This document was given to the Stornoway Historical Society and it makes interesting reading. There is no evidence of who the author is, and I am unsure when it was compiled. Its title is the Mossend Fever Hospital, but it contains much more than that.

It gives details of reports by Medical Officers of Health from 1895-1940. It also gives an interesting description of ancient cures, psychological medicines and remedies used in the Western Isles many years ago, and quotes from Martin Martin's A Description of the Western Isles of Scotland (1703). In Martin's day there were no doctors in rural areas and people had to cure themselves. Some of the cures had a psychological slant which tried to frighten the disease out of the sufferer!!

Plants and animals were used e.g. headaches were cured by applying raw dulse(seaweed) to the temple. Sciatica was cured by applying spire wort externally or taking it internally as a purge. Wild garlic was taken in an infusion in the curing of stones which I assume may be kidney stones. The treatment of worms was an infusion of tansy taken when fasting and an excess of wind can be treated with caramel. This same plant chewed could prevent drunkenness!!

Treatment for colic, the document assures us, can be cured by drinking cold water with a little oatmeal in it and then hanging the patient by the heels for some time. A less dramatic remedy would be hot dulse and its juice applied to the abdomen. These ancient remedies and cures may seem absurd to us but we must remember people had no access to medical help and advice so they would try anything that may improve their health.

Infectious diseases were rife in the time referred to in the document, 1800-1940 approximately; and this was due to ignorance, housing, sanitation and overcrowding. The document tells us that the first medical practitioner in Lewis was a Dr. Macaulay¹ who came from Uig. This was around the time of 1830 but he was unpopular and was dismissed in 1844 by Sir James Matheson.

There was a scarcity of qualified doctors and,following Dr. Macaulay, a Dr. Millar², a resident in Stornoway, covered the rural areas of the island.Dr Macdonald of Gisla refers to the selective process of nature in his book 'Tales and Traditions of theLews' (1967). "In those days, 1860' s-1880' s, people were tough, for the weak were weeded out in childhood." The document goes on to paint grim pictures of inadequate homes which were hotbeds of disease. Accommodation consisting of very basic thatched cottages with dirt floors and a very flimsy partition separating humans from their animals were prevalent.

Sanitation and cleanliness were not the highest priorities - just keeping themselves from starvation was the lot of the poor in Lewis in the late nineteenth century.

The first report of a Medical Officer of Health is dated 1895 and he was a DoctorMacrae ³. In one of his reports on sickness and fatality in the Stornoway district, chest afficti0ns were the cause of one third of total deaths.

In the Parish of Barvas it is reported that among children under 5 in 1891, there were 39 deaths and in 1895, 33 deaths. In the Parish of Uig there were 6 deaths from whooping cough, 1 from scarletina and 3 from typhoid. Imagine the horror, sadness and outcry if these statistics were relevant in the present day.

Dr Macrae comments "such statistics in the sickness and mortality return appended to this report, show that in the case of a rural parish such as these, sanitary matters must be terribly faulty just as they furnish the most eloquent to those concerned to do what they can to mitigate the suffering of the victims and prevent so great a waste of life among the young."

In his 1895 rep0rt, Dr. Macrae says that Influenza continued in the first two or three months in a very severe form. An outbreak of scarletina and diptheria was reported with three children succumbing to diptheria. In June typhoid struck 7 people, all cases were severe. Whooping cough was brought to Borve from Stornoway by clothing attacking 7 children in the last four months of the year.

'Isolation was recommended for all these cases but there was no facility available so the usual method was to sequester families within their own houses. There was a form of isolation hospital in a house opposite Stewart's farm near Mossend

The condition of housing was a grave concern to the Medical Officer of Health and he describes the reason for the diseases prevalent at the time. When one considers the domestic arrangements in many black houses which is the n0rmal dwelling. The byre is close to the living room quarters and if it was built on a slope, with the living quarters lower than the byre, then the liquid effluence from the byre seeped downhill into the human quarters. Examples are quoted of offensive liquid flowing from byre into sleeping quarters and gathering under box beds of the occupants! Neighbors could, in some cases, depending upon the siting of the houses, be the recipients of sewage from another house. This would definitely be the cause of infectious diseases such a typhoid and enteric fever.

The document also quotes that by law the practice of housing quadrupeds (animals)and humans under the same roof had been forbidden but it appears the law was not enforced with any enthusiasm.

The 1902 report shows little advancement in conditions except that the doctors were getting more frustrated by the apathy shown by those who knew of the dangerous social situation and those too poor to rectify it.

