Report to the board of supervision as to outbreak of typhoid fever at Crosshill, parish of Cathcart, and county of Renfrewshire / by Henry D. Littlejohn, M.D., F.R.C.S.

  • Littlejohn, Henry (Henry Duncan), 1826-1914.
Date:
1875
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report to the board of supervision as to outbreak of typhoid fever at Crosshill, parish of Cathcart, and county of Renfrewshire / by Henry D. Littlejohn, M.D., F.R.C.S. 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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    the excreta of the patients were depo«te«i, and was conducted to a large midden oommuiiicatiug directly with the ]>rivy belonging to the house, and, what to my mind was of more importance, with the privy of the public school, so that the one ventilated directly into the other. The ^ition of the well rendered it exceedingly unlikely that any soakagc from the midden should reach it; but I certainly thought that after the higher ground in its imme<liate vicinity was inanurtKl with the contents of the midden, the well would be highly chargeil with organic matter. To enable me to jwlge pj”’ ^ more accurately of the water supply of the village, I t<H>k another sj>ecimen n from a well in a meadow to the east of the. village, and in front of the No. 7 on doctor’s house. I ne.vt visited Polnoon Ixxlge, ap^sirently a kind of clear- Plan, mg house for the milk of the district. Mr. Aitkeii, the manager, was not at home, but I saw the owner Mrs. .Maepheratm. There alst) everything was scrupulously clean, and I was allowed free liberty to inspect the pre- mises. I was assured by Mrs. Macjdu'rson that no milk was brought into the lodge, and that the milk, so soon as it was delivcre<l in the road before the house, was desjaitcLed to Glasgow, The 8j>ecimeiie of water were conveyed to Edinburgh, and handed to the City Analyst, Mr. J. F. King, for analysis, and i append his rejKuds, Na dated 19th March lM7f> (Ajija-ndix No. III.). The couclusious at which III-, p^«s Mr. King arrives are, that the water supply at M'auker farm is decideilly ® impurt.*, and should not be ustnl for liieietic piirpt)se*; and that the siitHiimens from the schoolbouse and from the well in the green are impure, but that the amount of impurity is so small as not to n.‘uder the water» unlit for use. As the result of my visit to Eaglesham. 1 am of optuion that the locality was an infected one, and that the disease, however originating in the first instance, had spread by means of the excreta of the jiatients con- taminating, l^t, tlio air of the houses; 2d, the air of tlie neighl>uurhoo»l, from having la^en exijoeetl on maideiiH and in wator-coursi-s; and, Uutthj, the water sujiply. Kac*h case, so to S|»eak, formed a fresh centre of infec- tion ; and the privy of the public scluvol apjtearwl to me a n.’otly means of spreailing the disease. As to the case« at Wauker farm, these could be satisfactorily accounteil for by the attemlance of the children at school, and the use of the water supply at the farm must have { rwlispoeed them to the infection of the fever. Tiie excreta of the jiatieiits at this farm were thrown on the midden; the parties in attendance on the sick su{>erin- tended the arrangements os to the collection and dis{K)sal of the milk ; and the connection l>etween the dairy and the rest of the house w'as free and ojien. Again, the milk utensils were waslierl with water of suspicious character. As to the origin of the disease in Eaglesham, I leariietl from Dr. Mack that the first case occurred about 2»)th August 1874. A young man came from Glasgow (where he was employed during the wt'ck) suffer- ing from what was supposed to be a severe cold. It soon provwl to be Typhoid Fever. Shortly after this young man removed to Fiaglesham, two other cases of fever occurred in the loilgings he hml left in Glasgow. At Eaglesliam, a young woman residing in tlie same house w here the jiatient from Glasgow lay, was a short time afterwanls (six or seven weeks) seized with the same fever, and had a severe attack. No other cases came under Dr. Mack's notice till about the 20th of November, wlien the disease became, and has continued to lie, unusually prevalent. The school returns show that the first scholar left on the 21st Novemlier 1874. Of the scliool- niaster’s own family, all those affected attended school with the exivption of the youngest, aged four. The first set of his children who tiecame affected, lay down on 27th Decemlier. The following dates are iiniiortant: The (»se of William Melville, set. 7, residing in the southmost house in the village, already referred to (page 4), was first seen by the doctor on 2CUi November. Of the two Mathers at the Wauker farm, only one is of