Plague : papers relating to the modern history and recent progress of Levantine plague / prepared from the time to time by direction of the president of the Local Government Board, with other papers ; sented to both House of Parliament by Command of Her Majesty.

  • Radcliffe, Netten.
Date:
1879
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Plague : papers relating to the modern history and recent progress of Levantine plague / prepared from the time to time by direction of the president of the Local Government Board, with other papers ; sented to both House of Parliament by Command of Her Majesty. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

    64/82 (page 58)
    follows. With the assistance of Dr. Parkes, Professor of Military Hygiene at Netley Hospital, I watched the progress of the epidemic at Southampton, and addressed to the local authorities such suggestions as were necessary. And as soon as information came of the lamentahle occurrence at Theydon-Bois (which unfortunately was not until all the ahove-described mischief had been accomplished) I instructed Mr. [Netten] Radcliffe to investigate the facts, and to give such advice as might be useful. Professor Parkes made peculiarly exact inquiry into all the circumstances connected with the beginnings of the epidemic in Southampton, and into the relations of the cases to one another; and I append his report in extenso—No. 14;* not only for the positive information which it contains, but also as a useful illustration of the extreme difficulty which in all such matters there is in proving or disproving contagional relations. Prom Mr. Radcliffe's report I append (No. 15)* the section which describes in detail the circumstances of the infected water-supply. And here terminates, for the year 1865, the history of cholera in England. What * may be the facts of 1866, or what eventually will have been the share of England in the present pandemic diffusion of the disease, are questions on which no materials for exact judgment exist, and where at any rate hope may be preferred to prediction. 3. Yellow 3. The outbreak of Yellow Pever at Swansea in September last was in one respect fever at an event of extreme importance. That England is not insusceptible of this tropical Swansea. infection, but that (at least under favouring circumstances) yellow fever can seriously damage a port-side population in England : this truth was conclusively discovered in Swansea at the cost of fuUy 15 lives. Doubtless the atmospheric conditions under which the proof was given were conditions not habitual to our climate. Especially the heat was almost tropical. But no one can predict of any given year that its summer shall not reproduce the conditions which characterised the summer of 1865 ; nor can any one say that, if yellow fever infection should again begin to operate on our population, the mischief may not infinitely exceed those limits within which on the recent occasion it was confined. And accordingly, for the purposes of hygienic police, the outbreak to which I refer must be deemed to have given a most impressivewarning. The broad facts of the case may be told in very few words under the following two heads. Eirst, the Hecla left Cuba on the 26th July with cases of yellow fever on board, had successive new cases till towards the end of August, entered Swansea harbour on the 9th September, with one of her seamen dying and two others but con- valescent from the fever, and was immediately moored alongside a wharf; where she landed her sick, discharged (though not uninterruptedly) her cargo, and remained stationary till the 28th; when remonstrances, which at last had become irresistible, led to her being removed from within the dock. Secondly, from September 15, six days after her arrival, to October 4th, six days after her removal, Swansea witnessed the entirely new phenomenon of yellow fever attacking in succession some 20 inhabi- tants of the town, besides others who suffered less definitely, or more mildly; and this not indiscriminately over the whole large area of Swansea, but only in definite local relations to the ship : while at Llanelly there also fell sick in the same way three of the crew of a small vessel which had been lying for two days alongside the Secla at Swansea. While this mischief was in progress, notice of it came to the Lords of the Council. On the 14th September, I received from the Registrar-General information which the Swansea registrar had written him to the following effect;—that he had just regis- tered the death of a man, aged 38, as caused by exhaustion from fever, probably yellow fever; that this man was landed from a yellow fever infected ship, and died Avithin three hours of being landed, in one of the dirtiest courts of Swansea, his death probably hastened by such removal; and that the case had created much excitement in the town, as several deaths occurred on board the ship after leaving Cuba, and several of the crew were affected when the ship was brought into port. On the 26th I received intelligence from the Begistrar-General that a death by yellow fever had occurred among the population of Swansea,—viz., that a man, of whom it was stated that he had gone on board the infected vessel soon after her arrival, had died of yellow fever after five days' illness, and that other attacks of yellow fever were reported. Hereupon, under their Lordships' orders, and with the assistance of Dr. Buchanan, as inspector, I immediately took measures to investigate the details of the case, and to advise the local authorities on then management of the danger which had arisen. The very interesting report which Dr. Buchanan made to me at the end of the outbreak is appended m extenso. See App. No. 16. And I may refer to that * [Not reproduced, iu these papers, from the original Report.]