Mr W. H. Power's report to the local government board on an outbreak of diphtheria at the village of Bleadon, in the Axbridge rural sanitary district.

  • Power, W. H.
Date:
1879
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Mr W. H. Power's report to the local government board on an outbreak of diphtheria at the village of Bleadon, in the Axbridge rural sanitary district. 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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    5 analyst) dated November 9th, 1878, pronounced a single sample of this water free from contamination of sewage, it may be questioned whether this well can be trusted to afford a uniformly safe supply. However this may be, there is no evidence that this parish well has had to do with the production of diphtheria. Of households in the village resorting to it for water 9 or 24 per cent, were invaded ; while of households obtaining water from other and very various sources, 14 or 23 per cent, were invaded. 4. As to Diseases of Animals.—Inquiry in the district as to diseases of animals, proved negative except in one instance. Lambs at a farm at Shiplate, in Bleadon parish, suffered toward the end of September, and subsequently, from a disease which up to that date does not appear to have been known in the neighbourhood, and to which the authorities of the Royal Veterinary College in London (who had both dead and living specimens furnished them) do not seem to have understood. The flock of lambs in question, some 60 or 70 in number, were well nigh all attacked, and upwards of 30 died. Most of the animals that died were buried; but a few were begged of the farmer by persons residing at Bleadon, ostensibly for the purpose of feeding their pigs. None were, it is said, sold. Pro- ceeding to inquire as to any possible relation of such disease to diphtheria in the human subject, no evidence (after a lapse of five months) was forth- coming to associate this disease of lambs directly or indirectly with the human malady. I could not ascertain that any of the flesh of these lambs had been consumed in Bleadon; nor, was there any suggestion of a common cause operating alike on lambs at Shiplate and on persons at Bleadon, producing in the one “ lamb disease,” and in the other diphtheria. It may be noted, however, though not perhaps as having any special significance, that the lamb disease existed in its greatest intensity coincidently with the major outbreak of diphtheria; that the farmer’s family suffered (the only one so suffering at Shiplate) early in the outbreak from throat illness of the nature of diphtheria ; and that the first sufferer from diphtheria in Bleadon village was sister to a servant at this Shiplate farmhouse. 5. As to Milk.—Inquiry was made as to various articles of food as possible agents in propagation of the diphtheria. With the exception of milk none afforded any suggestion of such relation. With regard to milk it was found that though as an article of diet it is not universally in use at Bleadon, all of the households invaded took milk at least once weekly; most of them had it daily. The milk-supply of the place seems to have been both complex and variable. Some dozen persons keep their own cows, mainly perhaps for butter and cheese making, but also for the milk-supply of their own families, and as well for the habitual or occasional supply of a few neighbouring families. In addition there are in the village two milk retailers who supply more or less regularly some 50 of the households. Neither of these retailers (to whom I shall presently refer as No. 1 and No. 2) keep cows of their own, but instead they rent cows (few or many, according to season of the year and yield of milk) from one or more farmers in the parish. At the time of the outbreak the 24 households invaded seemed to have obtained milk as follows: 14 from retailer No. 1; 4 from retailer No. 2 ; and 6 from their own or from neighbours cows. On the best inquiry that could be made five months after date it appeared that there was no relation worth a moment’s consideration between milk and the incidence of the diphtheria epidemic, regarded as a whole. Thus, of the 60 households of the village comprising children among their inmates, presumably the households most susceptible of diphtheria— 36 were supplied by retailer No. 1, and 13 or 36 per cent, were invaded. 8 ,, ,, 2, ,, 3 ,, 37 ,, ,, 13 „ their own or by neighbours’ cows, 4 or 30 ,, 3 had no milk at all, and none „ On the other hand, when examination was made of the milk supply of those households which suffered earliest in the outbreak, it was noticed that of 16 households invaded up to November 9th, no less than 13 (81 per cent.)