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6. Information as to the high degree in which those two dangers
affect the public health in ordinary times, and as to the special importance
which attaches to them at times when any diarrhoeal infection is
likely to be introduced, has now for so many years been before the
public, that the improved systems of refuse-removal and water supply
by which those dangers are permanently obviated for large populations,
and also the minor structural improvements by which separate households
are secured against them, ought long ago to have come into
universal use.
So far, however, as this wiser course has not been adopted in any
Sanitary District, security must, as far as practicable, be sought in
measures of a temporary and palliative kind.
(a.) Immediate and searching examination of sources of water
supply should be made in all cases where the source is in any degree
open to the suspicion of impurity; and the water both from private
and public sources should be examined. Where pollution is discovered,
everything practicable should be done to prevent the pollution from
continuing, or, if this object cannot be obtained, to prevent the water
from being drunk. Cisterns should be cleaned, and any connexions
of waste-pipes with drains should be severed.
(b.) Simultaneously, there should be immediate thorough removal
of every sort of house refuse and other filth which has accumulated
in neglected places; future accumulations of the same sort should be
prevented; attention should be given to all defects of house-drains and
sinks through which offensive smells are let into houses; thorough
washing and lime-washing of uncleanly premises, especially of such
as are densely occupied, should be practised again and again.
7. It may fairly be believed that, in considerable parts of the
country, conditions favourable to the spread of Cholera are now less
abundant than at any former time ; and in this connexion, the gratifying
fact deserves to be recorded that during recent years enteric
fever, the disease which in its methods of extension bears the nearest
resemblance to Cholera, has continuously and notably declined in
England. But it is certain that in many places such conditions are
present as would, if Cholera were introduced, assist in the spread of
that disease. It is to be hoped that in all these cases, the local sanitary
authorities will at once do everything that can be done to put
their districts into a wholesome state. Measures of cleanliness, taken
beforehand, are of far more importance for the protection of a district
against Cholera than removal or disinfection of filth after disease has
actually made its appearance.
8. It is important for the public very distinctly to remember that
pains taken and costs incurred for the purposes to which this