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14
gasometer took place in the East of London, when the Mark earth, saturated
with all the poisonous abominations arising from the manufacturing processes
was carted away to fill up a vacuum, robbed of its gravel and sand in the
usual way, over which has been built a large public school. It was by the
merest accident, within the last twelvemonths, Mr. Ellis, the Vestry Clerk,
informs me that it came to the knowledge of the Hackney Hoard of the plans
laid out for a "genteel family residence," as it is termed, on the spot where
were deposited the remains of two cows that had died from the Cattle Plague.
But built over filth, or on the bare earth, it is much the same; it is equally
over organic matter, only in another form, and under certain conditions, gives
rise to deadly exhalations. Elevation has shown a difference, a marked
difference, in the ravages of Cholera, but it refers principally to the badlybuilt,
not to the well-built houses. In Bromley, ut a low elevation, the
mortality has been heavy—in Bromley Union,* little or none; in Poplar, a
fearful slaughter—in Poplar Workhouse, no death; in Limehouse, very numerous
deaths—in Limehouse Establishment of 100 children, as already
stated, not one.
Every link in the water theory, as it is touched, thus drops to pieces. The
suggestion of the atmosphere, in its travels easterly as the primary agent in
connection with a special localisation, is supported throughout by a chain of
consistent and co-operating facts. The poison or miasm hangs about the
lowest levels, and then revels in death. The water drinking poison has been
mistaken for the water exhaling poison. At Amiens, in France, where a
large mortality from Cholera took place, the water was perfectly pure; and
Dr. Druitt could trace nearly all of it from the foul exhalations of organic
matter in various forms. The atmospheric theory explains everything. It
tells how the parts north of Victoria Park, on which emphasis has been Iaid»
escaped so well; how Mile End got well off; and how Bethnal Green above
all should have the smallest amount of mortality—because the poisonous
wave, as a glance at the map will show, from the congregated tilth, aided by the
north east wind, would wholly pass by the greater parts of these districts,
except allowing for the spray arising from occasional variation of the wind,
and from the ordinary diffusion. The atmospheric theory also, from the
low, swampy, Cholera habits, tells why there has been a gradation of death,
and at once affords an explanation of the comparative exemption of Bethnal
* There were 4 deaths from Cholera in Bromley Union, in bed-ridden women for years, whose
average ages were 75 years. This arose from an inmate going to visit a Cholera patient
at Shadwell.