Further observations on that portion of the second report on quarantine by the General Board of Health, which related to the yellow fever epidemy on board H.M.S. Eclair and at Boa Vista, etc / by J. O. McWilliam.

Date:
1852
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Further observations on that portion of the second report on quarantine by the General Board of Health, which related to the yellow fever epidemy on board H.M.S. Eclair and at Boa Vista, etc / by J. O. McWilliam. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    ** Report on Quarantine” :—“ It will scarcely be considered os affording an additional link, since, admitting that this man contracted his fever while employed on board the Eclair, his case would be merely one of infection from going on board a foul ship,” etc. “ But as in the locality of the dwelling of Gallinhn, so in the district in which this man lived, there were local causes abundantly sufficient to account for the endemic origin of the disease.” (“ Report on Quarantine,” p. 101.) It will be remembered by those who have examined the Re- ports of the Boa Vista fever, that Pathi was taken ill at Mora- dinha, where he remained eight days, and was then con- veyed to his house in ltabil, where, I am of opinion, he arrived about the 25th September, and that one of his daughters was first seized in the beginning of October; the rest of his children and his wife were attacked in suc- cession, all much within a reasonable incubative period.(a) I need scarcely add, that the evidence as to Pathi’s being the first case at llabil is overwhelming.(b) The “ Report on Quarantine,” with reference to Pathi’s case, continues:—“ It is also to be particularly observed, that a child in another family at ltabil, having no communi- cation with the family of Pathi, died about the same time as Pathi's first child,” &c.—(Report on Quarantine, p. 10-1.) This statement is made, I presume, on the strength of a reply to a question (1327) put to Jos6 Marques; but the evidence of Joaquitn Pathi (751), the cousin of Luis Pathi, (more likely to remember events in Luis Pathi’s family than (a) Dr. King states, that the children were not taken ill until a month after the father’s return home. I must here observe, with reference to this or to nny other difference between Dr. King and myself, as regards the epidemy, that I beg to refer to the answers given to my questions, which are set down in detail. Dr. King’s Report contains no such means of refer, ence; and I must leave it for others to decide whether the mode of inquiry pursued by Dr. King nt Boa Vista, or that adopted l>y myself, was best calculated to elicit truth from the interrogated, or to convey the real fact* of the case to others. Dr. King's method of inquiry is to be found at p. 4 of his Report. (b) “ The following are the names of the owners of the houses immediately adjacent to Luis Pathi:—Manor 1 Fachina, Joaquim Marques, Joaquitn Pathi. Mnnoel Uosa Luis Delgado Nasario. . following are the names of those first attacked in Rabil, with the dotes, as far as they can he ascertained:— *• Luls Pathi—Sept. 18th. [Moradinha, J. O. M*W.]