On the identity or non-identity of the specific cause of typhoid, typhus and relapsing fever / by William Jenner.

  • Jenner, William, Sir, 1815-1898.
Date:
1850
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the identity or non-identity of the specific cause of typhoid, typhus and relapsing fever / by William Jenner. 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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    Into these tables are collected all the cases in which more than one of a family, or more than one inhabitant of ahonse, suffering from Typhoid, Typhus, or Relapsing Fever, were admitted into the London Fever Hospital, during the periods specified.^ It will be observed, that in 1847 there were admitted into the London Fever Hospital two or more cases of typhus fever from each of five separate localities; that two cases of typhoid fever were received from either of two localities; and two cases of relapsing fever from each of five distinct localities. Twelve cases of typhus fever having been brought from five houses, four cases of typhoid fever from two houses, ^ I ought to qualify the expression all the cases, because it was not till the year 1848 that the diagnosis between these diseases was made with reference to all the cases admitted into the Hospital. The conse- quence is that not only are there no data for determining the numbers of each of the three affections received into the Hospital during 1847, but there are no data for determining, in many instances, to which of the three diseases any given case ought to be referred; i. e. the past histories of particular cases were only partially obtained, the exact locality from which the patient came was not recorded, the name of the street, or even parish, being often all that was ascertained. I have, therefore, been obliged to omit very many cases received into the Hospital in 1847; but I have included all those of which the records available for my purpose permitted the diagnosis to be made, and the locality from which the patient came, to be learned. In 1848, comparatively very few oases were admitted of which the diagnosis was not recorded, and the exact residence ascertained; and during 1849, the greatest care was taken to ascertain the locality from which each case was received. Since the middle of 1848, the diagnosis of the cases here used has been made or verified in nearly every instance by myself. In 1849 in every case. Before the middle of 1848, the characters of the spots were in many cases recorded by my friends Mr. Sankey, or his assistant, Mr. Humphrey, i. e. if two of one family entered the Hospital, the notes of one of the cases were frequently taken by either of those gentlemen, while I kept record of the other; this fact I regard as valuable, because it was only on collating these notes, eighteen months after they were made, that I became aware of many of the facts embodied in this paper.