Report of the commissioners appointed to inquire into the causes which have led to, or have aggravated the late outbreak of cholera in the towns of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Gateshead, and Tynemouth.

  • Great Britain. Cholera Inquiry Commission.
Date:
1854
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report of the commissioners appointed to inquire into the causes which have led to, or have aggravated the late outbreak of cholera in the towns of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Gateshead, and Tynemouth. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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

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    for iiiaiiy years ; that the ‘descriptions of the sanitary state of the town in previous years, hereto annexed, were in the main applicable to it in the autumn of 1853; that the same causes, which at those previous periods were reported as exercising an unfavourable influence in respect of the then prevalent epidemics, were also to a very great degree present last autumn, and exercised a similar unfavourable influence in respect of the late outbreak of cholera ; and that the sanitary state, especially of the poorer districts of Newcastle, at the time of the late outbreak, was such as to warrant the apprehension that an epidemic, if it did make its appearance, would prevail there very severely. 17. That some of the medical practitioners, who gave evidence before us, while concurring in the received views as to the laws which regulate the attacks and ravages of epidemics generally, made various statements and suggestions tending to intimate that the cholera, at its late outbreak in Newcastle, did not obey the same laws as ordinary epidemics, but proved itself more or less inde- pendent of the local causes predisposing to other epidemics; and, in particular, endeavoured to instance to us the occurrence of cholera in localities free from any material sanitary defects or predisposing local causes. 18. That we at once accepted the task of the investigation thus proposed to us, and from time to time pursued the inquiry into the true sanitary state of the localities * thus suggested to us as free from material sanitary defects ; but that these investigations, far from conducing to the conclusions in support of which they were originally proposed, serve, in our opinion, rather to bear out the contrary, and to illustrate the close connection habitually prevailing between the virulence of cholera and the neglect of ordinary sanitary precautions. 19. That the circumstance, which chiefly gave rise to these peculiar views and suggestions, appears to have been this, viz.:—That the cholera, during its late outbreak, did not, as on former occasions, confine itself almost exclusively to the ordinary and habitual seats of disease, inhabited by the poorer classes, but also extended its ravages to adjacent and in some respects better conditioned localities, inhabited by the middling and even upper classes; but that this circumstance is, in our opinion, properly and easily explicable on recognized sanitary principles, and affords an illustration of, rather than an exception to, the ordinary laws of public health. 20. That one such explanation of a similar feature in the great scarlatina epidemic of 1845-7 was suggested in the Newcastle Dispensary Report for 1847, which, after observing that “in these confined courts the drainage was “ only supci-ficial, and that large masses of filth were allowed to accumulate “ round the doors, while the houses themselves were almost entirely devoid of “ proper means of ventilation, and this in localities surroimded on all sides by “ the habitations of the wealthier classes,” proceeded to inquire: “ Can it then “ be a matter of surprise that disease should occasionally visit them (the “ habitations of the wealthier classes) with as much severity as the late “ epidemic has, in too many instances, done ?”—and that a similar explanation of this same feature of that epidemic Avas also given at the time by an inde- pendent medical practitioner. 21. That on the 12th September 1853, in the height of the recent outbreak, Mr. Grainger, Superintending Inspector of Health in the medical department, reported to the General Board of Health that “ there was no doubt that the “ general malaria, rising out of the neglected and miserable parts of Newcastle, “ overhangs the whole town and penetrates into every domicile, and acts in this “ epidemic period as an intensifying, predisposing, and all-influential cause.” 22. That, bcai iiig in mind the unusually heavy and stagnant state of the atmosphere, which appears to liave ]ire\’ailed in tlie town during the worst dominance of the late epidemic, we are of opinion that the above is to a certain extent a true solution or explanation of the circumstance alluded to ; and that we entertain no doubt whatsoever as to the virulence f ol‘ the * Carliol-strcc-t—Q. (J87-92, 70.7-18, 7R3-5, 784, 9.55-64. Ridley-villas, 8cc.—Q. 729-32, 736, 888-90, 965, 2615-9,2628-30,2661,3679-3713, 4276-88. Collin^wooil-.strcot.—Q. 3450-60, 3473. (4avt<in-stn‘c(—(^.38.3.5, 4.5.5.3-82, 461.5-7, 4626-36, 4644,4796-4802. Ncdson-strect — Q. 4592, 4647, .5915-20. (Intiiifrci-Mn-ct—Q. 4953-4, 4608-12, 480.3-10. Wlinlton—Q. 719-21, 1522-57, 1797-1805. t (/. 108-1 10, 29.3-8, 818-9, 11.37-16, 1165 77, 1495-1.500, 1561, 1614, 1689,1857,2.559-61, 291.3-5, .3120-1, .32.33-6, .3275-6, 33.55-6, .3972-3, 3999-400.5, 4048-60,4067, 4211-2, 4275, 4354, 4388, 442.3, 5283-7, 5294-6. a 4 Q. 79, 82, 83, 84, 105, 106. P. 41-43, 43-50. Q. 2887-99. P. 275-6. Q. 4282-3, 4963-9, 4977-88. Q. 942-6, 1118-26, 2559-61. Q. .3461-3, 3481-2, 3496, 3501-5. Q. 4-8, 30-2, 42, 48-50, 56, 58-61, 121-2, 653, 685-6, 741, 3746-7. Q. 568, 573-4, 796-8. N.D.Rep.AD.l 847, p. 7. Q. 1488, 1497- 1502. P. 55, near bottom. Q. 1517-21,1714- 21, 1973, 3958- 60, 5771, 6075-6.