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44
WATER SUPPLY.
Mr. Radcliffe says—"There remains
for examination the probable
influence of the water supply. Not
one of the conditions mentioned in
the previous sections are believed to
be liable to affect the progress of
epidemic Cholera; the disease being
present will account for very limited
fluctuations of the outbreak, or for
its localisation in any particular
spot, in a restricted degree only;
any combination of these is equally
inefficacious in explaining that
peculiar localisation and fluctuation
in the east districts."
"By a process of exclusion the
the condition remaining for investigation
of the water supply is
thus freed from the principal sources
of disturbance, which might mark its
influence upon the outbreak."
an outlet of the accumulated poison.
REMARKS.
We are informed by Mr. Radcliffe
that the investigation of the
"explosion" question having been
now set free from such trifling
matters as filth, bad drainage, and
sewer gases, which have had little
or nothing to do with it, and as he
is "thus freed from the principal
sources of disturbance" those of
filth, drainge, &c. he is at liberty,
seeing the way clearly before him,
to enter upon that having an even
flow —the water supply. What
are foul cuts, canals, polluted riven,
and a general receivership for the
sewage of hundreds of thousands of
inhabitants in the very hoart and
core of the Cholera mortality, to do
with the affair at all ? And as to
the rest, it is all as simple as reading
or writing made easy.
On to the water supply.
I shall not attempt to wade
through the many pages of Mr.
Radcliffe, devoted to this topic in
way of comment, I have read the
whole with attention, wormed myself
into its merit so far that I shall
not seek to bring anything
further forward to upset the theory
of the Cholera explosion, but content
me for the moment with the
impression that it was all the work