A contribution to medical statistics from the acting medical officers of the New Town Dispensary of Edinburgh / [Robert Omond].

  • Omond, Robert, 1806-1881.
Date:
1841]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A contribution to medical statistics from the acting medical officers of the New Town Dispensary of Edinburgh / [Robert Omond]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    With reo^ard to variola, 188 cases have been treated. ]liiriiD>- the first six months of the year, 157 occurred, 28 of them being fatal. During the last six months, only 31 occurred, 4 being fatal. The actual number of deaths from small-pox is greater than from any other disease, and the mortality is also propor¬ tionally higher, being above 1 in 6, or, stated decimally, ] in 5*8. In tracing the locality of variola, it is found, that 34 cases were in the New Town, and 154 in the Old; or adopting the same division of the whole city, as stated under typhus, the middle dis¬ trict furnishes 93 patients, the east 76, and the west 19. Among the fatal cases was one adult, who had never been vaccinated. The rest were children ; and to show the extreme carelessness of many parents among the lower classes, regarding vaccination, it is suf?icient to mention one fact: on a careful inspection, made two years ago, of a numerously inhabited close of the Grassmarket, it was ascertained, that of the children under seven years of age, only one-half had been vaccinated. The other epidemic complaints do not require many remarks. Of scarlatina, 90 cases have occurred, 4 being fatal; and it pre¬ vailed most in September, October, and November. True in¬ fluenza has not appeared to any great extent, and it looked more formidable in January than in any of the following months. Of 70 cases of rubeola during the year, only one was fatal. Pertussis has prevailed to a greater extent, and chiefly during the months of May, June, and July. But it has been found that, during February, March, and April, the fatal cases were 1 in 5, while, in the following months, when the disease spread more exten¬ sively, the mortality was only 1 in 12.