56 Literary and Philosophical Society. 



f On these considerations, I ventured to propose the 

 admission of typhus fevers into the attic storey on one 

 side of our Infirmary, to be separated into two wards. 

 From the experience of a dozen years I am warranted to 

 maintain the safety of this measure, if conducted under 

 very easy practicable regulations. During this period it 

 never was suspected that infection has been communicated 

 to a single patient in other parts of the house. 



' Farther, I maintain that an establishment of this kind 

 is indispensably necessary in all infirmaries, to preserve 

 them from what is called the hospital fever. You may 

 remember that I have collected a considerable number of 

 cases to prove that typhous contagion, in some instances, 

 remains in the body many days and even weeks, in a 

 latent state, before the symptoms of fever commence. 

 Patients, ill of other disorders, are admitted into the 

 Infirmary from infectious houses, where they have caught 

 the poison. The fever begins after their admission, and 

 frequently infects others in the same ward ; when there 

 is not a due attention to fresh air and cleanliness, or when 

 several patients, thus previously infected, are admitted 

 into the same ward. But in the Chester Infirmary every 

 fever patient, as soon as observed, is immediately removed 

 into the fever wards, so as to preserve all the rest of the 

 house perfectly free from contagion. 



' During this war, Chester has been unusually exposed 

 to the danger of putrid infectious fevers. Many new 

 raised regiments coming from Ireland, with numerous 

 recruits, taken out of jails, remained in Chester for a few 

 weeks, after their voyage. Great numbers of these 

 soldiers, and their women, were ill of putrid fevers, and 

 were immediately received into the fever wards of our 



