Report for the year 1896 of the statistical committee, with appendices : (11th year of issue) / Metropolitan Asylums Board.

  • Metropolitan Asylums Board (London, England). Statistical Committee.
Date:
1897
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report for the year 1896 of the statistical committee, with appendices : (11th year of issue) / Metropolitan Asylums Board. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    ii. REPORTS OF THE MEDICAL SUPERINTENDENTS OF THE SEVERAL FEVER HOSPITALS FOR THE YEAR 1896. (For Statistics, see pp. G4 to 87.) [N.B.—Those portions of the Reports relating to alterations to buildings and other matters of no general interest have been omitted.] No. 1. THE EASTERN HOSPITAL. Homerton, N.E., January 20th, 1S97. •5fr * * * During the year 3,553 patients have been under treatment. Of these 1,621 have been discharged recovered, 1,327 have been transferred to other hospitals of the Board, and 235 have died, leaving 370 under treatment. The percentage mortality is 7*30, or half what it was last year. On only one previous occasion has the gross mortality been less than 10 per cent., namely, in 1887, when it was 9*3, and in that year no cases of diphtheria and practically no cases of typhus fever were admitted into the hospital. The cause of the lowness of the gross mortality will appear when the mortalities of the different classes of disease are considered. The number of scarlet fever cases under treatment has been 2,441. ^ever* Of these, 924 were discharged, 1,156 were transferred, 88 died, and 273 remained at the end of the year. The percentage mortality is 4*05. Included among the fatal cases- are eight in which death was due to causes in no way connected with the attack of scarlet fever for which the patients were admitted. These cases are as follow:—Whooping-cough, four ; tuberculous disease of the lungs, two ; empyema and pericarditis, one ; exophthalmic goitre, one. If allowance is made for these cases, the scarlet fever mortality is 3*68. The mortality given above, 4*05, is the lowest that has hitherto been recorded at this hospital. The nearest approach to this figure is 5-4 for 1891. Two factors conduced to the lower mortality for the past year ; firstly, the disease was, especially after March, of a milder type than had been admitted during the previous four years ; secondly, there were fewer deaths than usual from secondary diphtheria and from diseases such as those enumerated above (whooping-cough, tuberculosis, <&c.). It is especially noticeable that only 14 patients suffered from measles as well as scarlet fever, and not one of them died. Post- There were 39 cases of secondary or post-scarlatinal diphtheria, with scarlatinal three deaths, a mortality of 7-6 per cent. A detailed list of these Diphtheria. cageg? with observations, will be found in the Medical Supplement, p. 159. There were 21 cases of other forms of secondary sore throat.