✨ Health Notice
GOVERNMENT GAZETTE,
PROVINCE OF TARANAKI,
NEW ZEALAND.
Published by Authority.
NEW PLYMOUTH, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 20, 1860.
NO. 7.
The following letter from the Colonial Surgeon, to His Honor the Superintendent, is published for general information.
J. C. RICHMOND,
Provincial Secretary.
New Plymouth, 20th June, 1860.
Colonial Hospital,
New Plymouth, 18th June, 1860.
Sir,—Probably your Honor is aware that, with the exception of the year 1850, there has been no winter, since say that of 1847, in which some cases of typhus fever have not occurred within the bounds of this community. It is to be observed, however, that the disease has invariably manifested itself, not as an epidemic, but sporadically; and, generally, of so mild, though lingering a stamp, that of the several individuals attacked, from the above noted period to the present date, four cases only are recorded in our bills of mortality, two of which have been registered within the last month, and I may add that two or three other members of the same family, now labouring under the disease, are, it is apprehended, not unlikely to fall victims also.
Hitherto, nothing of a contagious character has been traced to account for the various outbreaks of the disease here; though at its earliest recognised epoch it was alleged to have been introduced by the arrival of a young gentleman from Auckland, at which place the same type of fever occurs, in scattered cases, every winter.
Before going farther I would premise that eleven years ago I took considerable pains to investigate as to the promoting cause of this fever in our settlement; and I found what farther annual experience and observation have most satisfactorily confirmed, that, not only had it never progressed as a contagious malady would, but on no occasion, had it ever developed itself than in those houses where free perflation between the ground and the timber flooring was altogether, or even, in some instances, only partially obstructed.
Such, then, is the important fact that, as above intimated, I have never yet seen a case of the disease, whether in the town, or its adjacencies, where an uninterrupted current of air passes betwixt the ground and the timbers and flooring—and hence the explication why the fever in question has
Next Page →
Taranaki Provincial Gazette 1860, No 7
✨ LLM interpretation of page content
🏥 Colonial Surgeon's Report on Typhus Fever
🏥 Health & Social Welfare18 June 1860
Typhus fever, Health report, New Plymouth, Colonial Hospital
- J. C. Richmond, Provincial Secretary