Dr. Ballard's report to the local government board on an epidemic of enteric fever at Newlyn, in the rural sanitary district of St. Columb, Cornwall.

  • Ballard, Edward.
Date:
1880
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Dr. Ballard's report to the local government board on an epidemic of enteric fever at Newlyn, in the rural sanitary district of St. Columb, Cornwall. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service. The original may be consulted at London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service.

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    2 pump. From some parts of the village this source is about a quarter of a mile distant, and naturally the villagers (especially those residing at a distance) have been very sparing in the use of water. Mr. Vigurs, the Poor Law Medical Officer, who resides in the village, says that for a long time past he has been convinced that the water of the town pump was grossly polluted, and that he has consequently not permitted any of it to be brought into his house. It is a well sunk at the roadside to a depth of about five or six feet into the fissured slaty rock (killas) of the district. The public drain in its course from the opposite side of the road to the ditch into which it discharges itself, runs past the well at a distance from it of about three or four yards, and at about a foot or a foot and a half lower level than a former overflow of the well. Some inhabitants told me that, since the drain was put in, the water had sunk in the well so that it had ceased to overflow at any time. On causing the drain and the well to be opened up, I found that the level of the water in the well was that of the drain, that the pipes of which the drain was made were not cemented together, and that both near the well and on the opposite side of the road the sewage leaked out of it into the loose rocky earth in which it was laid. In fact it was abundantly obvious that for a long time past there had been a free interchange of contents between the well and the drain ; and an examination of the wall of the well showed actual filthy matter oozing into the well from one of the fissures of the rock on the side next the roadway. In dry weather, when the water sank in the well, the flow into it from the neighbouring drain must have been plenteous. What is known as “ Butt’s spring ” is situated in a hollow at the far corner of a meadow. The water flows from a spout made of an earthen land drainage pipe. The surroundings were such as to inspire simple disgust, since the surface of the field and the ditch close to the spring were defiled with human excrement deposited there by the women and children when they came to fetch water. They probably had no privy at home. It was necessary to walk circumspectly to avoid treading in this filth. The “ new well ” and the “ western well,” about 30 and 60 feet deep respectively, are situated in the higher parts of the village close to houses which have been invaded by fever, the slops from which houses flow close to the top of the well. Both wells are from their surroundings liable to dangerous pollution. In these circumstances of drainage and water supply, and of excremental filth, it would appear that there has been abundant opportunity for the spread of fever in the village if the material of the fever became accidentally introduced. Such an epidemic spread has occurred more than once before, namely, about 1848, and again in 1874. On the latter occasion, Mr. Vigurs tells me the epidemic was very severe and extensive. On September 24 Dr. Mackay, the newly appointed Medical Officer of Health, when making a primary visitation of his district, became unex- pectedly aware of the fact that a serious epidemic of enteric fever was existent at Newlyn, at once inquired into it, visited several of the sick to satisfy himself of the nature of the disease, and the next day reported the results of his inquiry to the Guardians of St. Columb Major, who are the Rural Sanitary Authority. Continuing his inquiries specially into the causes of the epidemic, he reported again on October 21. By a minute of the Authority he was prohibited from obeying the Board’s Order of March 12 last, requiring him to transmit a copy of each of these special reports for the information of the Board. By the courtesy of the clerk, however, in complying with my request for copies, I obtained copies of these reports, and forward them with this report. I append to this report the minute of the Sanitary Authority just referred to. The first intimation of the outbreak which the Board received was from a paragraph in the “ Times ” newspaper of October 19, and it was in view of that paragraph that I was instructed to make an inquiry. I commenced it on October 23, and it was terminated on November 1. Up to November 1 the list of cases given me by Mr. Vigurs amounted to 99 persons; probably there were in addition other mild cases not on the list, so that I shall not be far wrong in estimating that about one-sixth of the population had been attacked. The number of families or houses invaded was 62 (more than one-third of all the families in the place); and in some