It becomes apparent that there was a Fever Hospital at Mossend in 1902 as the MOH recommends that there should be two such establishments or portable buildings that can be used for isolation of infectious patients and stored at Mossend Hospital. In the 1903 report statistics, measles accounted for the deaths of 13 children under 5 and complications of the disease killing 56 adults. From this fearful statistic we should be grateful that we now have a vaccine that prevents this dangerous disease. The island and west coast suffered badly with typhus and enteric fever, imported by militia men who had returned from service in Cairo in 1903 ^4.

Dr Macrae then goes on to say in his report. "In the nature of things disease will continue to recur till more systematic sanitation is enforced by law, airy cottages erected and arranged according to hygienic rules, small fever hospitals or other isolation retreats provided for the timeous arrest of fever at its outset".

In the 1904 report the MOH Dr. Macrae fails to mention the fever hospital, but he was concerned with epidemics in the Burgh such as measles and whooping cough with the complications of these diseases such as pulmonary and meningitic inflammation. The mortality rate in the Burgh was quoted as 18 per thousand.

The ravages of phthisis (tuberculosis) were, in 1904, on the increase and Dr. Macrae blames the "greater intercourse of the islanders with the great centres of industry". When struck down by the disease islanders returned home as efficient carriers. Also the return of militiamen and workers in the herring industry provided a transport of disease to an area which because of its isolation had little association with infection. Although the authorities were aware of the need for isolation facilities for the victims of infectious diseases, little was done because of lack of finance. But the dreadful statistic of 100 deaths annually for TB moved the MOH to appeal to good hearted philanthropists, even to King Edward VII himself, recently a visitor to the island.

The only solution the local authority provided was supplying disinfecting fluids such as carbolic acid, Jeyes fluid and Izal with sulphur candles for fumigation. The people were so afraid of infection that they burnt all articles of clothing and bedding belonging to the victim, often leaving themselves without bedding. There were no nurses at that time to help deal with disease and by this time the deaths from infectious diseases show a large figure of 45 for every 10,000 compared to 13 on the mainland.

The tragedy of this is, as the MOH stated, that these diseases were preventable. He continues to complain in his reports of the lack of facilities for treating infectious patients except for the one "apology" for a hospital in a district where there ought to be at least six pest houses. I assume the "Apology" referred to is the Mossend hospital although Dr. Murray, the MOH in his 1914 report, says "The existing hospital at Mossend fulfils its function with efficiency but accommodation for a second infection is highly desirable." Unfortunately he does not specify which infection. He makes a request for an efficient steam disinfect or to be supplied as the amount of clothing and other material destroyed when a consumptive patient dies is expensive for the families.

He rep0rts significant outbreaks of enteric fever in the Burgh, Back and Laxdale .Other infections such as typhoid, paratyphoid, scarlet fever, diphtheria, erysipelas, measles and influenza took their toll this year. By this time there was an anti toxin for diphtheria.

Infectious diseases claimed 168 deaths in Lewis in 1914 and the only accommodation for such illnesses was 12 beds at the Mossend Fever Hospital and house accommodation for a small number of suspected victims.

Continued on page 2...

1. This is a reference to the notorious 'Dotair Ruadh', Dr (Donald) Macaulay of Linshader, reputed first cousin of 'Mac an-t-Sronaich'. He was born around 1800, the second son of Donald Macaulay, Tacksman of Linshader. They were direct descendants of Donald Cam Macaulay. He was not the first Doctor in Lewis for sure. It's not certain he had proper medical qualifications at all, although he probably did some training. He was in the habit of buying up farms and tacks and then evicting his sub-tenants. He went to court so often to claim compensation that he actually held up the sale of the estate to Sir James Matheson by almost a year. Matheson had to buy him off with a substantial sum. He went to Liverpool, probably about 1849, after the · death of his brother Captain Kenneth Macaulay, who had business interests there. Dr Macaulay died in 1852 in a private lunatic asylum for the wealthy at West Derby,Liverpool. His brother m law was Rev. Robert Finlayson of Knock and later Lochs.

(W.R. Foulger)

2. The Doctor Millar referred to is undoubtedly Dr. Roderick Millar (1804-1889) but his father Dr. John Millar (1760-1813) had served in Lewis before him. Millar Road in Stornoway is named after them.

3. Dr. Charles M. Macrae (1818-1909) of Barvas Lodge, Church Street, (Burgh MOH 1864-1906).

4. The 3 rd (Reserve) Battalion Seaforth Highlanders acted as garrison troops in Egypt during and after the Boer War. It is estimated that of the 950 men in the battalion called up for national service, some 700 were from Lewis. On the island, these men were referred to as the "Balaich Malishie". Even in peacetime the men had to undertake a month's army training on the mainland for which a valuable annual retainer was paid.