The causes of death among the assured in the Scottish Widow's Fund and Life Assurance Society from 1874 to 1894 inclusive / [Claud Muirhead].

  • Muirhead, Claud.
Date:
1902
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The causes of death among the assured in the Scottish Widow's Fund and Life Assurance Society from 1874 to 1894 inclusive / [Claud Muirhead]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Disease of the Spinal Cord. I’aviiplegiii accoinpaiiicd tlui lliscnsc of Spinal Cord in many of tlie one hundred and one cases recorded below. 1S74-S0. Twenty deaths in all were attributed to this cause. Of the.se, twelve Avere simply described as due to Spinal C.ord lliseasej three to Sclerosis or Induration of the Cord; two to Myelitis or Inllanunation of the Cord; one to Spinal IMeningitis or Inllanunation of the coverings of the Cord; and two to Locomotor Ataxy. 7 -S’7'.—“-Thirty-six of our members died of this alfection. Of these, eighteen were set down simply as Disease of the Spinal Cord ; four were due to Spinal Sclerosis; three to Myelitis; one to Spinal Meningitis; and ten to Locomotor Ataxy. /8-S‘S-94..—Of this disease there were forty-five examples. The special disorders mentioned were :— Disseminated Sclerosis Locomotor Ataxy Chronic iMyelitis Spinal Meningitis 8 ITogressive IMuscular Atrophy 1 G Spinal Softening . . 1 3 Cerebro-Spinal Meningitis . 1 1 Chronic I’oliomyelitis . 1 With regard to the others, no attempt was made to indicate the nature of the lesion. Epilepsy. Of the forty cases of death occasioned by Epilepsy, eight of the deceased members were stated to have suffered from the disease for periods ranging from one to seven years, and one for no less a period than thirty years. In the last case the disease appears to have developed about six years after the member’s admission into the Society, and he fell short of his expectation by .3 years. In the other eight cases mentioned, the duration of the Policies ranged from 1 2 to 37 years, and two of the decea.sed exceeded their expecta- tion of life, in each case by 3 years. In only three cases out of the forty was there any history of Nervous Disease disclosed in the ])roposal papers. In the first, the member himself, who a.ssured at age 25 and died, after an illness of two days, at age 30, was stated by the Medical Examiner to have “ a peculiar nervous excitability of circulation ” ; in the second the proposer’s mother had died in an asylum ; and in the third the mother was said to sutler from some nervous affection. The average age at entry of our Epileptic members w’as 32, and in none of the cases, with these exceptions, was there, at that time, any reason to even suspect the presence of Epilepsy. Now, Epilepsy makes its appearance in three-fourths of the ca.ses before the age of 20. WTien it develojis later in life, there is always grave suspicion that some organic lesion in the brain, such as Tumour, is the originating cause of the disease, so that we are rather forced to the conclusion that the Epile])tic convulsions, in which our members presumably died, were merely symi)toms of some organic mischief in the brain.