Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1885-07-16
HEALTH OF THE STATE.
Record of Sickness for the Past Month
pravaiIin1 n;SaasaS

health IN IHOSe UlStI1ClS Ill correspondence
with the State Board, with the exception
of the City of San Francisco, which shows
an increased mortality from pneumonia,
measles, and diphtheria. Reports have
been received from seventy-two localities,
representing all sections of the State and
an estimated population of four bundled
and eighty thousand six hundred,
with eight hundred and ninety-fiye deaths,
a percentage of 1.S-kper 1000, or at the
rate of 81 per 1000 per annum, which Is
rather in excess of the mortality OF last
month, owing TO the increased death rate
in San Francisco.
DownieviIle, College City, Bartlett
Springs, Auburn, Ontario, Jolon. Truckee,
Castroville, Fort Bidwell, Wheatland, Elk
Grove San Mateo, and Gait report no deaths
this month.
Among the diseases affecting the respl-
ratory organs the deaths from pneumonia
! Exclusive of San Francisco show marked
! decrease from the May report being but
ten this month"; decrease of fourteen. In
San Francisco the deaths from pneumonia
reached fifty-six, an increase from last
month of nineteen.
Bronchitis likewise shows a marked
decrease, there being but three deaths out
side of San Francisco, where the mortality
! was twelve
v,
vailing extensively throughout the State,
was fatal in but twenty-five cases, thirteen
of which occurred in the Bay City.
Cholera infantum caused the death OF
! twenty-seven infants.
| Diphtheria records eight deaths outside
of San Francisco-one in Benicia, one in
Folsom, one in Hanford, two in Los An
geles one in San Luis ObiSpu county, and
three in San Jose. This disease caused no
less than forty-four deaths last month in
San Francisco, an increase Of thirteen over
| the May report.
Group caused thirteen deaths, a decrease
of thirteen from last month.
! Scarlet fever, which has prevailed quite
extensively over a large section of country,
is credited with but five deaths.
Measles, also extensively prevalent,
caused but nine deaths outside of San
Francisco. and twenty-three deaths in that
city.
Whooping Epidemic in some To-
calities-caused but four deaths.
Typhoid and typho-malarial fever show
a slightly decreased mortality from last
month, there being but twenty decedents
from these diseases instead of twenty-five.
Cerebro-spinal fever is credited with eight
deaths an increase of seven from May re-
port.
INtllbit - vi It'dliIIl5 hiStttSCo lIttNt bCSii
received from seventy-four counties.
Some sporadic cases of pneumonia are
noted in Shasta county, College City, Santa
Ana, North San Juan and Wheatland, and
the disease prevails III San Francisco.
Bronchitis also prevails in Vallejo, Mo-
desto, Bartlett Springs, Arbuckle, Santa
Ana North San Juan and San Francisco.
Influenza, Dr. Reudy writes, is prevail
| ing quite generally in Forest Hill and vi
cinity, attacking both old and young, but
without fatality.
Scarlet fever is epidemic III a mild form
in Trinity county, and also prevails in Butte
county and Colusa.
Measles is epidemic in Napa county and
San Francisco and is noted as prevalent in
San Mateo, Solano, Siskiyou, Shasta, Sacra-
mento, Ell Dorado, Butte, Sonoma and
Stanislaus counties, and in Bodie.
Chicken peck is quite prevalent in Bodie.
Whooping cough is also epidemic III Sis
kiyou, Colusa Napa and Los Angeles
counties.
Cholera intantum seems to be quite prey
alent in st. Helena, College City, Castro
vile, Chico, Nicolaus and Modesto.
Cholera morbus, or summer cholera, pre-
walls to a limited degree in Dixon, San
Nateo, Arbucklc, Chico, Redding and
Williams
Diarrhea and dysentery seems to be very
prevalent over wide extent Of counry
being noticeable in Shasta, Calayeras, Tu-
lare, Sierra, San MateO, Colusa, MOdoc,
Solano, Los Angeles, Monterey Sonoma,
Stanislaus, Sacramento. AmadOr, Placer,
III Dorado, Suffer, Alameda, Butte, Te-
hama and San Bernardino counties. The
type is mild and the mortality exceedingly
small. considering the extreme prevalence
Of the disorder.
Typhoid fever is mentioned in the re
ports from Modoc and Stanislaus counties
The cases are very few ana the type mild
This disease seems not to prevail any
where, as it is scarcely mentioned in any of
the reports received fog this month. This
indicates 4 very favorable sanitary condi-
ditiou OF the habitations Of the people. as
the disease is essentially filth disease nur-
ture1 by decomposition and fostered in
decay.
Malarial fevers seem rather Oh the in
crease, rs might be expected al this season
of the year, when evaporation is rapidly
taking the moisture from the lowlands
thus permitting the Bacillus HtIGHH to
emerge from its usual habItatiOn and poi
son its victims more or less. The mortality
to this date is happily very small, which
indicates an absence Of malignity in the
type Of disease.
Diphtheria is noted in Bcnicia. Port
Costa, Oakland, Santa r osa, Ukiah, Sacra-
mento, Petaluma, and san Francisco. No
where has it been epidemic except in San
Francisco. Still, if we carefully note the
mortality under this heading, from year to
wear. We must become convinced that this
obscure and often terribly fatal disease is
steadily making inroads among lis. To
some extent this apparent increase may be
owing to improved knowledge leading to
/ Il ,,t,
meIly registered under the terms gangren-
GUS sore throat, putrid sore throat, black
throat, etc. are now more correctly recOg-
niZed and recorded under their proper des-
ignation as diphtheTia. Ii is also worthy
ofn0te that an increased mortality from
diphtheEia is cOlnCident with an increased
death rate from Group, which goes some
way 10 sustain the assertion of Wagner,
/ ''that the distinction between Group and
dlphthCTa Inflammation Is really one of
degree Virchow, however, agreed with
RoNitansSy in believing that Group was an
cXuaauve process, and diphtheria a ne
crotic process followed by sloughing On
the other hand Won Ieimssen, rraube and
Steiner, in Germany, Bretonneau, in
France Hitler, Sempie Mackenzie, and
Jenner, in England, Jacob, in New York.
Wood and Formal, in their report 10 the
National Board OF Health in 1882, contend
that Group and diphtheria are identical in
nature, and tia. the anatomical distinction
so much insisted upon by some writer's
had no solid foundation in modern pathol-
oey; ON the contrary, all recent PATHOLOGY
gal and chemical researches point 70 the
identity of these diseases. The evidence
being thus strong IN favor of the unity of
croLp ana diphtheria, it might be well for
| medical men in general to adopt this view,
as by so doing they will be much more apt
to use those methods of isolation and disin-
/ fiction which arc SO eiiicacious and SO ne
cessary in diphtheria to prevent its dissem-
nation. Fl we look upon Group rs merely
an inhammatory disease, the product Of eX-
posure to cold, etc. and non-contagious in its
| nature, we are sure to be lax in our
sanitary environment Of the patient and
| permit the access of those whose pres
ence can do no possible good, and
| who may be the means of carrying conta-
| gion TO uninfected persons Emmerich
| considers diphtberia eminently a house
disease, and eradicabe by thorough disin-
| fiction and has further shown that the
| bacteriun of diphtheria as found in man is
| identical with that found in pigeons, which
| view seems to be confirmed by Loefiier in
| his report to the German Board of Health.
Or. Nicati, of Marseiilcs, suggested a SINH
lar relationship between the diphtheria of
| fowls and the diphtheria of the human be-
! ing, and inoculated various animals sue
cesSfully with the false membrane and