| Description | 'Prevailing Diseases which have occurred amongst the British Troops in the Peninsula'.
The volume contains a series of questions addressed to each hospital station, with a note of their subsequent replies. For example, question 1: 'What proportion has Phthisis Pulmonalis borne to Remittent and Intermittent Fevers at your station; how many of each Disease have you had, and how many cases of each have originated at' (sic). There follows the replies of the station at Abrantes, Alter de Chao [Alto da Chao], Castello Branco, and the 2nd Division. The reply from Abrantes states: 'No case of regular Phthisis - one from previous inflammation of the lungs in a subject who had suffered much from Ague and a complication of [visceral] diseases - cannot answer the latter part, but all the Medical Officers and Hospital Servants and nine tenths of the natives including children and infants have been affected with either Remittent or Intermittent Fever'.
The later queries, addressed to the same stations, relate to cases of consumption and phthisis (question 2), scrophula (question 3), continued fever (question 4), the contagious nature of intermittent fever and appearance of ague (question 5), the most helpful remedies (besides bark) for the treatment of ague (question 6), the different types of disease following on from ague (question 7), cases of dropsy (question 8) and causes and treatment (question 9), and dysentery (question 10). The same questions are then listed again, but to different stations: Belem, Santarem, Alto da Chao, Castello Branco, Celerico, Lisbon, Coimbra and the 2nd Division (pages 9-25). An eleventh question relating to inflammatory diseases such as pneumonia, synocha and angina is also recorded. A summary of the answers received from the hospital stations is then provided on pages 25-27. For example, question 6: 'The most successful remedies besides bark are the Liquor Arsenicalis, Sulphates of Zinc and Copper and the Vegetable [bitter?]. Pages 28-47 contain further notes on specific queries, numbered from 1-40, and include additional notes and references in the margin attributing comments to various surgeons.
There follows several blank pages before a new section begins, entitled: 'Abstract of Diseases principally prevailing at the Hospital Stations in the Peninsula, 20 Novr. 1812'. The stations include: Belem, Santarem, Abrantes, Alto da Chao, Castello Branco, Coimbra and Cuidad Rodrigo. For example, the entry for Castello Branco on page 4 notes that the prevailing diseases were intermittent and continued fevers, dysentery and rheumatism. Of 92 patients admitted, 22 had intermittent fever, 27 had continued fever, 1 had typhus, 22 had dysentery, 9 had rheumatism and 11 were admitted suffering from various other diseases. Of 281 patients treated 14 died: 7 from dysentery, 4 from continuous fever, 1 from apoplexy, 1 from cholera and 1 from hydrothorax. Nearly all the convalescents from continued fever were attacked with intermittent fever and it is recorded that the treatment of intermittent and continued fevers did not vary from the previous month; 'almost every remedy recommended in dysentery was resorted to but the patient in almost every instance sank under this fatal disease'. Again, there follows several blank pages before a similar account of the diseases prevailing at the hospital stations for each month from January 1813-May 1814 is provided. The hospital stations referred to include: Lisbon, Santarem, Abrantes, Alto da Chao, Castello Branco, Cuidad Rodrigo, Celerico, Vizeu, Coimbra, Salamanca, Escachao, Cavalry Division [First and Second, see pages 147-149], Light Division, 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th and 7th Divisions, Toro, Oporto [see page 102], Victoria [Vitoria, page 104], Bilboa [page 121], St. Anders [Santander, page 140], Passages [page 170], Juenterrabia [page 226], Vera [page 260], St. Jean de Luz [page 321], Orthez [page 322], Pau [page 345], 'Unattached Brigade [page 353], Toulouse [page 364] (pages 15-377). The majority of the entries for each station include a table showing the proportion of deaths to diseases treated. For example, it is noted that at Lisbon (for the month ending 20 February 1814, page 285) 1 case of pneumonia remained, 4 cases were admitted, and 1 died, and there were in total 36 cases of syphilis, 18 remaining and 18 new cases admitted. |