Dr. Theodore Thomson's report to the Local Government Board on an outbreak of enteric fever in the urban district of Bicester.

  • Thomson, Theodore
Date:
1896
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Dr. Theodore Thomson's report to the Local Government Board on an outbreak of enteric fever in the urban district of Bicester. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    OFFICIAL COPY. Dr. Theodore Thomson’s Report to the Local Government Board on an outbreak of Enteric Fever in the Urban District of Bicester. R. Thorne Thorne. Medical Officer, August 6th, 1896. In the early part of February last the attention of the Board was directed to the fact that the Registrar-General’s Returns for the quarter ended December 31st, 1895, indicated that there had been during that quarter seven deaths from “ fever” in the Bicester Registration Sub-District with a popula¬ tion of 7,513. Their attention was also further directed to this fever pre¬ valence by a letter, dated February 18th, and signed by certain householders in the Bicester Urban District, in which it was stated that there had been 57 cases of enteric fever in Bicester since August 11th, 1895, and that fresh cases were still occurring. The persons signing this letter further requested that the Board should make inquiry into this outbreak. No information had been received by the Board from the Medical Officer of Health of the Bicester Urban District as to fever occurrence there. ] was accordingly, on March 16th, instructed by the Board to make inquiry into the circumstances attendant on the enteric fever outbreak in question ; and, in accordance with these instructions, I visited Bicester on March 27th, and made inquiry in the sense indicated both then and on subsequent occasions. The outbreak of fever had, I found, been limited to that part of the Bicester Registration Sub-District included in the Bicester Urban District, which, on an area of 3,740 acres, had, at the census of 1891, a population of 3,343 persons occupying 702 houses. The population of the district is nearly stationary, the census of 1891 having shown an excess of only 37 over the enumerated population in 1881. By far the larger part of the inhabitants of the Bicester Urban District reside in the town of Bicester, which has a population of about 3,000 persons. The town of Bicester, 12 miles from Oxford, is the market town for a considerable agricultural district. It stands upon the clays and calcareous sandstones of the Cornbrasli, overlying the argillaceous limestone of the Forest Marble, which crops out on the surface in the immediate neighbour¬ hood of the town. The houses of Bicester are for the most part grouped along two main streets, which diverge from the market place in such fashion that the town may be said roughly to form a V, of which the market place LONDON: PRINTED FOR HER MAJESTY’S STATIONERY OFFICE, EY EYRE AND SPOTTISWOODE, PRINTERS TO THE QUEEN’S MOST EXCELLENT MAJESTY. And to be purchased, either directly or through any Bookseller, from EYRE and SPOTTISWOODE, East Harding Street, Fleet Street, E.C.; oi JOHN MENZIES & Co., 12, Hanover Street, Edinburgh, and 90, West Nile Street, Glasgow ; or No. 107. 1896. Price Sixpence.