View report page

198
occupying the centre of the affected area, the water
of which was held in great repute, and was largely
drunk by those who lived in its neighbourhood.
Again, the epidemic of 1866 was remarkable in
the fact that it was almost limited to a circumscribed
area in the East of London, including Bethnal
Green, Whitechapel, St. George's Stepney, Mile
End and Poplar, together with the suburban districts
of Stratford and West Ham. The enquiries of Mr.
Radcliffe, conducted under the directions of the
Medical Officer of the Privy Council, demonstrated
with almost mathematical precision that the localisation
of the epidemic was almost entirely due to
the distribution to these districts of impure and
unfiltered water by the East London Water
Company.
It must be assumed therefore, as a fact, that
the Choleraic poison, at all events in a large number
of cases, is conveyed through the medium of foul
drinking water, and necessarily therefore, by means
of all articles of food or drink, to which such water
is added. But it still remains to ask, "how does
the poison reach the water ; whence does it come;
and what is it ? It would naturally be supposed
that the Choleraic poison is contained in the
Cholera stools; and indeed there is plenty of