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104
APPENDIX II.
CITY OF WESTMINSTER.
Report by the Medical Officer of Health
On the Influence of the Water Supply on Typhoid Fever.
To the Public Health Committee.
Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen,
The City is supplied by four water companies, the West Middlesex,
Grand Junction, Chelsea, and New River Companies.
The West Middlesex supplies half of the Hamlet of Knightsbridge
and the houses in St. Anne's Ward facing Oxford Street.
The Grand Junction supplies Grosvenor, Conduit, parts of Regent,
Marlborough, and Pall Mall Wards.
The Chelsea supplies Victoria, St. John, St. Margaret, Knightsbridge,
St. George, part of Charing Cross, Pall Mall, and the
Hamlet.
The New River Company supplies St. Anne's, Covent Garden,
Strand, parts of Charing Cross, Marlborough, and Regent Wards.
My predecessor, Professor Corfield, has contended for many
years that whereas the seasonal prevalence of typhoid fever is
normally in the autumn months, this disease is more prevalent and
fatal in London during the winter months. During every year,
except 1897, from 1891 to the end of 1900, the monthly average in
St. George, Hanover Square, for November and December was
higher than for August, September, and October, and he pointed
out that this rise was coincident with the increase of orgauic matter
in the drinking water supplied by certain companies.
In order to estimate the relationship between the supply and
typhoid during 1901, I have distributed the 78 cases believed to
have been contracted in the City, according to the area of the
various Water Companies, and I find that there were:—
0 cases in the area supplied by the West Middlesex Company
= 0.00 per 1,000 inhabitants.
14 cases in the area supplied by the Grand Junction Water
Company = 0.32 per 1,000 inhabitants.
46 cases in the area supplied by the Chelsea Water Company
= 0.45 per 1,000 inhabitants.
20 cases in the area supplied by the New River Company
= 0.55 per 1,000 inhabitants.