Yorkshire Hospitals

Yorkshire Hospitals

Armley House
Bradford House of Recovery
Bradford Infirmary
Bradford Sanatorium
Dewsbury Infirmary
Huddersfield Convalescent Home
Leeds Sanatorium
Rotherham Hospital
Withernsea Sanatorium

Rossbret Hospitals in Yorkshire

Sheffield - Smallpox in
Of the eleven large towns furnishing monthly returns to the Registrar General,
Sheffield has, since the beginning of the year, enjoyed the lowest annual death
rate, which has not exceeded 23.3 per 1,000. The death rates for the same period in the other towns, have varied from 23.4 in London to 25.7 in Newcastle upon Tyne, 30.2 in Liverpool, and 31 in Manchester. Notwithstanding this satisfactory condition of the health of Sheffield, the weekly returns have from time to time, given evidence of fatality from small-pox. This disease may, indeed, be said to have been more or less epidemic in this town for some months; and although it has not been fatal to the same extent as in Woolwich, Hertford, and a few other towns that have recently
suffered from the same disease, a few deaths have been recorded in each week of the present year, amounting in all to 40 deaths within the borough in the 12
weeks ending the 21st ultimo. When we consider that there are, in a population
enjoying so low a death rate as Sheffield, at least 5 recoveries to one death
among those attacked by this complaint, it is very evident that small-pox has recently been, and is still, very prevalent in Sheffield. A sufficiently large proportion of these deaths from small-pox is stated to have occurred among unvaccinated children and adults, to prove the neglect of this precaution in the town; but the returns give very incomplete evidence upon this important point. Some of the deaths were of infants who had not reached the age at which they are generally vaccinated, and doubtless many of the adults who are reported to have died from the disease - after vaccination - had not been vaccinated since infancy, when, in too many instances, an assurance of the success of the operation is neglected.
The prevalence of small-pox in Sheffield has led to a correspondence between the
military authorities at the barracks and the Health Committee of the Sheffield
Local Board. It appears that early in February small-pox was prevalent at the
barracks, and the staff-surgeon in charge communicated with the local authorities as to it prevalence among the surrounding civilian population, assuming that the soldiers had therefrom been infected, and suggested that all cases should be removed to a special hospital established for the purpose. The chief sanitary inspector of Sheffield lost no time in making a special inquiry into the prevalence of the disease, and has since reported that he could find no cases within the borough in the direction of the barracks except in one house in
King James Street, where 4 persons had been attacked, and were in a fair way of
recovery. This house, which was nearly half a mile from the barracks, is admitted to be one of several which are destitute of proper, or indeed, any drainage. King James Street is a street only in name, says the report, not being formed, pitched, channelled, or drained, and is on the estate of the Sheffield Grammar School. Surely the borough surveyor or some other responsible officer of the corporation should certify that new dwellings are in a fit condition for human habitation before lives are risked by dwelling in them. It is somewhat strange that the chief inspector could only discover this one nest of small-pox cases out of the something like 200 that must have occurred since the beginning of the year, but probably his inquiry only extended over that portion of the borough immediately around the barracks, although the soldiers were as likely to catch the infection from any part of the town to which they might resort. In the
course of his investigations the chief inspector visited the barracks themselves, and reported to the health committee most unfavourably on their sanitary ondition. The privies of the soldiers, in all parts of the barracks, were in a - disgusting and dangerous state - some of them were defective structurally, and even those designed on a good principle had by neglect been allowed to get out of order. The staff-surgeon, who had in the first instance made the representation to the Local Board, accompanied the inspector during his investigations, and stated that he had only been in Sheffield two or three
weeks; and although he believed there existed a "sanitary council" on the
establishment, he was entirely ignorant of its organization. As this took place more than a month ago, it is to be hoped that this "sanitary council" has long ere this awoke to action; for in the face of the late liberal expenditure of public money for the sanitary improvement of the condition of the English soldier, it is somewhat disheartening to find such a condition of things existing in any of our barracks. It really matters little whether small-pox
first originated in Sheffield among its civilian or military population; but the
inquiry has proved the existence in the town of evils among both most favourable
to the development of small-pox and other zymotic diseases. As to the neglect of
vaccination, it is to be hoped that the military authorities insist upon all the
soldiers availing themselves of vaccination, which is a comparatively easy task to the difficulties which lie in the way of enforcing that precaution upon the
civil population. The sanitary committee of the town have appeared inclined to
ingore the presence of the disease - at any rate, the extent of its prevalence.
This is surely unwise, and in the face of an average weekly return of three deaths since the beginning of the year, is no longer very possible. It is, doubtless, owing to the general satisfactory condition of health of the borough that the deaths have been so few; and consideration for the 200 persons who have been attacked, but recovered, should further stimulate the local authorities, civil and military, to use every endeavour to encourage vaccination, abate all nuisances liable to promote the prevalence of this or other epidemic diseases, and, moreover, to remove from themselves any stigma of supineness, with regard to the prevalence of small-pox in Sheffield.
Source: The Builder 1868 Vol XXVI 11th April 1868 p.266
Submitted by Alan Longbottom