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sewage contaminated water of the Broad Street pump,
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 the 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
inquiries of Mr. Radcliffe, conducted under the direction 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 bv the East
London Water Company.
It must be assumed, therefore, as a fact, that the
Choleric 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?" I will not discuss these questions
at length; but I may point out that the result of modern
investigations is to prove that the specific poison of Cholera
is contained in the discharges from the alimentarv canal of
patients suffering from the disease; that these are little, if
at all, operative when quite fresh, but acquire virulent
infectious properties in the course of the following two,
three, four, or five days, and subsequently lose them; that
the poison of the disease is taken up by, or acts upon, the