Mr. W. H. Power's report to the local government board on diphtheria at Hern Hill, in the Faversham rural sanitary district ; on the sanitary state of that district ; and on administration by the rural sanitary district.
- Power, W. H.
- Date:
- 1880
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Mr. W. H. Power's report to the local government board on diphtheria at Hern Hill, in the Faversham rural sanitary district ; on the sanitary state of that district ; and on administration by the rural sanitary district. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service. The original may be consulted at London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service.
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![5. The school to which the Steward children went stands in an exposed situation, and appears to have been insufficiently warmed, for at several cottages I was told that the children had often come home complaining that they were “ perished with cold.” The summer had been wet and sunless, and the winter began early with unusual seve- rity. The children who suffered most severely from diphtheria were among those who had appeared to feel the cold most. Owing to the distance of their homes from the school, many of the children had to bring their dinners with them, with a bottle of milk or cold tea to drink. They often drank also from a ditch pond of surface water at the nearest cottage, such as in elevated clayey districts usually serves for all purposes of water supply. The dwellers at this particular cottage, however, were not attacked with diphtheria. 6. After the first appearance of the disease in the Stewards’ family about November 21st, those who remained well continued to attend school. Early in December others of the school-children were attacked. One named Worledge, residing in the village, lialf a mile from the Stewards, was taken ill on December 8th, and died on the 10th. Another of the same family was ill about the same time, but recovered. There were also two or three doubtful cases here. These children were of rather delicate appear- ance and were said to be subject to colds. There was a history of phthisis on the father’s side. The local conditions were not such as to attract attention. 7. Three other families were visited by diphtheria in December. In each family the child first attacked was one who was attending the village school. In one there were three cases which ended favourably; (a fourth child, an infant of seven months, died on December 18th, of “ atrophy.”) In another, three children and their mother were attacked; one of the children, aged nine, died on December 21st after two days’ illness. The mother, when I saw her, was in a state of great weakness, scarcely able to stand, her breathing was short and her voice half a whisper. She had been ill 11 weeks. The family seemed sunk in poverty. 8. A boy of nine who resided in quite another direction from any above mentioned, but who attended the same school, died on December 16th, after being ill for a week or more (there was no certain recollection of the length of his illness) with symptoms which were not those of normal diphtheria, but there was some swelling of the throat, and after death the throat was observed to be discoloured. The death was certified from “ erysipelas.” Two other children in the house, who did not go to school, were unaffected except with colds. It is difficult to disconnect this fatal case from the pre- vailing epidemic of diphtheria, a disease which admits of considerable variation in degree of intensity, and to some extent in nature of symptoms. 9. Altogether in this outbreak (including three slight cases, and the abnormal case last-mentioned) there were 21 j^ersons attacked, of whom five died. The origin of the epidemic remains undiscovered. The spread of it was due, I think there can be no doubt, to the personal intercourse of the children at school, the healthy ones intermingling with schoolfellows who came from infected houses or who suffered from mild attacks of the disease. THRAPSTONE. [Registrar-General’s Quarterly Return, 1879, Fourth quarter.—District, Thrapstone; Sub-district, Raunds. Two deaths registered from diphtheria.] 1. In addition to the record of two deaths from diphtheria in the Raunds sub-district in the last quarter of 1879, information reached the Board that a serious outbreak of the disease had occurred in the village of Raunds, near Thrapstone, in the further course of the winter. The village occupies the slopes of a little valley, an eastern offshoot of the valley of the Nene, which in this part of its course has a general direction from south to north. The higher plateau of arable land consists of Oxford clay: a bed of limestone, and another of ironstone crop out in the slope of the valley side. The lowest part of the village is on the Lias clay. 2. It appears that about -the middle of November a child, named Elsie Smith, between three and four years of age, residing in a clean well-built house near the southern end of the village, and attending a little dame-school near at hand, was attacked with diphtheria and died on November 20th. About the same time a little boy, named Stubbs, 2^ years old, living not far from Smith' and attending the same school, was taken ill in the same way and died on November 24th. Other cases speedily appeared among children](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b2499683x_0024.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
