236 The Future Water-sui^plij of London. [April, 



localization of the .epidemic should have been entirely fortuitous. 

 Dr. Letheby * has indeed sugf^ested that the area affected coincides 

 pretty nearly with that supplied with gas by the Commercial Gas 

 Company, and that the gas might as well be accused as the water. 

 But this ingenious special pleading will not bear a moment's exami- 

 nation ; for not only is the coincidence between gas and water supply 

 less perfect than is pretended, but bad water is well known as a very 

 frequent cause of cholera ; and it is absurd to suppose for a moment 

 that gas has anything to do with it. 



Most of the other evidence that is brought agamst the water 

 theory of the epidemic of 1866, is founded on the immunity of 

 individuals of certain houses or streets, and of some jDublic building, 

 where many persons were assembled during the epidemic, and 

 which were supplied with water from Old Ford. The case of the 

 Limehouse schools is perhaps the most striking instance of this 

 kind. In this establishment nearly 400 pauper children lived in 

 perfect health throughout the epidemic. Not a single case of 

 cholera or even of epidemic diarrhoea occurred, although the 

 children used the Old Ford water continuously. The sanitary 

 arrangements are, indeed, described as excellent ; every precaution 

 that could be devised to prevent an outbreak of the disease was 

 employed ; and, instead of standing upon porous gravel, as the 

 surrounding buildings do, the schools stand upon a thick bed of 

 fine brick-earth, into which the soakage of sewage is impossible ; 

 but still the case is certainly curious, though it cannot be regarded 

 as proving anything. The death-rate from cholera in Limehouse 

 during the epidemic was 107 "6 in 10,000; so that, if the average 

 had been strictly preserved, four or five deaths would have occurred 

 in the building. But uniformity cannot possibly be looked for in 

 the distribution of an epidemic ; and just as the mortality in some 

 streets and houses was much above the average, so it must neces- 

 sarily _^have been lower in others. No one thinks of suj)posing that 

 water was the sole cause of the mortality ; and it is not by any 

 means wonderful that the well-fed and well-cared for inmates of a 

 healthy building should have escaped the infection. The error 

 lies with those who persist in assuming that the cholera poison is 

 of the nature of arsenic or strychnine, and that it is theretbre sure 

 to produce the disease in every individual who takes it ; the truth 

 being, as we have before seen, that any given number of individuals 

 may take cholrine into their stomachs without injury, and tliat 

 they may even drink cholrine-contaminatcd water without getting 

 any of the cholrine. A similar argument was brought forward by 

 Dr. Letheby in respect to the London Hospital. In his evidence 

 before the Select Committee of the House of Commons on East 



* * Evidence before Select Committee of House of Commons on East London 

 "Water BIIIh,' p. V>'.\ 



