On provident dispensaries as a means for promoting the public health / by James Christie.

  • Christie, James, 1829-1892.
Date:
[1880?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On provident dispensaries as a means for promoting the public health / by James Christie. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    neglect bemg due in many aises to ignoiunce or to ix)verty; and, in aome cases, to parsimony, or to all combined. To so-called trifling complaints no attention is juutl, so that the trilling cases become serious, then dangerous, and finally fatal. Amongst many families, children's disetises—the deadly zymotic group—are either totally neglected or mistreated, under the directions of some wise old woman; and it is only when the patient is in articulo morliit that medical aid is called in. But 1 believe that there are many of this class, perhaps I would not be far wrong in saying the most of this class, who hesitate in calling in professional aid because they do not see their way to incur the expense, or to impose upon them- selves obligations which they can never meet. Dr. Russell, at page 57 of the admirable report to which I referred, says, that of the deaths registered in Glasgow, in 1874, 3,600 were uncertified. Of these, 1,640 were lulraitted to have hail no medical attendance, while 1,403 had been taken to a dispensary. Of the adults 65 ])er cent., and of the children 34^ per cent, ilied without medical attendance; while of the adults 13 per cent, and of the children 54 per cent, had been taken to dispensaries for treatment; and he asks— What can be the meaning of the fact that 54 per cent, of the children who died 'uncei-tified' were 'taken to a dispen.sary,' and only 13 per cent, of the adidts, while 65 per cent, of the adults who died 'uncertified' died without medical attendance, and only 34^ of the childreii, but this, that chiltlren are poi'table and were carried to the doctor, while the adults went as long as they were able, and when unable, died at homo without further care? The only satisfaction to be got from such facts is this, that they indicate a desire on the part of the poor to overcome the difiicul- ties of their position, and prove that they go in search of that which, by charitable agencies, ought to be brought to them in their own homes. Nor must we allow those numbci-s concerning deaths to become impressed upon our minds as giving any concep- tion of tlie actual extent of neglected sickness in Glasgow. These 3,600 uncertified deaths, with their various degrees of admitted uncared-for sick beds, are simply a few of the multitude singled out and proclaimed to us by death, while 20 to 25, at a modemte computation, for each death have been sick, and have been equally uncared for. If 1,600 persons died absolutely without medical attendance, we may be sure that 32,000 had various degrees of sickness, and received no medical aid.