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effects are equally pernicious, but facts go also far to prove that drinking impure
water under any and every condition does impart an unmistakeable susceptibility
to its action, and that where this hygienic safeguard is neglected, there Cholera,
when epidemic, reigns destructively and surely.
It is a curious and noteworthy coincidence in connection with this outbreak ol
Cholera amongst us, that it has attacked those places which are almost without
exception supplied with water from surface wells.
Here timely aid has been given in this respect, and this, with other preventive
measures, have answered our purpose well. The seeds of the contagion
have been scorched, as it were, in the bud, ere they had time tc
germinate.
The relief afforded in the prompt interment of the dead has been gratefully
received, and many an honest parent or child relieved of a pressing weight on
their present and future energies. Bed-clothes and Bedding, and even Clothing,
saturated with Choleraic poison, have been destroyed, and replaced at the public
cost, of insignificant amount compared with the wide spread poisoned influence
which, under less active regime, mi^ht have reigned triumphant.
'Tis not within the scope of human power to rule the tide of epidemic
influences, or regulate those atmospheric or climacteric conditions which carry with
them increased susceptibility to contagious or epidemic maladies, but it is within
our reach to see that all those conditions, which experience has proved to be
damaging to our existence, be removed as quickly and efficiently as circumstances
admit of.
A Choleraic Atmosphere has ruled through many weeks of the Autumn of
this year. The " Blue Mist " of Glaisher has indeed prevailed in Eastern London,
and dire have been its consequences. It has assumed a brownish hue, in which
the Western suburbs have for weeks together been enveloped, as it were, with a
cloak. The absence of Solar influence has been remarkable, and its consequences
have not been limited to animal life. The Vegetable Kingdom has alike suffered
in proportion. The oidium of the Grape, and the Potato blight, have had full
play ; our cereals, too, have not escaped.
That atmospheric influences have been at work, independently of local
conditions in Hammersmith during the late Cholera season, is certain, from the
peculiar manner in which cases of that disease have been dotted about the Parish.
Neither fixity of habitat, nor conditions of special type, have marked its course or
character. It has found a victim in the north, then south, or east, or west,
without apparent cause ; here one, there two, anon three lives have fallen ; but
wheresoever it appeared, there energetic hygienic efforts were brought to bear,
and with what good results the sequels proved.
Gentlemen,—the Resolutions of your Board of the 30th of July necessarily
cast upon me a most grave and serious responsibility. As your Officer of Health
it was my duty to accept it. Of the propriety of the orders conveyed therein no
one can doubt. The zeal with which you met the demands of the Government
have, I trust, found a ready response with me ; and I can only hope that as my
desiro has been, so may I have succeeded in carrying my instructions into effect
in such a manner as to have ensured the good results you may have anticipated, aa
well as your general approval.
I have the honor to be,
Gentlemen,
Your faithful Servant,
FREDERICK J. BURGE,
Medical Officer of Healths
Hammersmith,
Nov. 8th, 1866.