300 



ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY. 



nei'Tous affections of the larynx and trachea ; tannin, astrin- 

 gent and styptic, 1 to 10 grains, as above; alum, 1 to 20 grains; 

 sesquichloride of iron, 5 to 25 minims in an oz. of water; acetate 

 of lead, 3 to 10 grains ; sulphate of zinc, 1 to 10 grains ; common 

 salt, tincture of opium, liquor arsenical is, pure water, glj'cerine, 

 lime-water, and cod-liver oil; also the salts of iodine, chlorine, 

 and bromine. 



SEWAGE CONTAMINATION VS. CHOLERA. 



Mr. Simon, in his "Report on the Cholera Visitation of 1866," 

 says: *'lt cannot be too distinctly understood that the person 

 who contracts cholera in this country (England) is ipso facto de- 

 monstrated with almost absolute certainty to have been exposed 

 to excremental pollution ; that what gave him cholera was (medi- 

 ately or immediateh') cholera-contagion discharged from anoth- 

 er's bowels; that, in short, the diffusion of cholera among us 

 depends entirely upon the numberless filthy facilities which exist, 

 especially in our larger towns, for the fouling of earth, air, and 

 water, and thus secondarily for the infection of man, with what- 

 ever contagion may be contained in the miscellaneous outflow- 

 ings of the population. Excrement-sodden earth, excrement- 

 reeking air, and excrement-tainted water are for us the causes of 

 cholera. That they respectively act only in so far as the excre- 

 ment is cholera-excrement, and that cholera-excrement again 

 only acts in so far as it contains certain microscopical fungi, may 

 be the truest of all true propositions ; but whatever be their 

 abstract truth their separate application is impossible. It is ex- 

 crement, indiscriminately, which must be kept from fouling us 

 with its decay. 



*' The local conditions of safety are, above all, these two: 1. 

 That, by appropriate structural works, all the excremental produce 

 of the popuhition shall be so promptly and so thoroughly removed, 

 that the inhabited place, in its air and soil, shall be absolutely 

 without faecal impurities; and, 2. That the water supply of the 

 population shall be derived from such sources, and convej^ed in 

 such channels, that its contamination by excrement is impossible. 



"That cholera is still a terror to Europe shows how scantily 

 such illustrations are yet understood. Even here in England the 

 objects which I have named as essential ai"o at best but rarely 

 fulfilled; indeed, for vast numbers of our population scarcely 

 rudimentary endeavors have been made to attain them. Town 

 after town might be named, with myriad on myriad of population, 

 where there is little more structural arrangement for the removal 

 of refuse than if the inhabitants were but tented there for a night. 

 The case of the water supply is no better, whether it be in private 

 hands or under the control of commercial companies. 



" Cholera, ravao^ino: here at lonji: intervals, is not Nature's onlv 

 retribution for our neglect in these matters. Typhoid fever and 

 much endemic diarrhoea are incessant witnesses to the same dele- 

 terious intluence ; the former annually kills 15,000 to 20,000 of 



I 



