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100
expression) had changed. In all former epidemics the
South of the metropolis had suffered with disproportionate
severity; in this, the Southern districts, with the exception
of Greenwich, suffered very slightly; while the Eastern
districts alone seemed exposed to the full violence of the
epidemic, and experienced a far heavier visitation of the
disease than they had ever previously known.
How are these phenomena to be explained ? The
natural response to this question would doubtless be, that
the important sanitary works, which have been in constant
progress throughout the metropolis since the beginning
of 1856, have placed the metropolis in a better condition
generally to repel the attacks of epidemics, and that the
machinery of the metropolitan vestries is more successful
than that of former bodies in dealing with these epidemics
when they do appear among us.
But before a perfectly satisfactory answer can be given
to this question, the mode in which the cholera poison is
conveyed from the sick to the healthy, so as to impart
the disease to the healthy, must be understood. This is
not the place to discuss the various theories which have
been entertained with regard to the propagation of cholera;
but I may call your attention briefly to certain views on this
subject which are gaining ground amongst well-informed
Physicians, and in which I am disposed to concur.
Observations made during the epidemic of 1854, which
were referred to by me in my first annual report, tended to
shew that cholera is in a very large degree dependent ou
the use of water impregnated with sewage; a series of very