Statements relative to the present prevalence of epidemic fever among the poorer classes of Glasgow : together with some suggestions, both for affording more adequate assistance to the sick, and for checking the farther progress of the contagion in a letter, addressed to the Honourable, the Lord Provost of Glasgow / by Richard Millar.

Millar, Richard

Date:: 1818

Credit: Statements relative to the present prevalence of epidemic fever among the poorer classes of Glasgow : together with some suggestions, both for affording more adequate assistance to the sick, and for checking the farther progress of the contagion in a letter, addressed to the Honourable, the Lord Provost of Glasgow / by Richard Millar. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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Let us now consider. My Lord, how far the re¬ vival of this old plan, whatever it might have been formerly, be, at the present moment, ade¬ quate to the end in view. I confess, I entertain the most painful doubts on the subject; I own I feel a total conviction to the contrary. To state the matter fairly: The new house is calculated to receive 34 patients; and by this ac¬ commodation, joined to that of the Infirmary, it is supposed that the two great purposes of the ex¬ isting exigency, those of affording immediate re¬ lief to our numerous Typhus Poor, and of check¬ ing the contagion, are happily, and equally to be accomplished. If such expectations are form¬ ed, my Lord, I venture to predict they will turn out totally vain and illusory. The means are al¬ together inadequate to the end, the apparatus too weak for the work : it is like extinguishing a con¬ flagration with a single bucket.—That even so much has been done, however, I rejoice most heartily. The plan is excellent, so far as it goes. The 34 patients in question will receive much more effectual relief than could be obtained at home: even the contagion, to a certain degree, will be kept at bay. What I only lament is, that the scheme appears to me altogether deficient in

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