Sanitary measures and their results : being a sequel to "The history of cholera in Exeter in 1832," to which is now added a short account of its occurance in 1849 / by Thomas Shapter, M.D.

  • Thomas Shapter
Date:
1866
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Sanitary measures and their results : being a sequel to "The history of cholera in Exeter in 1832," to which is now added a short account of its occurance in 1849 / by Thomas Shapter, 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.

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    sick officer, who had been watching for two days and nights at his chamber door : he also recovered. The history of the Cholera in this regiment, after its arrival in Exeter, may in . fact be thus summed up : five men attacked, of whom two died. i I It is worthy of remark, and of the most serious considera- itiou, that there never existed the slightest grounds for suspecting that the arrival in this City of the barque, in which the captain had died, or of the I'egiment, in which so many ; cases and deaths had previously occurred, had been the means of pro]Dagating the disease in any one instance ; while both as regards the former, and more particularly the latter, the most beneficial and satisfactory results were conspicuously evident. The change in their position was simply this : they had quitted districts where epidemic influences were rendered fatal by local circumstances, to sojourn in one, also under these influences, Ibut where the fatal tendencies had Jj)een lessened by sanitary measures. , On the 8th of January, 1850, the Sanitary Committee, isso, jconsideriug that all risk from the disease, to provide against sanumy** Iwhich it had been appointed, had passed away, concluded its i °si^n.' labours, having previously drawn up and presented to the Corporation of the Poor and other public bodies of the City, a Report, in which its proceedings, as above detailed, were somewhat more fully set forth. A lesson, doubtless, was to be learned by the recurrence of i849. the epidemic in 1849 ; and a lesson will also now be taught Lessons'io |by its recurrence in 18G6. It will probably be found that the instances of the disease that have occurred have been chiefly amongst a people inhabiting too numerously old and ill- iconstructed houses, and these, perhaps, so crowded together as to interfere with efficient and wholesome ventilation, or residences carelessly or wilfully ill-conditioned as regards cleanliness, &c ; or in those persons unfortunately borne down beneath the yoke of those special habits of improvidence, which experience shows, even under more favourable circum-