Where consumption is bred in Manchester and Salford : a paper read before the Economic and Statistical Section of the British Association, Manchester Meeting, 1887 / by Arthur Ransome.

Arthur Ransome

Date:: 1888

Credit: Where consumption is bred in Manchester and Salford : a paper read before the Economic and Statistical Section of the British Association, Manchester Meeting, 1887 / by Arthur Ransome. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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$T is well known that air rendered impure by respiration and a damp snljsoil are ]>owcrful factors in the spread of consumption. Hereditary tendency to the disease ^ lias a certain influence, si'eini' that a constitution, esiiecuilly vulnerable by the sjiecific morbific oriranisni, is transmitted frc>m parents to their offsprinj;; but this influence would have little effect if the mattries morhi were not cultivated, and perhaps rendere<l virulent by those two unhealthy conditions. It is highly proUible that in this climate the transmission of the disease is only jxissible by this medium, namely by air charged with oi'ganic matter either from the ground or of animal origin, for when these are al*sent the ilisease never spreads from person to jierson; and on the other hand, it is jKissible to iutroiluce the disease into damp ill-ventilated dwellings, and after such introduction it will attack buscc{>- tible inmate.s, esiieciully the younger members of the household. The lieueficial influence of improved ventilation has l«en amply shown by the records of the phthisis mortality in the army and navy in all parts of the world, by the reports of public institutions, and by the immunity of races and jieoples wlio pass their lives cliiefly in the open air; and the influence of drainage is shown by the improvement in the rate of mortality fi-om phthisis in places where iinprovcil drainage has licen introduceil. Dr. Buchanan’s comparison l>ctween the phthisis rates of |X>rous and clay soils, and the history of localities on clovatcil sites, j)oints to the sjime con- clusion with regard to the second proposition. The Ojllec- * A |M|>cr read b«!for« the Vkionotnic and Statistical Section of tho UritUh Association, Manchester Mcc'Iiik, t887.$