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.

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    This will be abundantly evident if we contrast the propor¬ tion of deaths from bowel complaints, with that from dysen¬ tery during the last 16 years, in periods of four years.* 1834—38. 1838—42. 1842—46. 1846-50. Bowel complaints, .. 68.6 71.8 70.8 69. Dysentery, .. .. 24.3 21.2 25.6 26.3 Thus, while the mortality from dysentery has, on the whole, been increasing, that from all bowel complaints has varied to but a trifling extent. The following have been the admissions and deaths from dysentery in the General Hospital, from 1830 to 1850 : Year. Admission Deaths. Year. Admission . Deaths 1830 144 22 1840 68 11 31 128 20 41 172 42 32 124 20 42 147 41 33 128 19 43 88 19 34 147 39 44 141 28 35 71 20 45 91 31 36 55 10 46 87 27 37 54 15 47 78 17 38 52 13 48 87 25 39 78 15 49 94 24 Total admissions 2044, total deaths 457, or 22.3 per cent. The extremes of mortality have been 14.8 in 1833, and 34. in 1845. The average is higher than that of the Bombay General Hospital, which, for a period of 5 years, was 18.3, and lower than that of the Madras one, in which, for a period of 10 years, it was 30 among Civilians, though only 5.3 for the Military. The average mortality in a series of years appears to have been almost the same in the Calcutta General and Medical College Hospitals, and the extremes in the latter have been 14.1 and 33. The mortality in the year 1840 in the General Hospital was 16, in 1849, 25.5, and in the Medical College Hospital at the same periods 25, and 27. * I have taken a period of 16 years, because in the year 1834 there was a sudden increase of mortality in bowel complaints, which has ever since conti¬ nued. This was the year of the great Continental epidemics of dysentery, and what is perhaps more to the point, the port of Calcutta began to be crowded with ships, many of an inferior class. *