London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972

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Paddington 1856

[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Paddington]

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19
in which Cholera has prevailed in each epidemic with singular
severity, are supplied by two rival Water Companies, the
mains of which branch within the same area, often running
parallel in the same streets. During the late invasion of
Cholera these two systems of pipes contained water of very
different character;—that supplied by the Southwark and
Vauxhall Company was incredibly foul, while that of the
Lambeth Company was as pure as that now delivered in this
Parish. The tenants of the two Companies live side by side,
and are placed under circumstances precisely similar as regards
occupation and social position; so that all the exterior
influences, except that of water supply, to which they were
exposed at the time of the epidemic were the same. Here, then,
says Mr. Simon, "was to be gathered conclusive evidence for
a verdict on the matter at issue,—a verdict which should
acquit or inculpate certain qualities of water-supply as bearing
on the local prevalence of Cholera." What then were the
results? While in every 10,000 persons drinking the water
supplied by the Lambeth Company, there were only 37 deaths
from Cholera, there died, in the same number among the
tenants of the Southwark and Vauxhall Company, 130; so
that the consumers of the purer water did not suffer one-third
so much as their neighbours. In the epidemic of 1849 the
case was strikingly different. At that period the water
supplied by the Lambeth Company was even more filthy than
that of the other, and it was then found that the mortality by
Cholera among its tenantry was three times as great as in 1854
The general result of the comparison of the two epidemics
was, that while "in the one population the Cholera death-rate
rose from 118 to 130, in the other it fell from 125 to 37;"
"the one had improved its water supply to comparative
excellence; the other drank from even a filthier source than
before."
The hurtful influence of bad water has been so often and
so boldly denied, that I have thought it desirable to bring
these facts under your notice. The inferences which they
suggest are applicable to all diseases of the same class as

TABLE showing the Composition of various Specimens of Flour.

Quantity analysed.Water.Organic Matter.Ash.Alum.
l¼ oz.= 120 gr.12.0106.91.1A trace.
2....13.2105.90.9Ditto.
3....12.0107.050.95Ditto.
4....13.4105.51.1An appreciable quantity.
5....12.8106.550.65A trace.