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44
'domestic purposes. One of us examined it as
'lately as July, 1865, and found it to be little else
'than filtered sewerage, notwithstanding its bright'ness
and freedom from offensive smell and taste.
'We have no hesitation in saying that the use
'of this and other similar pumps in the Metropolis
'supplied as they are by surface and sewer drainage,
'is at the present juncture fraught with extreme
'peril to the community. It is well known that
'the pump in Broad Street was, in the cholera
'visitation in 1854, the centre of a terrible outburst
'of the disease; while an isolated fatal case in
'Hampstead was clearly connected with the use of
'Broad Street pump water.
'During the autumn of last year a startling
'outbreak of cholera occurred on the borders of
'Epping Forest, to which attention has again
'recently been called in the daily papers. The
'disease appears to have been brought to the spot
'by a member of a family who had been travelling
'in the west of England, and in this case it rapidly
'attacked other members of the household with
'great severity. All these persons used water from
'a particular pump, and it was ascertained by one
'of us, from the chemical analysis of the water,
'that it was largely contaminated with drainage
'from the water closet. Independently of this
'analysis, a leak from the closet into the well was