Disease code numbers - Hospital admission books

[Matlock1418]

38 minutes ago, ss002d6252 said:

As a quick list - there does seem to be some rough correlation appearing (pardon my spelling).

2		Dysentry
4		Beri-Beri
18		Rose measels
21		Influenza
34		PUO
37		Rheumatism
124		Epilepsy
128		Headache
166		Conjunctivitis
172		Corneal Ulcer
239		Blepharitis
293		VDH
303		Heart strain
339		Odema
404		Bronchitis
425		Pleurisy
436		Stomatitis
475		Tonsilitis
489		Gastritis
492		Stomach haemorrhage
506		Vomiting
510		Gastralgia
511		Enteritis
528		Hernia
540		Diarrhoea
541		Constipation
556		Piles
575		Jaundice
757		Orchitis
903		Synovitis
931		Lumbago
931		Myalgia
944		Abscess
952		ICT
952		Psoriasis
962		Eczema
964		Impetigo
965		Boils
970		Herpes
971		Shingles
973		Dermatitis
1023		Ulcer
1092		Skull fracture
1219		Contusion
1220		Sprain
1669		Trachoma
82 (154)		Scabies
82 (39)		Ringworm

Great start 

To which we can add from @John(txic) pages:

11     Dysentery

305    Disordered Action of Heart

499    Dyspepsia

515/1 Enteritis

931    Myalgia [different description to above]

965     Impetigo [different number to above]

And from @TEW abstracts:

61      Anaemia

86      Sciatica

131     Neuralgia

193     General debility

499      Debility [different description from above]

515/1    Debility [different description from above]

515 (2)  Renal Calculus

A.515 (2)  Appendicitis

697  Albuminuria

M

Edited 13 October , 2022 by Matlock1418
add tew

[TEW]

Not found anything groundbreaking but thought I'd add some notes from the inside front cover.

This simply shows a note from the MRC along with the initials HS next to names as explained. As to why, that's another question!

This Amazon link is the end product of the MRC research. https://www.amazon.co.uk/History-Great-Based-Official-Documents/dp/0898392632

It's possible there are other notes in the many A&D books. I have previously said that the codes were added post-war. I'm not so sure now as there are examples where the codes were added in different ink by a different hand. Then some that do look like contemprary entries which suggests the RAMC had access to these codes but only used them sporadically?

Bad of me to put ideas forward without being able to give a reference but I'm certain I've seen war period instructions (WO95) for completed A&D books to be forwarded once completed for research work.

 

Then another note regarding wound classification given on field medical cards. It seems the Royal College of Physicians defined the nomenclature.

And a snippet from the RCP website. https://history.rcplondon.ac.uk/blog/shell-shock-whats-name their shell shock example has no evidence of a number.

Quote

In 1917 with the Somme in recent memory, shell shock was included for the first time in the RCP publication The Nomenclature of Diseases, then an internationally recognised standard for the naming of diseases. 

TEW

 

[ss002d6252]

2 hours ago, TEW said:

Not found anything groundbreaking but thought I'd add some notes from the inside front cover.

This simply shows a note from the MRC along with the initials HS next to names as explained. As to why, that's another question!

This Amazon link is the end product of the MRC research. https://www.amazon.co.uk/History-Great-Based-Official-Documents/dp/0898392632

It's possible there are other notes in the many A&D books. I have previously said that the codes were added post-war. I'm not so sure now as there are examples where the codes were added in different ink by a different hand. Then some that do look like contemprary entries which suggests the RAMC had access to these codes but only used them sporadically?

Bad of me to put ideas forward without being able to give a reference but I'm certain I've seen war period instructions (WO95) for completed A&D books to be forwarded once completed for research work.

 

Then another note regarding wound classification given on field medical cards. It seems the Royal College of Physicians defined the nomenclature.

And a snippet from the RCP website. https://history.rcplondon.ac.uk/blog/shell-shock-whats-name their shell shock example has no evidence of a number.

TEW

 

This is a late 1890s version of the Nomenclature book - it is clearly what the codes were based off.
https://archive.org/details/nomenclatureofdi00roya/page/6/mode/2up?q=influenza

Craig

[ss002d6252]

1906 was the last pre-war edition
https://archive.org/details/nomenclatureofdi00royauoft

Craig

[ss002d6252]

Looking at the 1906 edition, it matches the disease codes on the diseases I've crossed referenced.

There was also a later 1918 edition of the book.

Craig

[Matlock1418]

13 minutes ago, ss002d6252 said:

There was also a later 1918 edition of the book.

I was am just about to post the link  here it is https://archive.org/details/nomenclatureofdi00royarich/page/viii/mode/2up?q="nomenclature+of+diseases"+"Royal+College+of+Physicians"

Edit: But I can't see any codes [as were in the earlier editions] ???

M

Edited 14 October , 2022 by Matlock1418
edit

[ss002d6252]

37 minutes ago, Matlock1418 said:

I was am just about to post the link  here it is https://archive.org/details/nomenclatureofdi00royarich/page/viii/mode/2up?q="nomenclature+of+diseases"+"Royal+College+of+Physicians"

Edit: But I can't see any codes [as were in the earlier editions] ???

M

It changed the layout.

[Matlock1418]

17 minutes ago, ss002d6252 said:

It changed the layout - they're nearer the start

Ah yes - but in the 1906 ed. pp.136 &137 https://archive.org/details/nomenclatureofdi00royauoft/page/136/mode/2up have 499 Dyspepsia of the OP 

and from your list

492   Haemorrhage pp 134 & 135 https://archive.org/details/nomenclatureofdi00royauoft/page/134/mode/2up

506   Vomiting pp.138 & 139 https://archive.org/details/nomenclatureofdi00royauoft/page/138/mode/2up

So certainly seems to fit

M

Edited 14 October , 2022 by Matlock1418
add links

[ss002d6252]

From looking at service records, the codes seem to have started to be added around 1917, so would have used the 1906 edition (which is numbered).

