HH62/45/169

Transcription

[Page] 41

required. No action has required to be taken on connection with Factories or Work-
shops in the District during the year.
4. The Five Retail Bakehouses in operation within the District, have been
inspected during the year, and found to be in good order. One has been transferred
to new premises, and in another a new floor has been laid down.
5. The arrangement by which the District Committee have a right to send patients
suffering from Infectious Disease to Perth Royal Infirmary, has been found
advantageous, as during the year 15 cases were removed. While in Perth Hospital
the Medical Officer has from his position on the Staff of the institution full supervision
of the treatment and isolation maintained, and is satisfied with both. All of the cases
removed to the Hospital did well.
In consequence of the occurrence of Smallpox in another part of the County, in
the early part of the year, a portable Hospital was purchased, and stored in the Road
Surveyor's Yard in Blairgowrie, in a shed specially erected for the purpose; happily
there has been no occasion for the use of this Hospital by the District Committee,
but undoubtedly their being in a position to sell the Hospital to the Burgh of Rattray,
when a case of Smallpox occurred there, was the means of preventing a serious spread
of the disease, which would in all probability have extended into the landward part of
the parish, had it not been for the prompt isolation which was thus rendered possible.
The Hospital sold was immediately replaced. Should this Hospital be required in
the Eastern District, the supervision of its management would be in the hands of the
Medical Officer, a local doctor being engaged to attend on the patient.
6. As a means to prevent the spread of Infectious Diseases, the District Committee
adopted the Notification Act, which has now been in operation since the beginning
of October. It has not, however, realized the high expectations as the means of
securing notice of the first cases of Scarlet Fever, as the first notifications received
are often received only when the whole of a family have been ill for some time,
and a doctor has been called perhaps to see the last child seized. In the country
the parents cannot be entirely blamed for not calling in a doctor, as the charge for a
visit is often high, and for what is apparently nothing but a sore throat it seems
needless to incur such expense, so that until the District Committee can see its way
to provide a medical man in each parish, or group of parishes, who can be called in
free of expense in order to pronounce whether the disease is infectious or not, it will
be impossible to obtain convictions under the Infectious Disease (Notification) Act, as
there is always the convenient excuse of "not having been aware of the nature of
the disease."
7. The population of the Eastern District was 9782, according to the Census of
1891, consisting of 4861 Males and 4921 Females. Estimated to the middle of 1893,
the population was 9569. In 1893 there were 238 Births, and 177 Deaths, giving a
Birth-Rate of 24.87 and a Death-Rate of 18.49, against a Birth-Rate of 21.1, and a
Death-Rate of 16.45 in 1892. The increased Death-Rate is chiefly accounted for by
the excess of deaths from Old Age. The natural increase of the population during the
year was 61, as against 45 in 1892. Of those who died in 1893, 84 were Males and 93
Females. Deaths in persons over 60 years of age were 95 or 53.8. per cent. of the total,
against 82 in 1892. Deaths in children under 1 year were 17, of which 8 were due
to developmental causes, giving an Infant Mortality of 71.42, against 127.4 per 1000
in 1892.
Respiratory Diseases caused 28 Deaths or 15.8 of the total, against 26 in 1892.
Of the 28, 13 were in persons over 60 years of age, and 2 in children under 1 year of
age.

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Circulatory Diseases caused 19 Deaths or 10.7 per cent. of the total, against 20
in 1892. Of the 19 deaths 16 were in persons over 60 years of age.
Tubercular Diseases caused 21 Deaths or 11.8 per cent. of the total, against 18
in 1892. There were 17 Deaths attributed to Phthisis in 1893, against 10 in 1892,
these were largely originated by the influenza epidemic in the previous year.
Nervous Diseases caused 13 Deaths or 7.3 per cent. of the total, against 15 in
1892. Of the 13 deaths 11 were in persons over 60 years of age.
Digestive Diseases caused 13 Deaths or 7.3 per cent. of the total, against 5
in 1892.
Cancer and Malignant Diseases caused 7 Deaths or 3.9 per cent. of the total,
against 9 in 1892.
Developmental Diseases caused 8 Deaths in 1893, against 12 in 1892. Of the 8,
3 were due to premature birth.
Old Age caused 33 Deaths or 18.6 per cent. of the total. against 23 in 1892,
showing an increase of 10 deaths due to this cause.
ZYMOTIC DISEASES.
Zymotic Diseases caused 9 Deaths in 1893, against 5 in 1892, giving a Zymotic
Death-Rate of .940. There were 65 cases of Infectious Disease reported during 1893,
of which 15 were removed to Hospital.
Scarlet Fever caused 1 Death in 1893, against 2 in 1892, with the exception of
the fatal case which occurred in a person who was not strong before the fever, the
rest of the cases were of a very mild type, in fact some of them were only regarded
as cases of the disease from having been in contact with other cases shortly before a
slight malaise. There were 31 cases reported during the year; 24 of these cases
occurred in the neighbourhood of Collace, and seemed to be traceable to a visitor from
Glasgow who had suffered from Measles (?) before coming. The disease had been
spreading in the place for some weeks before a doctor was called and its nature
recognized; the people said they had thought it was a rash due to the children eating
berries. In spite of the long start the infection had, yet, by prompt isolation and removal
of 10 of the cases to Hospital, the disease never spread to any of the hamlets in close
proximity to Collace, and was soon stamped out. The remaining cases were
of an isolated character, and their source traced to contact with visitors or infection
carried from a town. By strict isolation there was no spread of the disease from any
of them.
Enteric Fever caused one death in a young man, who had been long ailing before
his final illness, and no cause was discovered about the premises for the disease.
There were 21 cases of the disease reported during the year, against 6 in 1892. In
one case, the disease was contracted in Blairgowrie; and in 11 more the cause was
traceable to the drinking water being contaminated by the sewage of Blairgowrie and
Rattray, in both of which places the disease was prevalent at the time. There was
no great extension of the disease, and a better supply of water was provided. The
rest of the cases were of an isolated character, in various parts of the District, and
there was no spread of the disease from them.
Diphtheria caused one Death in 1893, the same as in 1892. There were 4 cases
of the disease reported during the year, 2 of these were brought ill into the District
from Forfarshire, and another took ill immediately after returning from a visit to
Perth. In the fatal case the origin of the disease was obscure.
Measles caused 1 Death; the disease was prevalent in some parts of the District
during the later months of the year; the type was mild.
Diarrhœa caused 4 Deaths during 1893, against 3 in 1892, but no epidemic of
the disease was reported.

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