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94
1899]
The following is the report adopted by the Royal College of
Physicians London, to which I referred on page 88.
THE CLASSIFICATION OF DEATHS FROM
DIARRHŒA.
The Royal College of Physicians of London on July 27th, 1899, in response to
a representation made by the Incorporated Society of Medical Officers of Health,
appointed a Committee to consider the certification and classification of deaths
from diarrhœa. The Committee consisted of Dr. Payne (Chairman), Dr. Corfield,
Dr. Seaton, Dr. F. W. Andrewes, and Dr. J. F. W. Tatham
This Committee presented the following unanimous report to the meeting of
the College on January 25th :
Report.
1. We find on enquiry, and especially from evidence furnished by Dr. Tatham,
of the General Register Office, and by other members of the Committee, that
many different terms are employed to designate the disease officially known as
" epidemic diarrhoea," whereby its specific character is in danger of being ignored,
and great confusion ensues.
2. The results of this confusion are serious and important, since this form of
diarrhœa causes a large portion (about one-fourth) of the deaths attributed to
zymotic diseases. We gather, from a statement furnished by Dr. Tatham, that
his main difficulty lies in the impractibility of picking out, from the long list of
fashionable but unauthorised synonyms, all the deaths which in their nature are
indistinguishable from deaths by diarrhœa, and which ought to be called by the
authorised name. At present he classes as diarrhœa (and therefore under
zymotic disease) deaths certified as follows :
Diarrhœa.
Epidemic Diarrhœa.
Dysentery and dysenteric diarrhœa.
Intestinal (or enteric) catarrh.
Gastro-intestinal (or gastro-enteric) catarrh.
But the following he classes not as diarrhœa, but as diseases of the alimentary
canal, thus excluding them from the zymotic class:
Gastro-enteritis.
Muco-enteritis.
Gastric catarrh.