SANITARY NOTES ON POTABLE WATER. 55? 
tars, whose ordinary food, he states, to be raw putrid fish 
or the flesh of carrion. This must be taken as very strong 
evidence that putrid matter is favorable to the virulence 
of epidemic diseases. 
When reporting on the severe outbreak of typhoid in 
Terling, Essex, in 1867, Dr. R. Thorne states* that at that 
place all the nuisances which are “ generally 39 associated 
with outbreaks of typhoid exist in great and unusual 
abundance, the cottages being literally surrounded by every 
species of nuisance, manure heaps, cesspools, and masses of 
decaying vegetable matter. 
From a report by Dr. Ballardf on the epidemic of typhoid 
at Armley, in the burgh of Leeds, we are led to conclude 
that the cause of the outbreak was milk, which had become 
tainted by some highly polluted well water. A deposit of 
mud and filth was discovered at the bottom of the well, 
which gave abundant bubbles of gas on being disturbed. 
The organic matter in the water was therefore in a state 
of putrefaction. 
In one of Dr. PettenkofePs pamphletsj we find the re¬ 
markable statement that from the very commencement 
“ facts ” led always to the qualification that fresh discharges 
of cholera patients were not infective, but only those which 
are in a state of decomposition. 
Similarly Hallier remarks that§ the most favorable con¬ 
ditions for cholera consist, as a rule, in the accumulation of 
putrid matter, and he leaves it for the future to demon¬ 
strate whether all or at least most contagious diseases come 
under the same rule. 
Dr. Van den Schrieck, in his pamphlet, c Du virus 
typhoide et de son role dans les epidemies,’ expresses the 
opinion, which he considers confirmed by M. Pasteurs 
researches, that decomposition or putrid fermentation of faecal 
dejections singularly favour the development of the contagion 
of typhoid. 
A German sanitary authority of great experience, Dr. F. 
Sander, observes|| that, as regards cholera and typhoid, he 
looks upon putrefaction not as the original cause, but as a 
necessary item in the chain of causes which co-operate to 
multiply the virus. He also shares the opinion of those 
who hold that cholera and typhoid find a favourable nidus 
# Sixth Report of Rivers Pollution Commission, p. 167. 
f Reports of the Medical Officer of the Privy Council, New Series, 
No. 11. 
X 'Was man gegen die Cholera tliun kann/ p. 10. 
§ ‘ Gahrungserchinungen, 5 p. 87. 
|| c Handbuch der Offentlichen Gesundheitspflege,’ p. 49—52. 
lui. 38 
