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51
In my Report for the year 1859 I thought it
right to bring before you the state of the various
wells in the Parish, from which water was supplied
to many families. In a report published by the
Vestry in 1855, a Committee reported that the great
attack of Cholera in 1854 had been entirely due to
the water of a well in Broad Street. Several of the
wells were found to deliver water obviously contaminated
by sewage, and I pointed out the danger
of using such water. I strongly advised that all
these wells should be closed, and was joined in this
recommendation by every Medical Officer of Health
in London. The agitation thus begun has, I believe,
terminated in the closure of nearly every surfacewell
pump in London.
In 1857 I was requested to draw up a special
report, in preparation for Cholera, which was made
to the Vestry on the 15th of October. The recommendations
there made were more or less immediately
carried out; so that when the outbreak of
Cholera occurred in 1866, we were more or less
prepared to meet the event, and suffered less than
any other parish in London. During this year I
also drew up two handbills, one containing directions
for the preservation of health, and the other
directions for preventing the spread of infectious
diseases. These were the commencement of a
series of handbills which I have drawn up at your
request, and which I believe have not only done a
great deal of good in St James's, Westminster, but
in many other parts of the country. Some of these,