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28
none of them are discordant with Pettenkofer's
theory, a large number are in open and direct
antagonism to the water hypothesis. In point of
fact it is necessary for the acceptance of such a speculation,
not only that some clear proof should be
given of the actual pollution of the water with
choleraic matter, but also that the time of the outbreak
throughout the infected district, was coincident
with the distribution of such water, and that
it did not notably fail to produce the disease whereever
it was sent. It is likewise necessary to show
that the disease was strictly confined to the area of
such distribution, and that the use of other water
was not accompanied with like severe results.
The alleged pollution of the water rests upon
a series of assumptions, many of which are in the
highest degree improbable. It happened that two
deaths from cholera occurred on the 27th of June,
at Bromley, immediately in the neighbourhood of
the East London Water-works, though far removed
from their source of supply; and it is assumed that
the alvine discharges of the two sick persons were
cast into the privy and found their way, through the
sewers, into the river Lea, where, by being diffused
through a large volume of water, they passed upward
against the current of the stream, and arrived
opposite an open, but rarely used, reservoir of the
Water Company; that they then soaked through