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41
previous patient sick of the same malady," water being the principal, but
not the only medium through which that morbid matter is conveyed into
the system. Mr. Simon has still more recently published some extraordinary
facts bearing upon this interesting subject. He states, as the
result of some investigations made in 1853-4, that "in 24,854 houses
supplied by the Lambeth Company, comprising a population of about
160,906 persons, there occurred 611 cholera deaths, being at the rate of
37 to every 10,000 living. In 39,726 houses, supplied by the Southwark
and Vauxhall Company, comprising a population of about 268,171 persons,
there occurred 3,476 deaths, being at the rate of 130 to every
10,000 living. The population drinking dirty water accordingly appears
to have suffered 3½ times as much mortality as the population drinking
other water." It is necessary to state that, at the time to which Mr.
Simon alludes, the Lambeth Company drew its supply, as now, from
Thames Ditton, whilst the Southwark and Vauxhall supplied its customers
with water from the river at Chelsea—a most impure source compared
with that of Thames Ditton, because, to use the expressive words of Mr.
Simon, "the larger population and more extended drainage of London had
given it a denser infusion of sewage, and a more revolting unfitness for
drink." What better confirmation of my long entertained suspicions
could I obtain than the above facts?
Although much of the well water in this sub-district is pure and wholesome,
compared with that which several of my colleagues have given me
to understand is obtainable by the inhabitants of some of the neighbouring
parishes, there is a good deal that is most decidedly bad, and some
that is quite unfit for drink or to be used for culinary purposes. In 1854
Dr. Hassall kindly examined with me many of the well and other waters
of this parish, and the results of both the microscopical and chemical
investigations then made have since been published in the general report
on the cholera epidemic of 1854, laid before Parliament by the Board of
Health."
I have lately resumed my inquiries into this most important subject,
and have been led to the conclusion that but a very slight improvement has
taken place in the waters of those wells which were in 1854 found to be
so largely contaminated with both organic and inorganic impurities, and
to be literally teeming with infusorial life. My recent examination by the
microscope of several specimens obtained from the same pumps as in
1854 disclosed (though in a less degree in some instances), the same disgusting
traces of living and dead organic matter which have been so
graphically described in the report alluded to. It should be observed,
however, that my late examinations were not made at the same period of
the year as were the former ones, and this sufficiently accounts for my
not having observed some of the infusorial developments so abundant in
the waters examined in 1854. I am still pursuing these investigations,
and hope to have opportunities of placing the results before the Board.
The following extracts from the report referred to relate to three
specimens of water procured from different parts of the parish at the time
of the last outbreak of cholera.