Pneumonia

Pneumonia

Pneumonia is the inflammation and consolidation of the lung tissue as a result of infection, inhalation of foreign particles or irradiation. Streptococcal is the most common form of pneumonia. The bacteria lives in the body of healthy people but only causes problems when the resistance of the patient has been lowered by another illness or infection. Symptoms include headaches, feverishness, muscle pain and sore throat. Later, coughing becomes the main symptom. Another bacterium, klebsiella pneumoniae, produces a more lethal pneumonia, and occurs almost exclusively in hospitalized patients.

Primary Sources

(1) Edwin Chadwick, The Sanitary Conditions of the Labouring Population (1842)

Number of Deaths in 1838 and 1839

Disease

1838

1839

Typhus

24,577

25,991

Smallpox

16,268

9,131

Measles

6,514

10,937

Whooping Cough

9,107

8,165

Consumption

59,025

59,559

Pneumonia

17,999

18,151