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(3) The suggestion has been made that sewage effluvia has been
the cause of the disease; that North Hackney being on
higher ground, the sewers in that part of Hackney are
more liable to do harm than those on lower ground.
There is not a tittle of evidence available in support of
this view. The Walthamstow sewage farm has been
requisitioned as a cause of the disease, but there is no
evidence that persons suffered more in those parts of
Hackney nearer Walthamstow than those at a greater
distance. The Walthamstow sewage farm may have a
great deal to answer for, but, amongst its misdeeds, the
throat disease of North Hackney cannot be counted.
It has also been hinted that defective house drainage has
been the cause; but I have had an examination made of
the drains of each house where I have found throat
illness existed, and after excluding those houses with
defects from my calculations, I find practically the same
heavy incidence of throat illness on X's customers, as
compared with those of other dealers.
But all of these alternative suggestions ignore the fact that the
disease is mostly confined to the customers of one dairyman, and
unless something were supplied by that individual, with the quality
of producing disease, the idea of disease selecting for its operation
the customers of one man, to the exclusion of others, is absurd.
I have to tender my best thanks to all those practitioners who
kindly replied to my circular letter, and especially to those of Upper
Clapton and Stamford Hill, without whose co-operation it would have
been impossible for me to have satisfactorily investigated this
outbreak.
I remain, Gentlemen,
Yours faithfully,
J. KING-WARRY, M.D., M.R.C.P, &c.,
Medical Officer of Health.
Town Hall, Hackney,
June 7th, 1900.