On this page

• Text (1)

  Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

  • 

    Untitled Article

• Transcript

  • Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

    Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.

    Untitled Article

    bad forestalled tbe := gn » t de « deiwfc « nt- « ti «< o * IAhty ; hence fthenpwjfound ixuth of the line , " All men think all men mortal but themselves . " If-you'wanted on example ofihumanrpewrerseness-and fetaT ^ mfalwatwrn , a butter one couldscarcely be found'Aaninithe wafirehaTe been going on heaping up'conniption in our meet crowded . < tre « to under our wvclmtt , even amder nhe very fcewrths of -oar comfortable ^ aofrmgr Presides . If . we onlv * followed ournatuTal iastinets > we should avoid many of these * abotmna&ms ; butwbstvwkh being tattght ^ to 'believe * certain amount of drrt andsuffering inseparable from 'an orthodox <* xisteace , and what with'the notion'th atflaving escaped hitherto we-fifcall escape altogether , people go on cultivating di ^ 3 se , 'sowiag-1 * e seeds of pestilence , ? after the most desperate arid aeadiyTnefchod . Factories ^ andworkrooms ; are * still crowded and overheated with « team and the noxioos fumes ¦ of gas and human exfaalatioss —thousands of people still live in ' cellars and mines—thousands . drink water stnrinffinff'from * sources -tine most foul and destructive—real poison <

    fountains , aad 'millions prefer to consume themselves before toe slow toe of gin and- tobacco . The Director of theiPublic Health > has ; by no means < rot it all bis own way ; tbe corporations fight most doggedly fori&eir cesspools and ditch water , and the more effort mawte- to improve the'heatth of thermillKm * the more ^ we observe a want of sympathy . The public individudUy * has the merit of subscribing to the splendid incomes of our . great physicians , collectively it does not understand being taxed to preserve its salubrity . It has taken two sweeping attacksof cholera to _ make us * feel that tbefe ^ was ^ u ch a ' cons id erations as publicibealth . Legislation falls , but pestilence , like its fellow 'demon war , proves' the wary : best of purifiers . The state of things revealed by-Dr . Srow ' s 'researches is -so incredibly filthy , ^ so instinctively and inherently ' -fetal , that ^ at'first « ight one refuses to think it possible that those who build dwelling-houses could be so iwrn ^ Mif .. < u « l ' the inhabitants so reckless . His tbeory is , and : the facts he

    brings forwardin support of it « eem to ttsuwwt important , that « holera ; is propagated by actually ' -swallowingthe diseased particles thrown Off * by _ the unfortunate victims ; that the water we are supplied with m our citres isitbe grand inedium by which the dreadful impregnation's carried on . His researches show how in ^ tow of hou ses , one case having occurred , 'the inhabitants T » f- the- adjoining ' houses-have * been attacked , -each house ' : being supplied with '' water from the same source , and the reservoirs of all being adtnalfy the ? i « ceptacles of the drainage from overflowing-cesspools . 'He mentions one instance in-which'a washerwoman , living-in a row of this khid / havinVdiscovered that the water was not pure enough former busito waterand he Arankthis

    ness , " used to-send some distance get good- ; as « , shewas the . only person-who escaped . The investigations 2 > r . Snow made iflto ' tfee causes 6 t the terrible onslaught in the GKM&n ^ qnme' district , prove without a : dtHjbt that the water of the pump in Sroad-streetwag tkesource -of the ; pestilence . A map of ^ death shows where" the centre of the - attack was , ^ md'here Stands * the fatal pump . 'In this -map a black mark stands for each death in every house , -and immediately around this pump we ^ ean cownt a crowd of sixty coffin symbols . Two'remarkable cases are alaon ^ a ted — one that of a gentleman , -who came ^ from a distance and dined m Wardourstreet , and drinking Hbis poisonous -water , died ; the other , of a lady livm « - at'IsKirgtoirwkhber niece , who- actually sent for supplies of theater , fancvW it was better than -any in the - neighbourhood : they both WU ¦

    victims to ' the disease . . , . ' "Dr SnowVargument « strengthened by the feet ' that in the ^ t . J ame s s Workhouse , situated'in the immediate neighbourhood of the pump , and-surrotmdedby houses in which persons died constantly of the disease , there were only * who died out oT 535 inmates . Now the workhouse was j sup - t > lied by the Grand-Junction water and a pump-well of its own , and the inirrates ^ ere * not allowed to ^ nd ^^ a ^^ ke « oer who'ttealt in this -water counted' nine of her customersfwho Eaa died . A » S vet this'pump positively rejeiced m due reputation of remarkable parity ; fbrturiateiy it-was fotmd out at last , « n < d through Dr . Snow ' appeal to the parish authorities this terrible engine . was deprived of its baTadte , very much to the disgust of the small dealers in effervescing dnnks ^ ndjiherbet , whorelied upon it for their-populaT'luxuries . Within a circle of 23 O yards of * this m-exstous pump upwards Of 600 deaths occurred in ten days , * mortality equal totbat of the plagoer ; arid hrfd wot the inhabitants tied , the < hMttwction would have been greater ^ r in less thaw a week the street * were

