Cerebro-spinal meningitis in Massachusetts : being a succinct history of the epidemic of 1873 : with an analysis of upwards of 500 cases, collected from every part of the state / by J. Baxter Upham.

Upham, J. B. (Jabez Baxter), 1820-1902.

Date:: 1874

Credit: Cerebro-spinal meningitis in Massachusetts : being a succinct history of the epidemic of 1873 : with an analysis of upwards of 500 cases, collected from every part of the state / by J. Baxter Upham. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.

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$to tlie disease. Out of four cases rei)orted by Dr. Killiam, the locality in three was low and damj). Mancheste7\—Dr. Priest re^jorts no cases, hut says that he has had several which seemed to simulate the disease, with pain on the bade of the head and neck and muscular contractions. Marhlehead.—Dr. Eveleth rei^orts four cases, and refers to an impure atmosphere, especially in a damp district, as, in his opinion, a cause of the disease. Dr. Neilson, who gives four cases, reports the locality to have been low and dry in two, low and damp in one, and in one, high and dry. Methuen.—Dr. Chamberlain reports a single case, of which he says : The patient lived in a tenement boarding-house, on a dry soil, but close upon a bank bordering a sluggish stream. The house was crowded and the air impure. MilTbury.—Dr. Lincoln gives the details of five cases, of which he says : I know of no cause other than epidemic influence. In 1872, there were some iifteen or twenty cases of the disease in this town, and then a much larger per cent, were fatal. Milford.—Dr. Barns gives the details of nine cases which came under his care. In regard to them he says : Nearly all the cases which have come under my care the present year, and in ]Drevious ones, have been those whose physical and mental powers had been more or less overtaxed or whose general health had been somewhat impaired by some previous disease. This being the fact the question with me is. Is this one of the causes of the disease, and is the tendency to it transmissible ? New Bedford.—Dr. Prescott sends the details of a single case, in regard to which he says : The house was situated on low made land. Walls of bed- room constantly moist; no cellar; privy in rear, and drainage flowing from the house. North Bridgewater.—Dr. Borden gives the details of foiu' cases which occui'red in his practice. He can find no special cause for the disease. The locality was damp in one, low and damjp in one, and good in two cases. Northampton.—Dr. Fiske reports that eight cases had come under his observation at some stage of their progress. Of these, six were American, two were of Irish parentage ; three were adults, five were children ; seven were of the female, one of the male sex. Six recovered and two died. North Adams.—Dr. Babbitt, in a recent communication, writes as follows: In the spring of 1871, cases of cerebral meningitis were by no means infre- quent in this locality. They were of a marked character and plainly diagnosed,—continuing with decreasing severity till autumn. * * * What I would especially remark is, that since that period we have had no distinct typhoid fever. I have been in this locality more than twenty-five years, and have never passed an autumn without cases of typhoid fever till the seasons of 1872 and 1873; since which I have had no well-marked case of that .disease.$