CHOLERA. 627 



proved that there had been considerable confusion ; so that a house 

 which was registered on the Lambeth Company, really drew its water- 

 supply from the main of the Vauxhall Company, and vice versa. The 

 cholera epidemic of 1866 was essentially limited to East London. The 

 East London Water Company supplied this district with water filtered 

 from the river Lea. Letheby brought forward a series of facts to 

 prove that we might with equal justice accuse the East London Gas 

 Company, since the first case of cholera broke out at the gas-factory. 

 A second instance in London was that with which the name of Dr. 

 Snow is associated. Golden Square, a part of London with very de- 

 ficient drainage, was the scene of a severe epidemic of cholera in 1854. 

 The epidemic concentrated itself in Broad Street. There must have 

 been some reason for this, and the reason must be discovered. Where 

 Golden Square and Broad Street stood was formerly a place of burial 

 for individuals dead of the plague. This pest-blast of a former cent- 

 ury could walk from its grave in a. d. 1854 like the ghost in " Hamlet." 

 But a narrower inspection proved that the old pest-field and the new 

 cholera-field were not exactly coextensive. Now, however, another 

 fact was brought to light, which led to the substitution of the drinking- 

 water as the cause. In the middle of Broad Street there stood a pump 

 of which the water was much esteemed on account of its freshness. 

 At the end of August, while the cholera was raging, it was found out 

 that many sufferers had drunk of the pump-water, but the fact was 

 not sufficiently decisive, and so a pathological experiment was re- 

 quired. In Broad Street there was a percussion-cap factory belonging 

 to Mr. Eley. The persons of this establishment suffered from cholera, 

 and many of them died. Mr. Eley remained well, but he did not live 

 at the factory, though he went there daily and returned home to 

 Hampstead after business, and there lived with his mother and a niece. 

 His mother, who formerly lived in Broad Street, had a great liking for 

 the water of the pump-well, which was shown in the fact that her son 

 daily took home the water for his mother and niece. In Hampstead' 

 there had been no case of cholera until the mother and daughter fell 

 ill and died of cholera, without having any other communication with 

 Broad Street than through the means mentioned. What more is 

 wanted? Who can doubt any longer? An experiment on two human 

 beings with a disease which animals are not susceptible to ! A sad 

 privilege. Never before had facts received a more frivolous interpre- 

 tation. Suppose, for a moment, that Mr. Eley had gone to and from 

 Hampstead to Broad Street without having taken the water to his 

 mother and niece ; and, further, that they had become ill of the cholera 

 without having drunk the pump-water, would it have been imagined 

 that the cholera had been carried by the son, who remained in good 

 health ? The contagionists would probably reply that Mr. Eley may 

 have had the cholera in a mild form. The localists would say that a 

 poison locally originated might be passed on by healthy people without 



