Annual report on the health of the city for the year 1871 / W.T. Gairdner. and on the Operations of the Sanitary Department, for the year ending 30th April 1872 / by Kenneth M. Macleod.

  • William Tennant Gairdner
Date:
1872
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Annual report on the health of the city for the year 1871 / W.T. Gairdner. and on the Operations of the Sanitary Department, for the year ending 30th April 1872 / by Kenneth M. Macleod. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

    13/98 page 11
    Percentage of Deaths from Smallpox to the Total Deaths in each of the Eight Principal Towns of Scotland, during the Year 1871 (in the order of epidemic prevalence). Dundee, - - - 11 Leith, - - - 7 Edinburgh, - - 3 Greenock, - - - 1 Aberdeen, - - 1 Perth, - - 1 Glasgow, - - - 1 Paisley, 0 Small-pox Deaths were equal to— 34 per cent, of Deaths from all Causes. G3 ,, j) 12 ,, >> 76 j> >> C6 ,, >> 46 ,, ,, 15 ,, >, >) 21 ,, »> In Eight Towns, - 2 S3 ,, „ „ It is perhaps worth -while to notice that 205 deaths from Small-pox is the number which, after careful analysis of the registers, was found chargeable upon the City of Glasgow within the municipal boundary; the Registrar-General's return giving only 180 from the somewhat smaller area of the ten Registra- tion Districts. The amount of the variation is not such as materially to disturb the relations of the preceding Table; the Registrar's 180 cases being taken from among a total of 15,785 deaths from All Causes, being, as stated above, 1*15 per cent.; while the 205 deaths from Small-pox recorded in the Sanitary Office were from a total of 16,155 deaths, giving a. percentage of l-26, which does not affect the position of Glasgow, with its immense population and its open port, as the lowest but one in the preceding list. The total number of cases of Small-pox reported at the Sanitary Office during the year 1871 was 1089 ; but it may fairly be assumed that the 205 deaths above-mentioned corres- ponded to a considerably larger number of cases, as it is nearly- certain that a good many cases, being under the care of private practitioners, who made themselves responsible for the treatment and prevention of the disease, wei-e unreported, and perhaps a few others may have escaped attention from the neglect or ignorance of persons in attendance. It is therefore certain that the mortality of Small-pox in Glasgow has been less than 1 in 5, probably, indeed, not more than one in 6 or 7 of the attacks; a fact which certainly tends to prove, among others, the considerable protection exerted by vaccination over a com-
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