The prevention of epidemics : and the construction and management of isolation hospitals / by Roger McNeill, M.D. Edin.
- McNeill, Roger.
- Date:
- 1894
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: The prevention of epidemics : and the construction and management of isolation hospitals / by Roger McNeill, M.D. Edin. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University.
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![TOWNS INFECT RURAL DISTRICTS only. Infectious diseases have visited them periodic- ally for ages, and much as they suffer and dread these, they look upon them as part of the natural order of things. It seldom occurs to any one that such misery and death might be entirely prevented. The prevalence of infectious disease in the large towns is a grave danger to all places in frequent com- munication with them.1 Isolated cases keep breaking 1 In 1S92 Dr. M'Lintock, county medical officer for Lanarkshire, reported a fatal case of smallpox at Xewmains, and stated that the source of infection was ultimately, and with difficulty, traced by Mr. Dobson (the sanitary inspector) to a daughter living in Glasgow, who had been visiting her parents a fortnight pre- vious to the rash on her mother (Second Annual Report, p. 65). Dr. Maxwell Ross, county medical officer, Dumfriesshire, states that the parishes of Annan, Kirkpatrick-Fleming, and Middlebie, suffered most from [scarlet fever] in the Annan district, and that some of the cases were introduced from Hoddam. The Annan hiring fair appeared to be responsible for certain of the cases which occurred both in Annan and Kirkpatrick-Fleming. Into the same district measles was introduced from Carlisle (First Annual Report, pp. 17 and 20). Dr. M'Vail, county medical officer for Dumbartonshire, states, in regard to an outbreak of scarlet fever on board the training ship Empress in the Gareloch : The first case was that of a new boy who had come from Glasgow on September 10th; and in regard to diphtheria in Cumbernauld parish, the disease appeared to have been brought from Edinburgh (First Annual Report, pp. 51 and 54). Dr. Bruce, county medical officer for Ross-shire, states, in regard to an out- break of measles in the camp of the Inverness-shire Militia, at Muir of Ord : The origin of the epidemic was distinctly traced to Harris, and to the West it unfortunately was carried afresh (First Annual Report, p. 40). Dr. Ogilvie Grant, county medical officer for Inverness-shire, referring to outbreaks of a very severe and malignant type of measles in Harris, North Uist, and Skye, states : Infection was traced by Dr. Mackenzie to two sources —(1) The disbanding of the Inverness-shire Militia ; (2) Direct infection from the adjoining parish of Harris. . . . Dr. Dewar of Portree states that one of the crew of the s.s. Locheil was infected from another source, viz. from a militiaman returning home from Muir of Ord, who was travelling in the eruptive stage of the disease (First Annual Report, p. 11). Dr. Watt, county medical officer for Aberdeenshire, states, with regard to scarlet fever at Newhills: Many of these cases were traced to infection spreading from the town, where, from August to December, a very severe epidemic was raging (First Annual Report, p. 8). In 1S92 I reported that a person suffering from typhoid fever at Innellan is believed to have become infected while examining old properties](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21013792_0023.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
