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16
SANITARY CHRONICLES, 1894.
typhoid. An enquiry and a report is to be made on this
matter by the Medical Department of the Local Government
Board.
Watercress has also been accused of the same thing.
Both are probable causes of typhoid; should they really be
so, it may be, after all, but a variety of water infection.
In 63 of the cases in St. Marylebone, definite answers
could be obtained both as to the amount of water drunk
unboiled and as to the consumption or otherwise of oysters
and watercress within the incubation period. The following
are the results:—
Drunk lots of unboiled water 13
Never eat either oysters or watercress 25
Never took oysters 3
Eat of both oysters and Avatercress 10
Eat watercress, but no oysters 8
Took oysters alone 4
63
Some of the above cases may, therefore, have been
through oysters or watercress, but the numbers consuming
one or both are not sufficiently striking to base general
conclusions on. In all cases which arose within the parish,
an examination of the water-service pipe, of the cisterns,
and of the sanitary arrangements were made, and 25 houses
showed serious defects of drainage On reference to the
spot map a cluster will be found at Grays Buildings. Here
alone was there anything approaching to an outbreak.
Grays Buildings drained into a sewer which terminated in
a dead end, there were no syphons between the houses and
the sewer, and on uncovering the drains various defects
were found. The houses have now all been re-drained on an
improved system, the sewer ventilated, and arrangements
made for periodical flushing. In this case certainly there are
grounds for believing that sanitary defects, if they did not
cause the malady, at all events assisted in its propagation.
On the other hand, in the majority of instances the sanitary
state of the premises was excellent.