Some account of the last yellow fever epidemic of British Guiana / by Daniel Blair, surgeon general of British Guiana ; edited by John Davy, inspector general of army hospitals, etc.

  • Blair, Daniel.
Date:
1852
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Some account of the last yellow fever epidemic of British Guiana / by Daniel Blair, surgeon general of British Guiana ; edited by John Davy, inspector general of army hospitals, etc. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by King’s College London. The original may be consulted at King’s College London.

    52/290 (page 30)
    The first caHGS in Berbice were those of the Reverends Messrs. Wray and Howes (fatal) in May 1837, the Reverend Mr. Ketley (recovered) 16th June, a young man recently from Demerara (recovered) clerk of Messrs. Foderinghara, Mr. of 65 cases of yellow fever admitted into hospital, 21 died. Nearly all the officers had the disease and died. In this endemic, hajmorrhage from the gums and throat was common; black vomit set in about thirteen hours before death ; there was comparatively little irritability of stomach. In the same year, during the quarter ending the 30th September, the troops in British Guiana were all healthy, whilst yellow fever was prevailin- in Georgetown. ° In Trinidad, in July of this year, at St. Josephs, 19 men of the detachment there died of fever. So healthy had it been in former years, that it had been used as a convalescent station. It is noticed, as a remark- able circumstance, that coincident with the outbreak of fever, all the wells became more or less offensive, — in some degree putrid,—so that it was necessary to get water from the river. The whole of Trinidad at the time was considered unhealthy. Granada about the same time was severely visited by fever. At Fort Frederick, out of 14 men of the Royal Artillery, 11 were attacked, of whom 6 died. At Richmond Hill, out of 207 of the 70th Regiment, 61 were attacked, 14 died. The fever raged amongst the civil population, both white and black; even the acclimated by no means escaped; the crews of the shipping suffered severely. In Barbados, in this year, in November and the early part of December, yellow fever prevailed amongst the inhabitants of Bridgetown, and proved very fatal. The troops then were healthy. In the beginning of January, 1839, the disease appeared in the 52nd Regiment, which in the November preceding had arrived from Gibraltar : of 37 admitted into hospital, 6 died. The officers of the regiment suffered in a greater proportion ; of 10 attacked, 3 died; 12 were the whole number in barracks. It is remarkable that every individual who had any duty to perform requiring his presence in the orderly room, which was in the officers' barrack (pre- viously considered healthy), was attacked with fever; and also tliat few escaped, who occupied the adjoining lower rooms : thus of 24 persons con- nected with this part of the building, only 2 females and 4 young children escaped the disease. The building was vacated, the floor taken up,—nothing offensive was found underneath. [It is worthy of remark, that in the recent outbreak of yellow fever in the garrison of St. Ann, Barbados, the first fatal case of yellow fever that occurred in the 72nd Regiment, occupying the brick barracks, was in an officer who slept in the room mentioned.] In the quarter ending the 30th June, 1839, there were, out of 123 cases of fever amongst the troops in Georgetown, an average of 39 deaths. The inhabitants at the time were reported healthy, as also the seamen and the troops in Berbice and at the out-stations. The weather was described as particularly fine. In the beginning of September, when the fever had ceased amongst the troops, it began' among the towns-people and in the shipping on the river, and proved very fatal. In St. Vincent, in the same quarter (that ending the 30th June), yellow fever was very destructive amongst the troops ; out of 310 (the total strength of the white troops), 240 cases occurred, ,)4 died ; out of 18 officers, the whole in the garrison, nine Avore attacked, four died. In St. Lucia, from the middle of August to the end of September, the troops at Morne Fortune suffered from fever; out of 134 white troops, 93