But the mortality in the fever sheds sometimes rose to
fifteen, twenty, twenty-five, and in a few instances to twenty-eight and
twenty-nine per cent.; the cause being previous dysentery (on which
cholera sometimes supervened) and starvation. In Eyrecourt, Ballinrobe
Union, the death-rate rose to twenty-nine one-third per cent.; in West
Skull to twenty; and in Parsonstown to twenty-nine five-eighths. The
principal complications of this famine-fever, according to the
Commissioners of Health, were dysentery, purpura, diarrhoea, and
small-pox; and they further say of it that it was, perhaps, unparalleled
for duration and severity.[274]
The average weekly cost of each patient in the temporary hospitals,
including the salary of the medical officer, was four shillings and one
halfpenny.
"Some approximation to the amount of the immense mortality that
prevailed may be gleaned from the published tables, which show that
within that calamitous period between the end of 1845 and the conclusion
of the first quarter of 1851, as many as 61,260 persons died in the
hospitals and sanitary institutions, exclusive of those who died in the
Workhouses and auxiliary Workhouses.
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