BACTERIOLOGY AND WATER 97 



tined for the use of Altona. But what was the 

 fate of these two towns as regards cliolera? 

 Situated side by side, absolutely contiguous, in 

 fact, with nothing in their surroundings or in the 

 nature of their population to especially distin- 

 guish them, in the one cholera swept away 

 thousands, whilst in the other the scourge was 

 scarcely felt ; in Hamburg the deaths from 

 cholera amounted to 1,250 per 100,000, and in 

 Altona to but 221 per 100,000 of the population. 

 So clearly defined, moreover, was the path pur- 

 sued by the cholera, that although it pushed from 

 the Hamburg side right up to the boundary line 

 between the two cities, it there stopped, this 

 being so striking that in one street, which for 

 some distance marks the division between these 

 cities, the Hamburg side was stricken down with 

 cholera, whilst that belonging to Altona remained 

 free. The remarkable fact was brought to light 

 that in those houses supplied with the Hamburg 

 water cholera was rampant, whilst in those on the 

 Altona side and furnished with the Altona water 

 not one case occurred. 



We have seen that the Hamburg water, to 

 start with, was comparatively pure when com- 

 pared with the foul liquid abstracted from the 

 Elbe by Altona, but whereas in the one case the 

 water was submitted to exhaustive and careful 

 H 