Craig

[Matlock1418]

Just now, ss002d6252 said:

From looking at service records, the codes seem to have started to be added around 1917, so would have used the 1906 edition (which is numbered).

Was editing to provide a few illustrative links - see above.

M

[ss002d6252]

4 Beri-Beri - https://archive.org/details/nomenclatureofdi00royauoft/page/2/mode/2up

18 German Measles - https://archive.org/details/nomenclatureofdi00royauoft/page/2/mode/2up

21 Influenza - https://archive.org/details/nomenclatureofdi00royauoft/page/4/mode/2up

Craig

[Matlock1418]

2 minutes ago, ss002d6252 said:

21 Influenza - https://archive.org/details/nomenclatureofdi00royauoft/page/4/mode/2up

Crikey! Influenza is between 20 Gonnorrhea and 22 Kala-Azar [Leishmaniasis or Black Fever]!

M

[seaJane]

7 minutes ago, Matlock1418 said:

Crikey! Influenza is between 20 Gonnorrhea and 22 Kala-Azar [Leishmaniasis or Black Fever]!

Alphabetical order? (says the librarian)

[Matlock1418]

1 minute ago, seaJane said:

Alphabetical order? (says the librarian)

Quite, but I think I prefer not to have either/any! 

M

[TEW]

Unfortunately for me my phone will not let me access Archive.org so I'll have to wait till tomorrow. Sounds like a result though.

If the codes were being entered in A&D books from 1917 that may explain why some look contemporary and some added in.

TEW

[ss002d6252]

3 minutes ago, TEW said:

Unfortunately for me my phone will not let me access Archive.org so I'll have to wait till tomorrow. Sounds like a result though.

If the codes were being entered in A&D books from 1917 that may explain why some look contemporary and some added in.

TEW

Certainly 1917 on the medical sheets in the men's records. I couldn't see anything earlier when I looked.

Craig

[Matlock1418]

@seaJane  Is this now one for your splendid medical & healthcare bibliography?

• The Nomenclature of Diseases, Royal College of Physicians of London. 4th Ed., 1906 https://archive.org/details/nomenclatureofdi00royauoft/mode/2up [front cover]

M

Edited 14 October , 2022 by Matlock1418

[seaJane]

29 minutes ago, Matlock1418 said:

@seaJane  Is this now one for your splendid medical & healthcare bibliography?

• The Nomenclature of Diseases, Royal College of Physicians of London. 4th Ed., 1906 https://archive.org/details/nomenclatureofdi00royauoft/mode/2up [front cover]

M

I hadn't thought of that one because of the 1906 date, but I'll have a quick check to see if there's an edition more likely to have been current. Even if there isn't, I'll try to remember to put it in as a potential reference source.

Thanks!

sJ

[Matlock1418]

1 minute ago, seaJane said:

I hadn't thought of that one because of the 1906 date, but I'll have a quick check to see if there's an edition more likely to have been current.

@ss002d6252 and I have had a look and found a 1918 Ed https://archive.org/details/nomenclatureofdi00royarich/mode/2up?q="nomenclature+of+diseases"+"Royal+College+of+Physicians" [but it is potentially not as useful as it doesn't seem to include codes - well I'm struggling to find them]

M

[seaJane]

2 minutes ago, Matlock1418 said:

@ss002d6252 and I have had a look and found a 1918 Ed https://archive.org/details/nomenclatureofdi00royarich/mode/2up?q="nomenclature+of+diseases"+"Royal+College+of+Physicians" [but it is potentially not as useful as it doesn't seem to include codes - well I'm struggling to find them]

M

I'll have a look at them both - later

[ss002d6252]

3 minutes ago, seaJane said:

I hadn't thought of that one because of the 1906 date, but I'll have a quick check to see if there's an edition more likely to have been current. Even if there isn't, I'll try to remember to put it in as a potential reference source.

Thanks!

sJ

1906 was the last pre-war edition (fourth edition). The fifth edition was 1918.

Craig

[seaJane]

7 minutes ago, ss002d6252 said:

1906 was the last pre-war edition (fourth edition). The fifth edition was 1918.

Craig

Understood, thanks.

[TEW]

Downloaded the 1906 edition.

Last night I was reading through History of the Great war based on official documents: Medical Services: Casualties and Medical Statistics, T J Mitchell and G M Smith 1931 which is the same volume I linked to an Amazon copy in a previous post.

My copy at home came from Archive.org but I can't for the life of me find it on the site. The introduction is worth a read as to the background, purpose, gathering of data and how the mountain of raw data required thinning and processing before work could begin. My copy seems to have page ix missing from the introduction. A miniscule proportion of the mountain of paperwork ended up in MH106. The 275 tons that were pulped in 1975 could well be a small proportion of the original mountain.

Ah, Seajane's bibliography comes to the rescue. Medical Services: Casualties and Medical Statistics which includes the missing page. Worth reading the Introduction.

TEW

 

Edited 15 October , 2022 by TEW
Corrected to 275 tons

[ss002d6252]

Just now, TEW said:

Ah, Seajane's bibliography comes to the rescue. Medical Services: Casualties and Medical Statistics which includes the missing page. Worth reading the Introduction.

It's a great read (the whole set of the official medical history is a good read).

 

Craig

[Matlock1418]

32 minutes ago, TEW said:

 Medical Services: Casualties and Medical Statistics which includes the missing page. Worth reading the Introduction.

Thanks for highlighting - The intro was enlightening = What a task!

M