The Hunterian Oration : delivered February 14, 1883 at the Royal College of Surgeons of England / by T. Spencer Wells.

  • Wells, Spencer, 1818-1897.
Date:
1883
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The Hunterian Oration : delivered February 14, 1883 at the Royal College of Surgeons of England / by T. Spencer Wells. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

    39/40 (page 39)
    I might be able to prove beyond dispute that since active | sanitary work has been undertaken in this country, death f rates have fallen very greatly; and fallen most in those places—the great towns—where sanitation has been most active. I was very anxious to show how the knowledge gained by the statistical work begun by Dr. Farr, and since carried on by Dr. Ogle at the General Eegister Office, had led to sanitary legislation ; and how sanitary work has been fol- lowed by a lower general death rate and smaller mortality in single forms of disease, as in typhoid fever, as well as after wounds, injuries, and surgical operations. I wished also to show how statistics lead to the saving of life by throwing light on the natural history of disease, on the prevalence of various zymotic diseases at different sea- sons, and on the indisputable proofs that small-pox has declined considerably with the extended use of vaccina- tion ; that it is false to attribute that decline to general sanitation, exclusive of vaccination ; and, what is a more novel or less generally known fact, that we have statistical proof that the preservative effects of vaccination wear out more rapidly and surely than the preservative effects of . small-pox itself. I imagined also that I might be able to r sketch what the nation might gain if State-medicine were really administered by a well-organised department of the Government, if politicians of both parties could be . roused from their indifference to social or domestic legis- lation, and give some small share of their attention to s. the health-interests of the people—to their food, drink, occupations, house accommodation, care of infants, pre- [• vention of infective diseases, local sanitary administration ; and many details of sanitary reform, such as a permission or encouragement of cremation as a substitute for the present mode of burying the dead.