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6
This enormous excess of heat must have exercised a
material influence upon the public health. It has
accordingly been observed that Cholera, Dysentery, and
Diseases of the Liver, affections characteristic of tropical
climates, have been peculiarly rife.
It is a momentous question, involving perhaps some
millions in taxation—to be either wasted or saved—
whether the influence of the summer heat upon the
waters of the Thames be such as to empoison the
atmosphere of London, and so to increase the mortality
of the inhabitants? Never before have we enjoyed
equal facilities for observing the influence of sewage and
of high temperature on the Thames as a cause of disease.
The temperature of the Thames has rarely been so high.
The quantity of sewage was never so great. The population
has vastly increased; and the excreta of many
thousands which were formerly received into cesspools,
have been within the last eighteen months added to the
sewage flowing into the river. The eminent Engineers
appointed by Sir Benjamin Hall, to report upon the
Main Drainage of the Metropolis, lay it down as an
axiom, as the unquestioned justification for gigantic
works, and commensurate expenditure, having for their
object the "dispollution of the Thames."—
"That the influence of the sewage upon the river
is pernicious."
In what way the influence of the sewage is pernicious