[Report 1893] / Medical Officer of Health, Godstone R.D.C.

  • Godstone (Surrey, England). Rural District Council.
Date:
1893
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1893] / Medical Officer of Health, Godstone R.D.C. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    51/70 (page 23)
    Pursuing my investigations outside the school boundaries, two possible sources presented themselves— ist. An accumulation of filth and sewage in a field close to the road and not far from the school, arising from the drainage of several houses in the village and immediately opposite the cottage where one of the earliest cases resided, marked C in the series. The parents of several of the children agreed in saying that this field formed a convenient playground for their children and that they often came home complaining of the smells arising from this accumula¬ tion of sewage, which being in close proximity to the road was also noticed by the teachers and others as they passed to and from school, particularly during the very hot weather. Here it was that case A, who, as I have previously mentioned, has a chronic inflamed throat, frequently stayed on his way home and played with his intimate friend C, who lived opposite, and being somewhat specially susceptible by reason of the condition of his throat may have contracted the disease there and conveyed it to his friend and others near him during school time. He also took his dinner to school and admits having frequently lent his drinking bottle to others and was one of those who attended school during the day upon which he afterwards fell ill, and would be in an infectious condition probably. 2nd.—Enquiry into the circumstances attending the illness of the seventh case marked G. in the series, shewed him to be living in one of the houses in the Station Road called Marsland Cottages, upon which I have on a former occasion been obliged to report unfavourably. A little boy aged 6 who attended school on June 30th was taken ill, and pronounced to be suffering from diphtheria on July 2nd, which proved fatal on July 7th. For some days previous to this illness an older brother aged 8 who also attended the Infant School had been ailing and not feeling well, but not sufficiently ill in the estimation of the parents to suggest their sending for the doctor. His mother, who was confined on June 14th, states that this general ailing of this boy commenced about a week after that date, by which she is able to fix it, but she still kept sending him to school and the register shews that he did so attend with an occasional absence for half a day. He, however, became so far worse as to be in bed one day during the week ending June 30th, but got fairly well by the time his brother fell ill. There is little doubt but that he suffered from the disease, and his present condition shows it also by one very significant sympton, viz., absence of the pateller reflex, so that the inference is [ 23 ]