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any hypothesis of mischief resulting from this air in the water pipes is to
be upheld.
"Complete intermission of supply was found to have actually occurred
on two occasions at least, during the last term." The first took place on
the 25 th October, and the second on the 1st November.
"Now, a fortnight is about the incubation time of enteric fever;
a fortnight after October 25, is the date of the first attack in Tree Court.
A fortnight after November 1, is the date of the second, third, and fourth
attacks. And though it was known that other cases of fever kept dropping
in till the end of November, the coincidence of the early fever, with these
ascertained intermissions, was not the less suggestive as indicating the
direction that further inquiry should take."
"It is the rule with the Cambridge Water Company to supply water
closets, not directly from the high-pressure pipes, but from an interposed
cistern or service-box. This arrangement, besides preventing waste of
water, has the following advantages: that, if there should ever be any
foul vapours from a water-closet, and these should under any circumstances
pass through the closet supply-valve, their passage backwards along the
water-pipe must be interrupted at the cistern or service-box." This
important arrangement was not observed in the water-closets in Tree Court,
but these conveniences were served direct from the high-pressure pipes.
It was ascertained on analysis that the supply-pipe contained a large
proportion of nitroginized organic matter and an appreciable amount of
phosphoric acid. It would seem, therefore, that water impregnated with
foecal matter must have entered these pipes, and so helped to produce these
deposits.
The water impregnated with faecal matter came from the closet taps.
The trapping water, then, had been sucked into the water-service pipes, so
that, as Dr. Buchanan" adds, "if the consideration be of importance, it is
now further seen that last October, not only in air but actually in water,
fever poison may have entered the water pipes of Tree Court."
Dr. Buchanan toward the conclusion of his most valuable and inter,
esting report, remarks that" in the pathology of enteric fever, and similar
diseases, we know that a very minute quantity of infectious matter can,
nnder favorable circumstances of distribution, produce very large and
intense results. And, moreover, the present case does not stand alone as
an instance of the spread of enteric fever by means of a so called constant
water supply that in practice has intermissions in its service."
The water supply on the constant service has been in operation
in Manchester, since the year 1851. The water limits of the
Corporation, embrace an area of about 84 square miles, find contain therein
137,250 houses, with a population of about 685,000.
The constant supply, says Mr. Berrey, the manager of the internal
distribution of water at Manchester, has given very great satisfaction.
From inquiries which I have made of Dr. Martin, the Medical Officer of
Health for Manchester; I learn,
1st.—That all the houses of the poor, as well as of the rich, are supplied