On some statistical indications of a relationship between scarlatina, puerperal fever, and certain other diseases / by G.B. Longstaff.

  • Longstaff, George Blundell, 1849-1921.
Date:
1880
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On some statistical indications of a relationship between scarlatina, puerperal fever, and certain other diseases / by G.B. Longstaff. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    construction of the larger chart; also, “ rheumatism ” in- cludes all cases returned under that heading—presumably many of them chronic joint affections, whereas these cases, along with many others, are excluded in the larger dia- gram. “ Rheumatism, with disease of heart or pericardium”, may be fairly regarded as comprising few cases other than acute rheumatism, though of course not including by any means all the deaths due to rheumatic fever. The colours on the two charts otherwise correspond. Now, in certain respects, all the eight curves resemble one another. All the curves are above the mean from the last week in November to the first week in January inclusive, and they are all below the mean from the first week in June to the second week in August inclusive. There are grounds for believing that if the deaths from laryngismus stridulus could be separated from laryngitis deaths the curve would be somewhat modified, so as to approach more nearly that of croup. As it is, this curve re- sembles more closely that of bronchitis than my examination of the annually fluctuating death-rates from these two causes would have led me to expect. Messrs. Buchan and Mitchell state that the sudden depression of the curve in January is almost constant from year to year. May not this be caused by the deaths from laryngismus stridulus commencing to rise to their maximum at this point, as the curves of epilepsy and convulsions do? Omitting for a moment scarlatina from consideration, and dismissing laryngitis as unsatisfactory, we have remaining six curves having a very striking resemblance one to another, which is more especially remarked in the case of erysipelas and puerperal fever. The scarlatina curve, if shifted about five weeks further on, would be not unlike the other curves. It is conceivable that similar causes may tend to the production of scarlatina first, and later on to the other affections—somewhat as a change of type is frequently observed during the course of an epidemic, notably in cholera. It should be added, that all of these curves have been modified from those published in the memoir referred to by the use of what is known as l( Bloxam’s method”, whereby, instead of taking the average number of deaths in each particular week, the mean of the average of that week, the week preceeding, and the week following is taken. The method is very useful when the number of deaths, or the number of years is too small to give a smooth curve; inequalities produced in accordance with the law of proba-