42 



Population of 

 TerUne 900. 



Fever at 

 Cardiff 

 (Canton 

 District). 

 The Lancet, 

 8th Feb., 

 18^8, with 

 Keport of 

 Dr. Taylor to 

 the Local 

 Board of 

 Health. 



" they principally drink beer ; ichcreas the women and 

 " children are left at home, and procure a considerable 

 ''portion of their beverage from the tvells, the chddre?i 

 " drinking directly from them much more frequently 

 " tha7i the women, owing to the latter consuming a good 

 " deal of tea, in making which the icater is of course 

 " boiled. 



" The causes of this severe epidemic, which up to Jan. 

 " 13th, had stricken down 208 of the inhabitants, and 

 " caused upwards of 20* deaths in a population of 900 souls, 

 " were due, as we stated in our columns on the 18th of 

 " January last, to local influences, and these have been 

 " proved (as we then surmised they would be proved) to 

 " be the existence of overcrowding, the accumulation of 

 '' filth and nuisances, and the use of polluted water." 



The Lancet then quotes from Dr. Thome's report, as an 

 illustration of the general state of things at Terling, a 

 passage showing that the whole filth of every kind, with- 

 out any exception, of four cottages found its way into a well, 

 5 ft. deep, which supplied the inmates with their water. 



From the Eegistrar-General's Report of Professor 

 Frankland's analysis of the water supplied to London 

 during 1867, showing an increase of solid impurity in the 

 water over 1866 : — 



" Professor Frankland has reported on the waters sup- 

 " plied to the metropolis in the year 1867. He states 

 " that the search for sewage i)ollution in the metropolitan 

 " waters has now assumed a liigh degree of importance. 

 " In 1867 the total solid impurity exhibited an increase 

 " oter 1866 in the waters supplied by the different com- 

 " panics, except in the case of the East London Company, 

 " in which a marked decrease had occurred." 



" Fever at Cardiff (Canton District). 



" Fever has been very prevalent of late in Canton, a 

 " district of Cardiff"; and no Avonder, considering tlie posi- 

 " tively offensive pollution of air and water which exists 

 " there. A very able and practical report on the sanitary 

 " state of the locality has heen presented to the local board 

 " of health by Dr. Taylor, and we regret that we cannot 



* On March 14 tlie deaths had numbered in all at least 44. 