    J knrtTjm . 4 vjvl Ih- « tiow traces the ontbreakof eholera in the Black Sea-ileet tothe use oF-water imprefftiated Vitli the seeds of ScKsease ; he quote * a letter from a medical officer , who says he-saw . the soldiers who-were marehing ' from a focos-of * botera washing themselves ^ in a stream from whioh most of the English and ^ French -ships obtained . theirvwater . Tfe 1 swa 3 . on . rthe ? th and 8 th of August , on the 9 th and 10 th the disea ^ suddenhr'barst outwuh tUom-eatest virulence amongst the crewa . The Montebello -and V * lle * de Parwhad upwards of 200 men attacked in one might , 40 lay ttead m thentorning . 'The Britarmta lost 50 men in twenty'hours ' 'time , aivd <« o < m 00 more , whife 200 were stiflfermg from ' the disease , 1 tbe'ahip'w-as , intact , completely disabled , and had no crew left to < sail h « r . . The SBfla » e'o 1 hcer relates that 5000 men of the French army perisbediiva few « ays fttBaltschlfc , « nrl fche calamitv was attributed to tbomoisoniog of the wells ^ by throwing an

    putrfd carcases . The following ewamj » le of the reckless way in wbich ^ opio will drink bad water we fimd in Dr . ' HasBall ' s book * s « vWence ^ from a sxmreon reporting cholera , in Jacob ' s ' Island , Bermonuiwy-: — *^ 'In . the 1 greater number ofhouses - there ^ was-no water to dri nk but' tfcmt' from the tidal ditches until about tfuly , ' the water in ^ the Pitches beeonwng . in aomo parts abBolutefy ptrtrM , « reen , thick , and -sltmy . I know some cluflt « ra of J ® " ^ where - tbwr hatt only -such-water 'to dnnk , and I ' know that out of five of thesebousas'the inmates of four were -affected' with cholera . Impressed-with all these facts'bunring -upon tfce « une point , -Dr ., Bnow , aftwreferrmff to the Hegistrar- € knerftl s report of the deaths , obtained thenantes" and addresses of those who-died Of cholera l « st wmmer and awtumnm certain * Btricts supplied with water by two companies ; W » e one giving water obtained at Thames Ditton , the other water from the Ihamos at * Battersoa . The result shows that in the four weeks from- fcho 8 th of July to tho 5 th -of 'Augnst ^ there were « 34 deaths . Of these , 286 were m hou » es

    suppliettTirithvtater from Bxttersea by the South warkawd ^ auxfaall 1 Company ; in 14 cases with . water from Tiiasnes Dittxra ' by . the ^ atobeth Company ; in S 2 cases the water used was taken by dippings pail into the Thames ; in-4 houses : it was selected from a ditch ; in ^ 4 : others from a puaap'Tirell ; v theremauring ^ 4-could not be ascertained . The other'water company , deriving its . supply-from ihe Thames ( the Chelsea ) , took the' very obvious- precaution of filtering - it , and consequently its' victims were more rare . Dr . Snow ? s book contains a map , coloured to show the districts supplied with ihe contaminated'water , and any one who is acquainted with the locality of the ravages of ihoieraraast at once pronounce this-mapa cholera map . He says , in reference to the results we nave abovestated : ' * It ^ is obvious that no experiment could have been- devised which would more thoroughly test the effect of water supply « i-the progress

    of qholera than-this , which circumstances placed ready-made before the observer . The experiments , too , were on the grandest scale . Nosfewer than 300 ^ 000 people of "both sexes , of « very age and occupation , and of every rank and station , from gentlefolks down to the very > poor . ' « aan / were divided mto two groups , without ' their choice , and in most cases without their knowledge—one group ^ being J supplied with water containing the sewage < Jf London , and amongst ifc * whatever . might have come from' tbe cholera rtsents ; the other'group having water quite free from » uch impurity . . resolved to spare no exertions which-might be necessary . to ascertain the exact effect of the . water on the progress of the epidemic in the places where all the circumstances were so happily-adapted for-the inquiry . J [ had

    • no reason to doubt the- correctness of the -conclusion-1 had drawn from the i great number of . facts -already in my possession ,-but I felt that-the circumi stance of the cholera-rpoison , passing down 4 he- sewers into a . great river , and : being -distributed through miles of pipes , -and . yet producing its specific effects , ^ was a . fact of so startling a nature , and of so vast importance to the community , that it could not-be too rigidly examined , nor established on tod ifirnii a basts . " The main result we have stated , but there remains another , : taken from the authentic returns , viz ., that of the 563 deaths from cholera i in the whole-metropolis , in the four weeks ending -August 5 , more than half : were-customers of theSouth-wark and Vauxhall Company , and the rest were ; mariners and , persons employed about the shipping , who -derive their water ifeonx the- river . ..

