rate from diarrhceainz the twenty-eight towns declined from 3’7 in the first week of August to 3’2 in the second, the decline being especially marked in Leicester and London ; the rate from this coure, however, was last week equal to 7’4 in Salford and 1M in Preston. The varying periodicity of the outbreaks of diarrhoea in the various towns has never been satisfactorily
CHOLERA PRECAUTIONS IN THE UNITED STATES. ACCORDING to the Illinois State Board of Health, the action of the delegates who were sent from England to the explained. International Sanitary Conference at Rome was based upon THE DIARRHŒA EPIDEMIC IN HULL. -experience mainly limited to India, which led them to deny A PAMPHLET recently issued by Dr. Kelburne King re. the infectiousness of the dejecta and to pronounce disinfection unscientific. This is certainly not correct as regards produces a paper which he has prepared on the serious one of the British delegates, who assisted with the delegate outbreak of diarrhoea with which Hull was visited in March of the United States in preparing the code of regulations as and April last. The outbreak commenced on March 21st, to disinfection which the Conference adopted. The New and the cases ran up from 36 to over 100 a day until World, believing in the possibility of importation and in the the 27th, from which date until April 4th the fresh number infectious character of this disease, intends to rely for the of daily attacks varied from 69 to 116 ; a gradual dimi. exclusion of cholera and other Old World pestilences upon nution then took place, and by April 12th the epidemic, such precautionary measures as can be secured at ports of as such, may be said to have ceased, It is estimated that -_-_-
arrival. This
of the prevalence not less than 20,000the people suffered ; mortality, which mainly affected old people, was, however, small. Dr. King then explains in detail how, owing to a scarcity in the town water service, two new adits were made ; and he then centres attention on one of these, into which, at intervals between Jan, 15th and March 20th, two other water-supplies, alone or mixed, were admitted. Both these latter are described; and chemical analysis of one of them, known as the Sand’ueck water, shows how utterly unfit such water was for distribution to the public. Dr. King is, however, unable to explain why the water should, at the particular date when the epidemic commenced, have acquired injurious properties, whereas it failed to produce notable mischief from Jan. 15th onward; and he is under the impression that, improper as the admixture was, the actual cause of the diarrhcea only had access to the water-supply just before March 22nd, He has no doubt whatever but that it was the town water that caused the outbreak ; and the suddenness of the epidemic, together with other characteristics, bears out this view, It is possible that when the medical officer of health issues his report on this remarkable epidemic, some of the points which are still obscure may be cleared up.
is, indeed, the practice adopted in England, the during
precautionary measures being organised that they shall not fail because they are impracticable, and being supplemented by efforts to secure efficient sanitary administration inland as well as along the coast line. so
THE ABERDEEN INFIRMARY. THE administration of the Aberdeen Infirmary seems in anything but a satisfactory state, if we may judge from a speech lately made and letters written by Dr. Angus Fraser, one of the physicians of the hospital. According to his representations the most glaring sanitary defects exist, and have existed, in spite of his remonstrance, for twelve months. One patient with secondary haemorrhage appears to have received scant atten- tion, with a fatal result. On a recent Sunday Dr. Fraser visited the wards between ten and eleven in the morning. He went through nine wards, and in only one was a nurse present. The Committee of Management allege that they are anxiously investigating the matter complained of. But considering that some of them have had a duration of a year, the investigation seems more prolonged than effective. to be
THE WEATHER AND THE PUBLIC HEALTH. SINCE the 28th of July last the mean temperature has been for the most part below the average, and the last weekly return of the Registrar-General shows a corresponding improvement in the public health, judged by the mortality returns for nearly nine millions of the English population living in the twenty-eight large towns. The annual death-rate in these towns, which had fallen to 17’6 in the middle of June, rose with the increasing temperature, during seven consecutive weeks, to 21’8 in the first week of August. Last week, under the influence of the decline of temperature which set in at the end of July, the death-rate fell again to 20’5. Apart from diarrhoea mortality, the general death-rate from the principal zymotic diseases is just now remarkably low, especially that from scarlet fever, and " fever," principally enteric; and the fatal cases of measles, which were excessive throughout the spring and ,early summer, have since steadily declined. On the whole,
the
course
SALIVARY SEPTICÆMIA OF RABBITS. Foup. years ago Raynaud and Lannelongue injected the saliva of a rabid infant into rabbits. There resulted a disease which was at first regarded both by them and Pasteur -(who repeated the experiment) as rabies, But Pasteur discovered the mistake, and detected in the blood of the rabbits a microbe having a figure-of-S appearance. In the course of time Vulpian showed that the normal saliva of a fasting man produced the same effects in rabbits that some had ascribed to a special microbe, and others (Grimni, for instance) to a simple poisoning. i12D2. BordoneUffreduzzi and E. di Mattei have again investigated the matter in M. Bizzozero’s laboratory. They have detected in normal human saliva a special micro-organism, an ovd bacterium, similar to that which exists in the blood in the septicsemia of rabbits. It is also stated that this bacterium can be cultivated through successive generation in artificial media, and that the product of such cultures