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The tank has an opening through which water can escape on to the floor adjoining. The water in
the tank is said to be run off and the tank to be cleansed once a fortnight. When seen on May 14th,
however, the sides of the tank presented discolorations, which had probably remained undisturbed for
more than that time. Dr. Davies refers in his special report to the result of the examination of a
sample of water from this tank. The water was pronounced to be " unfit for drinking purposes on
account of vegetable debris. It was also examined bacteriologically with a negative result as regards
the specific organisms of enteric fever."
Adjoining the grain-pit a cement-lined excavation had been constructed to catch the liquid
draining from the grains. This excavation had no connection with any drain.
An account of the conduct of the milk-vendor's business, and of the cows kept in the shed.
Three persons were engaged in the conduct of the business, the occupier of the premises, who
exercised general supervision and undertook part of the milking operations; the cowman, who took
part in the milking operations and went on "the round" distributing the milk; and a lad who acted
under the directions of the two persons already named, but took as a rule no part in milking the cows.
The house on the Princes-road premises was occupied by the milk-vendor, his wife and their
niece. The cowman lived with his wife and three children in a house in Barnfield-road. Two rooms
in this house were sub-let to a woman with one child. The lad lived in a house in Barnfield-road, the
other occupants of which were a man, two women and five children. Inquiry was made as to the
health of all these persons prior to the outbreak. None of them had suffered from any illness in the least
degree suggestive of typhoid fever.
The milk was said to be delivered at about 180 houses on the morning round, and at about 230
houses on the afternoon round. Most of the customers were served both morning and afternoon, but
on the other hand, to a certain extent persons were supplied with milk in the afternoon who did not
have it in the morning. An attempt to estimate the number of households supplied was also made in
a different manner. The regular customers were enumerated by the cowman who went on the " milk
round," and this resulted in 165 addresses being specified. A few of these customers were themselves
purveyors* of milk, retailing the Princes-road milk in small quantities to other consumers. Again,
the list of regular customers did not include, as a rule, persons who bought less than a pennyworth of
milk in the day.
It was stated that no customers were separately supplied, save on exceptional occasions, with
cream.
At the time of the outbreak there were five cows and seven heifers in the cowshed. During
the summer of 1894 the milk vendor had kept his animals in a field some 400 yards away from the shed,
and in this field they remained from May until the end of October or the beginning of November. A black
cow, a bull and three heifers, which then formed part of the stock, remained in the field a few weeks
longer than the rest of the herd. This field was situated on the slope of a hill, and water for watering
the cows was provided in a tank placed in the field to which it had to be conveyed by cart. Kent
Company's water from the cowshed was used to fill the tank.
All the animals had been removed from the field to the cowshed before the end of 1894. In
January the black cow already referred to calved. The calf was suckled for about a month, and the
milk, amounting to some six quarts a day, was at the end of that time added to the general stock, the
calf being sold. Early in January eight fat cows were sold to a dealer who took away three of them
about the 11th January, and the remainder a week or two later. About the middle of January three
new cows were introduced into the shed ; these cows were purchased at the Metropolitan Cattle Market.
On March 1st a roan heifer was brought into the shed. This heifer yielded from the first some
16-20 quarts of milk a day; she had calved the day before her arrival, and her milk was not added to
the general stock until the 5th or 6th of March. At the end of March or beginning of April the bull
and two heifers were sold and taken away from the shed. The number of animals then remaining war
12 (the five cows and seven heifers already mentioned).
On inquiring of the dealer who sold the roan heifer, it was ascertained that the animal was one
of a batch bought at Maidstone, and then placed until sale could be effected in a field on Plumsteadmarshes.
In this field the roan heifer calved on the last day of February. [This animal was
subsequently bought and transferred to the Brown Institution, where it was examined by Dr. Klein,
with the result set out in his report.]
On visiting the field in question it was found to be surrounded by ditches, which received water
from a stream contaminated by cesspool overflows and from other polluted sources. Water thus contaminated
was the only water available for the cows to drink. In the field were a barn and a cottage,
neither of which however drained directly into the ditch from which the cows drank. The inhabitants
of the cottage usually had a little water brought to them with their provisions, but it was admitted that
they sometimes drank ditch water, having previously boiled it. Two houses were situated within a few
hundred yards of this field; both of them drained into cesspools, but as far as could be ascertained there
was no communication between these cesspools and the ditch from which the cows drank.
A detailed inquiry was made as to the nature of the pollution to which the water consumed
by the cows in the field on Plumstead-marshes was liable. Plumstead-marshes is a tract of land
consisting of fields separated one from another by ditches; these ditches present somewhat complicated
intercommunications, and in some instances are provided with sluices for the purpose of directing
the flow of water in particular directions. Griffin manor-way crosses the marshes (from south to
north) at their western border, and Harrow-manor-way (forming the county boundary) crosses in a
similar direction at the eastern border. About midway between the two and parallel to them (i.e.,
running from south to north) is Church-manor-way. This last-named road, however, after proceeding
# These purveyors bought Princes-road milk because it was available quite early in the morning; they
obtained their main supply, however, from other sources.