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.

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    of death was only lo-7. This exception, however, has no force, for It is caused by the short period of exposure of the North American traders, whose stay seldom exceeds eight or ten days m port.* From the records, from which the above centesimal proportions have been calculated, the szmpZcz cases have been struck out in all instances. Intemperance was occasionally a predisposing cause by reck- lessness of exposure; but abstinence, as shown on board of the American teetotal ships, was no protection. In fact delirium tremens was not an unfavourable complication of the disease.f Sometimes the determining cause seemed of the slightest description — the shock on the stomach by an ice cream or glass of iced punch, or the indigestion of an unripe orange, would occasionally set the train of symptoms in motion. It seemed at one time as if those resident in the infected districts circulated the poison habitually through their system; that old residents had in an eminent degree the power of eliminating it and keep- ing its presence latent — had a tolerance of it; but that new comers, and particularly those of florid complexion and rigid * An approximation to the correction due for short residence will be found in the following Table of 489 Yellow Fever Cases admitted to the Seaman's Hospital, and observed as to length of time in harbour. Time in Harbour. Total Cases Mitior and Gravior. Total Deaths. Centesimal Mortality. Under 1 Week 19 1 5-2 1 to 2 Weeks 84 17 20-2 2 to 4 Weeks 137 38 27-7 4 to 6 Weeks 98 31 31-6 6 to 9 Weeks 96 34 35-4 9 to 12 Weeks', 32 5 15-6 12 to 16 Weeks 17 1 5-8 16 upwards - 6 2 33-3 f [Of 96 men, of the 88th Regiment, attacked by yellow fever in 1847-8, the majority were drunken characters ; 52 were so designated in a nominal return now before me, which was drawn up at the time by the surgeon of the corps; of these 52, no less than 18 proved fatal,—whilst of the 44 designated temperate, 3 only died. But in the 66th Regiment, which suc- ceeded the 88th, and sufl'ered shortly after from the same fever, as many sober men were the victims of it as intemperate; according to a nominal return, extending from the 26th February to the 4th August, 1848, of 15 who died of 98 attacked, 5 only were men either intemperate or reformed drunkards, the remainder being considered temperate. It need hardly be remarked, that the greatest caution is recjuisite in drawing general conclu- sions, and that they can hardly fail of being erroneous, excepting when they arc the results of extensive induction.] —En.