Abstract
IN his second and third (final) lectures at the Royal College of Physicians, Prof. Corfield gave detailed descriptions of a number of outbreaks of typhoid fever which had been traced to specific contamination of drinking water, and exhibited a table which he had prepared demonstrating the fact that during the ten years 1891 to 1900 (with the exception of 1897) typhoid fever has been more prevalent in St. George's, Hanover Square, in November and December than in August, September and October, the months when it is normally prevalent, the average number of cases per month for November and December having been 7.2, and for August, September and October only 4.2. This excess of typhoid fever in November and December was coincident, he said, with the increase in organic matter in the water supplied by the Thames companies when the river was in flood. He pointed out that Mr. Shirley Murphy, the Medical Officer of Health of the London County Council, had drawn attention to the fact that in 1894 there was an excess of typhoid fever in November and December in the London districts supplied by all the water companies, except the East London and the Kent companies, and that this followed exceptional floods in the rivers Thames and Lea. Dr. Corfield stated that he was satisfied from these facts that the distribution of in efficiently filtered river water during November and December was the cause of the increase in the number of typhoid fever cases which occurred among persons especially liable to the disease.
Article PDF
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Milroy Lectures on Typhoid Fever . Nature 65, 424–425 (1902). https://doi.org/10.1038/065424b0
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/065424b0