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21
The necessary deductions, arising out of these facts, are the following—
1. That the ordinary drinkers of the Old Ford water during the epidemic
amongst masses of people, as in factories, &c., or in private establishments,
in no way affected them differently from that of previous years.
2. That the drinkers of the alleged foul water, whether in masses, or
in families, were singularly exempt from Cholera and Diarrhoea during the
summer of 1866.
3. That the drinkers of stimulating liquors, both fermented and
spirituous, all other conditions being equal, were pre-eminently the sufferers
and victims during and arising from the epidemic.
4. That as numbers who perished drank neither stimulants nor the
suspected water (the infants), it follows that the source and cause of the
Cholera explosion at the East end of london remains yet unexplored.
Captain Tyler is of a very different opinion. In giving a Table of the
daily deaths from Cholera, closing with the 1st of September, at page 15 of
his Report, he says— "The conclusion from this Table appeared to be very
strong, that the water of the East London Company must be charged with
Choleraic poison, and that it was a principal means of disseminating the
disease, &c." Very likely— nothing more likely— than that it should
"appear" to the mind of a Captain of Engineers that the water was poisonous—
that it had caused the Cholera (first of all), subsequently converting it
into the Cholera "Explosion," and that tills alleged foul water had slain its
thousands.
But I am not going to treat this Commissioner unfairly for meddling
with matters with which he had no concern, in which he has only exhibited
a zeal without knowledge, by assuming a position, if he had learnt to know
himself, in which he never would have been placed.
I have limited myself, in dealing with this gentleman, to facts which
every one may understand. The medical, local, and other remarks will
follow in comments on a gentleman who has made this business part of his
profession, and who can comprehend the subject. At what College did this
Officer of Engineers gain the knowledge to enable him to settle the Cholera
question ? Ilis true walk in life is on lines, amongst curves, gradients, and
that kind of lore, making calculations from the laws of forces, and the laws
of matter— not affecting to fish out a poison in water where none exists