Statistical studies in immunity : the incubation period and the crisis / by John Brownlee.

  • John Brownlee
Date:
1906
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Statistical studies in immunity : the incubation period and the crisis / by John Brownlee. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    [From the Proceedings of the Royal Philosophical Society of Glasgow.] Statistical Studies m Immunity, The Incubation Period and the Crisis. By John Brownlee, M.A., M.D., Glasgow, Physician Superintendent, City of Glasgow Fever and Small- pox Hospitals, Belvidere. [Read before the Society, 7th November, 1906.] In the present paper it is intended to discuss a few of the facts concerning incubation periods and the days of crisis in different diseases in relation to questions of immunity. Unfortunately data referring to large numbers of cases are not readily obtainable even in the records of a large infectious diseases hospital. In some diseases such as typhus fever the most recent text-books give practically no incubation data, and even in Glasgow where this disease is still present to a small extent, and where therefore the conditions to determine the facts are most favourable, the number of instances in which the incubation period can be fixed from a single contact is so small as to make the figures useless for statistical purposes. Other diseases such as Measles are very infectious for a certain number of days before definite diagnosis is possible, and in this case the number of instances in which the incubation period can be fixed within 24 hours is surprisingly small. Two diseases alone, namely varicella and variola, have been found to furnish good data for the present purpose. Of the former I have been able to collect the incubation periods of sixty- five cases, and of the latter forty-six. In the case of the former I have seen no evidence that patients incubating it possess any infectivity prior to the appearance of the symptoms. Twice it has happened that children have been transferred from wards on the day prior to the appearance of a varicellar eruption without the subsequent development of the disease in the wards from which they were removed. The characteristic rash in most cases is the earliest symptom. In consequence as a considerable number of children suffering from other diseases are admitted to the hospital incubating this disease, unknowingly placed among susceptible persons, and removed on the first appearance of the new illness, all the conditions necessary for the accurate determination of the