View report page

103
The above evidence from which I infer that the outbreak has been
caused largely by the consumption of sewage polluted water may be
summarised in the following manner:—
1. The excess of enteric fever corresponds with the season for
watercress, viz., June to September.
2. The excess of cases of enteric fever was amongst watercress
eaters, viz., 55 per cent, for the whole period.
3. Watercress eaters suffered more than three times as much as
non-watercress eaters.
4. Samples of watercress, taken from the places where infected
persons market, were found on examination, to be sewage polluted.
5. A large proportion of the polluted samples were found to be
cultivated in beds fed by almost undiluted sewage.
These facts furnish material for serious reflection. In the first
place they show that the bulk, if not the whole, of the watercress
sold in Hackney is cultivated under such pollutted conditions as to
be liable at any time to be specifically pollufed, and to give rise to
outbreaks of enteric fever. If so many samples of watercress sold in
Hackney are in a polluted condition, is it not probable that watercress
sold in other boroughs of London is similarly polluted? If the
information of the source of samples given in tha table, page 7, is
correct, and I have no reason to question it, the bulk of the watercress
supplied to the Metropolis is in a similar condition to the
samples examined. It may be asked, if all the sources of supply
are so polluted, why is not the infection wider and more severe.
My reply to this is that although every watercress bed may be fed
with sewage, this sewage may only be specifically infected in one or
two cases; and it may be, that a high degree of specific pollution is
necessary, before it shows itself in the form of an epidemic.
It has already been noted that the season for the growth and sale
of watercress is during the summer months of June to September.
This same period may, with the exception of September, be regarded