Page:On the Pollution of the Rivers of the Kingdom.djvu/47

41 and the suddenness of its occurrence; for, says the reporter,—

"'Almost entire families were attacked, in some instances the patient seems to be almost instantly overwhelmed with the intensity of the poison. . . On the 13th of January, 1868, 208 persons had already been attacked by the prevailing malady, and several fresh cases were daily occurring. I do not include in my number cases of so-called diarrhœa (possibly all mild cases of typhoid fever) which were only accidentally heard of, and which probably were numerous, though not of sufficient severity to call for medical relief."

The first case of fever occurred on the 13th of November; the next not until December 4th, when the epidemic seemed rapidly to develop, for the report says—

"'During the following ten days 30 fresh cases were seen; but on the 15th, 16th, and 17th by far the largest number were attacked, 22, 19, and 12 cases occurring respectively on those days. After this, though the daily number of fresh cases was by no means so large, still a steady increase took place. &hellip; As yet, however, only one death had taken place—namely, on Dec. 14th; but when the third week of the epidemic had arrived, a steadily and gradually increasing death-rate commenced, and on the 30th twelve of the patients had died, and others were dying. Terling was now completely panic-stricken. &hellip; No class of persons was exempt; the rich, the well fed and clad, were attacked in common with the poor and destitute. At Lord Rayleigh's residence 10 cases had occurred, the vicar's house was a seat of the epidemic, and from one end of the village to the other the disease seemed to be almost evenly spread. Age and sex seemed to present remarkable peculiarities: thus, out of 145 cases whose ages I was enabled to obtain, 79 were children under fourteen years of age, and of the remaining 66, 50 were females, leaving 16 males whose ages exceeded fourteen years, out of the entire number attacked."

"And this peculiarity as to the age and sex of the persons attacked the reporter expresses his belief is to be ascribed to the fact—

"'That the men, and the majority of the boys over fourteen years of age, spend the greater portion of their time away from home, labouring in the fields, and that