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25
With respect to the field itself he stated "that in the wet
"weather the field, was swampy, but that he never saw any vegetable
"matter there of any importance; that he should decidedly not say
" 'that the field has for months bach been a focus of deadly miasma
''that he saw many places in the neighbourhood equally as bad; that
"there was a large amount of dry rubbish with earth or clay shot
"there; that he never saw it in such a state as to make it necessary
"for him to call attention to it, and that he had never smelt anything
"offensive arising from it; that there could not have been any great
"amount of decomposition going on, and that therefore noxious
"gases could not have been generated."
With reference to this evidence, your Committee draw attention
to the facts that, on the one hand, the field is alleged by Mr.
Soutter to have been in its worst condition, and therefore "a focus
of deadly miasma," in the months of December, January, and
February; during the greater part of the first of which three
months the weather was exceptionally severe; whilst from November
26th, 1874, to January 17th, 1875, the field was often under the
observation of Dr. Cotton, who discovered nothing worthy of complaint
in connection with its condition, and that at least from
January 22nd to the end of February the field was visited many
times both by your Inspectors and by the Medical Officer of Health,
was viewed by your Committee, and was also seen at other
times by individual members, but all with the uniform result "that
no ground for interference was found to exist."
That as regards Mr. Soutter's expressed opinion that the condition
of the field was sufficient to have been the cause of the fever
and that he had no reason to doubt that it was the cause, the Committee
observe that Dr. Cotton was called to the first case, that of
the girl, on November 26th, 1874, and that she must have therefore
contracted the disease at least several days previously, at
which period the field was not alleged to be in its worst state; and
that, as a matter of fact, it would not appear that Mr. Soutter knew
anything at all about the circumstances attending the earlier cases
of fever until after he was called to the house on January 19th, 1875.
That, on the other hand, Dr. Cotton's evidence points entirely
away from the field and in the direction of the house and its