On Bengal dysentery and its statistics, with a notice of the use of large enemata in that disease, and of quinine in remittent fever / [John Macpherson].

  • Macpherson, John, 1817-1890
Date:
1850
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On Bengal dysentery and its statistics, with a notice of the use of large enemata in that disease, and of quinine in remittent fever / [John Macpherson]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    10/70 (page 4)
    The accompanying table, compiled from Major TulloclPs reports, shows the percentage of deaths to cases among H. M/s troops in various parts of the world: Bermuda,. 3.2 Mauritius,. 6.0 Nova Scotia, 7.4 Jamaica, 4.3 Canada, 5.0 Windward and Lee-1 7.1 Mediterranean, .. 4.0 ward Islands, .. J St. Helena,.. 10.6 Ceylon, . 13.0 Sierra Leone, 18.0 Tenasserim,. 8,5 Cape of Good Hope, .. 4.7 Three Presidencies, .. 8.3 2. In Bengal Major Tulloch gives the mortality of H. M/s troops at 8 per cent., and Dr. Mackinnon finds, that among the European troops for 7 years at Cawnpore, it was 6.16. In Calcutta and its neighbourhood, the percent¬ age among European troops appears to be rather more than 9 per cent.; but it varies much, for some regiments have suffered much more heavily. Thus, H. M/s 21st Eusiliers lost in Eort William and Chinsurah, at the rate of 17 per cent.; and H. M/s 70th, in crowded barracks at Dum-Dum, suffered at the rate of 35 per cent, during the first six months after its arrival from England. 3. In an Institution like the General Hospital, to which patients are often sent in the last stage of disease, and which receives all sick soldiers left behind by their regiments, as well as all sick invalids on their way home, one would natu¬ rally expect to find a high rate of mortality. Raleigh gives it as from 10 to 14 per cent., and Martin says, it is 10.27. But the following table of admissions and deaths during the last 20 years will shew that they have greatly under¬ rated it. The mortality from all “ bowel complaints” is about 19 per cent., much higher than the rate assigned by them, but not equal to the reality. Of course the mortality in returns can be made to vary much according as cases are classed under the heads of diarrhoea or dysentery, a point often requiring nice discrimination.