Minutes of evidence taken before the Sub-Committee of the Health Committee appointed to inquire and report as to the causes of the excessive mortality of the borough, and as to the means to be adopted for mitigating the same / ordered by the Health Committee to be printed, 18th January, 1866.

Date:
1865-6
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Minutes of evidence taken before the Sub-Committee of the Health Committee appointed to inquire and report as to the causes of the excessive mortality of the borough, and as to the means to be adopted for mitigating the same / ordered by the Health Committee to be printed, 18th January, 1866. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    tober. To give them for less divisions of time than quarters would, in my opinion, confuse the comparative results; but I may mention that usually the epidemic Diarrhoea begins to wane in the fourth quarter ; and that it did not do so during last October was due to an absence of those rains which gener- ally precede the autumnal equinox. The Chairman :—Do I understand you to be now talk- ing of Diarrhoea generally or only of Diarrhoea as an epidemic. Dr. Trench :—The statistics embrace Diarrhoea of all kinds, whether Sporadic or Epidemic ; but my observations will refer to the Epidemical, or what is known as Infantile Diarrhoea. The Chairman :—What proportion are Infantile ? Dr. Trench :—I don’t suppose that of the whole G13 cases, which occured in the Borough during the third quarter, more than 39 were persons above the age of five. Indeed the greater number will be found to be Infants below one year of age, or during the period of fife when they depend chiefly for nourishment on the milk of the mother. The Chairman :—Would the dirty condition of a woman’s body, with a child at her breast, produce Diarrhoea ? Dr. Trench :—No. The Chairman :—Would the intoxication of the mother at the time of giving the child the breast, produce Diarrhoea ? Dr. Trench :—No. The Chairman :—Let us confine ourselves to one Ward. We have in Scotland Ward, during the three months of the. third quarter, 162 deaths. What do you consider to have been the causes of this excess ? Dr. Trench:—Heat and the poisonous emanations from filth and from decaying vegetable and animal substances. I will endeavour to prove this by some remarks on the localities of the places where the disease was most prevalent. There is added to the schedule a list of streets in which four or more deaths occurred