Sewage exhalations the cause of dysentery : an account of an outbreak of dysentery in the Cumberland and Westmoreland Asylum, which was caused by the affluvia from a field irrigated by sewage / by T. S. Clouston, M.D.

  • Clouston, T. S. (Thomas Smith), 1840-1915.
Date:
1865
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Sewage exhalations the cause of dysentery : an account of an outbreak of dysentery in the Cumberland and Westmoreland Asylum, which was caused by the affluvia from a field irrigated by sewage / by T. S. Clouston, M.D. 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.

    8/26 (page 6)
    Cases of erysiplas were not more common than usual, and there was no other epidemic disease prevalent in the Asylum. From the time when the first case of dysentery occurred, I endeavoured to discover the cause of the disease, well knowing that there must be a cause either in the unfavourable hygienic condition of the Asylum or in the food or water. The drainage was the first thing looked to. That, with the exception of the one drain that was frequently being obstructed to which I referred, was found apparently in a satisfactory condition. And the period when the patients were attacked with d}sentery I found to bear no relation to the periods Avhen the drain was obstructed and the ground, opened to clear it out. The whole Asylum was thoroughly and specially cleaned, and the water-closets kept sweet. McDougall's disinfecting powder was used largely whenever it could be appUed. The bread, water, and milk were analysed by Dr, Macadam, of Edinburgh, and found to be free from any obviously deleterious matter. The water was made to pass through a charcoal filter, and boiled before being used for drinking by the patients. All the feeble patients were sent up to the upper wards; they were all made to wear flannel shirts and drawers, and the ventilation was increased by opening the upper sashes of the windows during the night. All those prophylactic means proved unavailing. Still fresh cases occurred, and I confess that I was almost hopeless as to discovering the cause of the epidemic. The soup which the patients had as part of their dietary was discontinued. All the patients in the lower wards had twenty minims of diluted sulpuric acid administered to them three times a-day, because during the cholera epidemic it had been recom- mended as a prophylactic for bowel complaints generally, but one or two of them were attacked while taking the medicine. The dietary did not seem to be at fault, for many of the weakly patients had been on quite a different diet from the ordinary patients, and yet took the disease. The want of stimulants did not seem to be the cause, for many of those same patients had been getting stimulants of all kinds in considerable quantity. Although in the asylum there had been no other epidemic disease while the dysentery prevailed, yet in ISIarch and April three of the inmates of a cottage a few yards from the asylum had typhoid fever. The first of the three attacked had not been staying at home except on the Saturday and Sunday nights previously, and he was never brought home, but taken to the next village. A month after he was attacked the two inmates of the cottage who had always been living there took the disease. They had frequently been to see their brother while he was ill, and at the time I re- solved that for the future I should always adopt the same pre- cautions in the case of typhoid fever as in diseases usually supposed to be infectious. It had often occurred to me whether the dysentery might not