    Analysis ; of -those two -wiaters showed that the-purer one contained only ! 0 * 95 grains ^ of chloride of sodium ( common salt ) , while the other had 37- ^ grains of chloride of sodium in the gallon . Turning to Dr . Hassall's book , we see in . his admirable drawings what horrible monsters the microscope : drags to * light from those much vaunted crystal streams of the opulent comi panfes . Your . glass of pure w-ater appears a perfect pandemonium of fearful : forms , all of them apparently warriors , armed at all points with every kind of weapon of ofience and defence , most of them clothed in ~ spiked-armour j to the unscientific eye-they look like ail unhappy family of shrimps , spiders , and caterpillars . And yet these companies complain of , tlie " over-senisitiveness of the public caused by the late-epidemic , " and say *' they see no reason to believe that water from whatever source procured would prove acceptable . ' . Happil y for "this poer ^ over-sensitive public , the other of the two companies has already established a purer source , and

    a complete system of filtration and deposition . However , the only saiety from such causes of disease , in the community is to be sought in a regularly organised system of inspection , which , perhaps , after the next campaign of cholera , we may hopeto ' hear mentioned in " the House . " Dr .. Hassall goes at ieugth into detailed experiments of the changes producedin water by keeping it in leaden cisterns and pipes , the most important fact deducible from which is that chloride of sodium , a salt which by Dr . Snow ' s observations is said to be most prevalent in the bad water , acts mostr readily upon the lead , and . produces a poisonous ^ water . Another very important analytical or chemical fact elicited by Dr . Hassall's researches is , that Thames water , abounding , as it does in animal organic matter , has a tendency to produce fungi . 'Now it is generally admitted that the animalcules are soon killed in the stomach , but it is not 30 proved with regard to the fungi ; these parasites , it seems , may possibly be the cause of the most destructive disease even to man . Upoa this point tho experiments related by Dr . Hassall are very interesting : —

    Many fruits . Buck as apples ,, pears , and peaches , and several vegetables , as tho lettuce , vegetable minow , potato haulm , &c , were inoculated ¦ with the aporules ( seeds ) of fungi ; therenulfcwas that they all speedily became diseased , and , in a few . days , - many of them entirely'disintegrated and destroyed . It is to bo observed that these experiments 1 were-made on healthy and growing fruits and vegetables , tbo former'stni on the trees , the latter growing in the earth . 'In the softor fruits , as the pwujtoandsom&applea . and pears , the eflBeota of the inoculation became * risible in less ¦ thjrn twenty ** bnr hoars ; : a dark -spot l&e that of raortiiioation - first mppoaring , and : tWs gxiadu * Uy » a : tendmg . in adl a directions , until . the fruit became completely disor-: gwtased . Th « re » are now-also many , recorded cases in which fungi have . attacked the . living animal organism , focluding even -man-himself . The .-disease " . muscardine , " whioh occurs in . tkoailk-worm , and ma « y other animals of the same class , -as well oa t the peculiar softening of tlio tails of fish confined in glass globes , is attributable to the growth within the tissue of the . animal of the ramifying filaments of fungi . Again , fungi have * been noticed growing on the ulcerated surfaces of tho human intefltiiios In cases of fever , they have likewise been observed in certain affections of the skin , ana

    m discharges from tho stomach , bowels , bladder , and vagmn . 'In connexion with tins fungus theory we should remember that fungi have a most extraordinary and rapid power of reproduction , as . for exampio m the formation of yeast , . which is the growth of fungus , and we find uv . Snow saying : — It would seem that tho chokra poison , when reproduced in sufficient quantity ,. acta as an irritant on < the gurfacos of tho stomach and bowels ; or , what w atill more probaWo , it wUhdraws fluid / from , tho blood drculatiug in tho ' ^ P ^ nos by ^ a power unalagous to that by whicnthe epithelial eclh of the various orgftna ' Abstract the dffftrSit eecretions in" the healthy body ; for the morbid inattor of cholcura havtag the property « f reproducing tts own kind , nruflt nec > e 8 saiiry have some sort x > f 8 tni ( J iff ^ S «* V / y ^ ASV a eelL It is -no objection to » ris view that ^ " \ 2 " ^ t Jj poison ^ nno iibe rocogni . cd by tho microscope , for tho ^ fttwr ' < J 2 JSIS » SJ ^ dmncre c » n « nly bo » o ^ ognl «« l by their effectH , and net by-their phy ^ d * p rope rti * . Ihthnately connected with the subject of water supply ctmms that o (

    Untitled Article

    - - ... ... - . ¦¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ . Haboh ^ O ^ ISSS ] T ^ T iE LEAD 3 B B . 335

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), March 10, 1855, page 235, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2081/page/19/