Fune 17, 1886] 
NATURE 
151 
a healthy city—typhoid fever is endemic, and the death- 
rate rises in some parishes to 35 per mil. 
Seville is situated on the River Guadalquiver, of which 
the Rivers Darro and Genil, that flow through Granada, are 
feeders ; as regards its water-supply, one suburb of the 
city, called Triana, containing about 30,000 inhabitants, 
is situated on the western side of the river. This portion 
is almost entirely inhabited by the poorer class, and 
they drink generally the water of the river. 
The rest of the town is supplied from an ancient 
Roman or Moorish aqueduct, the water being brought 
from an underground spring near the town of Alcala, 
about nine miles to the east of Seville; this water is 
carried by a tunnel about two miles in length under the 
town of Alcal&; it is then carried in a covered conduit 
to within a short distance of Seville, and from thence by 
an aqueduct made by the old Moors. The water is 
excellent. 
An English Company has quite lately erected engines 
at Alcala, by means of which they pump up to a covered 
reservoir above the town the water from two other springs, 
situated also at Alcala, but on the opposite side of the 
river Guadaira, which flows past the town. This water 
is carried from the reservoir into the town by iron pipes, 
and distributed under considerable pressure ; in character 
it is pure and excellent ; the springs rise from the base of 
the sandstone at a short distance from the engine-house, 
and are carried across the river by an iron pipe. The 
cholera broke out in Granada on July 14, 1885, but 
already on June 14 of the same year the authorities of 
Seville, by way of prevision, had prohibited the use of any 
water from the river, either for dietetic or other purposes ; 
had authorised the English Company to lay a temporary 
pipe across the bridge which connected the city with the 
Triana suburb, and had opened a number of free taps 
from which the inhabitants of this suburb could draw the 
new water, 
The old Moorish supply was scarcely susceptible of 
contamination, as the conduit was covered for the greater 
part of the way, and where it ran over the aqueduct no 
one but the Municipal guards had ever been allowed to 
pass; guards, however, were stationed day and night on 
the springs from which the English Company derived 
their water, and no one was allowed: to approach them 
without permission. 
The cholera raged fearfully in Granada during the 
months of July, Auzust, and September; it descended 
the River Genil, which runs through Granada, and 
attacked the towns of Herera, Ecija, and others in the 
province of Seville. It broke out also at Cordova and 
other towns on the Guadalquivir, of which the Genilis an 
affluent, and it broke out in Palma, Utrera, Puerto Real, 
Puerto Santa Maria, and Cadiz, forming a circle round 
Seville, but the city itself escaped almost completely. 
Towards the end of September nine cases occurred in one 
quarter of the city, of which seven were fatal, but the disease 
did not spread ; none of the five houses in which these cases 
occurred were connected on to the water-supply, and it is 
possible they may have used well or river water, al- 
though this is not known. Jerez, which lies about half- 
way between Seville and Cadiz, and close to the town of 
Puerto Santa Maria, which was attacked by cholera, 
escaped also from the disease. This town possesses a 
very excellent water-supply, brought down some few 
years ago from a spring in the mountains by a native 
Company, at a cost of 300,000/. 
Malaga has a population of 115,882. This city is 
in even a worse sanitary condition than Seville as 
regards its drainage, and a great deal worse as regards 
its cleanliness. In the old portion of the town the streets 
are narrow, unvyentilated, and intolerably filthy ; the 
climate in summer is almost tropical. 
It is difficult to obtain reliable data as to the cases of 
cholera in Malaga, as attempts were made to prove that 
| 
no real cholera existed in Malaga ; but there can be no 
doubt that from June to September the cholera did exist, 
and it is probable that during the whole of the summer 
there occurred some 200 or 300 real cases of Asiatic 
cholera. But the disease never became epidemic, although 
to all appearances the city offered a most excellent medium 
for the propagation of the disease, and on all former 
visitations had suffered very severely. But Malaga during 
the last few years has been provided with an excellent 
water-supply drawn from some springs situated at Torre- 
molinos, on the coast to the westward of the city, and 
piped from thence into the city ; and although the pre- 
cautions adopted were not so complete as those at Seville, 
yet a more or less successful attempt was made to pre- 
vent the use of any other water than that brought from 
Torremolinos, 
We have now examined the case of the few towns in 
Spain that possess a pure supply of water drawn from 
springs not liable to any specific con‘amination, and we 
have seen that, in all cases where such a supply existed, 
the cholera, although present in all of them, never made 
any headway or became truly epidemic, although in every 
case, except that of Madrid, there was no proper drain- 
age, and the sanitary conditions were in many Gases as 
bad as they could be. 
Let us now look on the other side of the picture. We 
will commence with Granada—population 76,005. As 
regards its sanitary arrangements this city is on 
a par with Malaga; about one-tenth of the town is 
drained, but the sewers are of a very inferior class. 
The city is supplied with water by canals derived from 
the Genil and Darro, the two rivers which serve to irrigate 
the magnificent plain which spreads round it. A small 
portion is supplied from a spring called La Fuente Grande 
de Alfacar. The canals are uncovered, and are exposed 
to all kinds of contamination. 
Through the streets the water is conducted in earthen- 
ware pipes, after the style of the Moors; many of the 
pipes are the original ones put down by these people 
before the conquest of the city by Ferdinand and 
Isabella. The cholera broke out about the middle of 
July. Itis supposed to have first been brought in by 
some labourers who had arrived from Murcia, where the 
cholera was raging. It spread with frightful rapidity, and 
by the middle of August the official number of cases 
reported was over 450 perday. It died out, or rather 
wore itself out, about the middle of September. The 
total official returns give a total of 6471 cases and 
5093 deaths, but in the city itself these returns are said 
to be much under-estimated ; some, indeed, say the 
numbers should be doubled. 
No attempt was made, as was done at Toledo with 
such excellent results, to suppress the old water-supply, 
and the epidemic took in a short time such alarming 
proportions that the local authorities were completely 
paralysed. It was difficult to carry on the interment of 
the bodies, and at one time from 400 to 500 corpses were 
lying piled up in the cemetery, awaiting interment. 
The course of the cholera may be followed down the 
Rivers Darro and Genil, the infected waters carrying 
death wherever they were used for drinking-purposes. 
Murcia—population 91,805—from which the cholera 
was imported into Granada, suffered heavily also. It was 
carried into the plains of Murcia by the waters of the 
River Segura from the baths of Archena, and it was im- 
ported into Archena by some invalid soldiers who were 
sent to the baths from the infected district round 
Valencia. The plain of Murcia is irrigated by the 
waters of the Segura, and the disease commenced in 
this district with the death of a labourer who had 
drunk the water of one of the irrigation channels. 
The inhabitants of Murcia and of the plain use prin- 
cipally water from the irrigation canals or from the river ; 
this water is usually stored in large jars similar to those 
