Dr. S.W. Wheaton's report to the Local Government Board on enteric fever in the Swanage Urban District in 1910.

  • Wheaton, S. W.
Date:
1911
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Dr. S.W. Wheaton's report to the Local Government Board on enteric fever in the Swanage Urban District in 1910. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    sewer; or that there may have been earlier, slight, and therefore undiagnosed, cases of the disease in houses in this road. At the time of my visit liquid sewage was making its way down the Park Road sewer, as shewn on inspection of a manhole at the point of its junction with the short cross sewer in Marshall Row at the bottom of the hill below the well No. 1, so that the obstruction of the sewer was not complete at that date. The rainfall in October, however, was very heavy, having been nearly twice as much as in any previous month of the year, and the effect of this would be to remove any obstruction in the course of the sewer, and also to make the clay subsoil swell up and thus to obliterate all cracks in it and confine the sewage more or less to the line of the broken sewer. It will thus be seen that the liability to pollution of the water furnished by source No. t was very much greater than was the case with the water of source No. 4. All potential sources of contamination are at a much greater distance from the well of source No. 4. There is only one dwelling near it, and there is no history of suspicious illness among the occupants of this dwelling. So far as is known there are no sewers within a quarter of a mile of the well. The well and boring of source No. 4 are very much deeper and of much more recent construction than those of source No. 1. Even if the water of source No. 4 were at all concerned in producing the fever, much the greater share in this is likely to have been due to the water of source No. 1. I am of opinion that no water which is safe for use can be obtained from a well on the southern side of the town of Swanage. The sources of possible pollution are extremely numerous. In addition to those already mentioned there are a number of private wells near well No. 1 which are disused. As is well known such wells are often on disuse, employed as cesspools, so that filth is carried directly into the water-bearing stratum. This may have been done at Swanage although I have no informa- tion to this effect. Owing to the quarrying operations sub- sidences are liable to occur in many places, and it is quite possible, for instance, that the sewer from the cottage hospital, which receives patients suffering from enteric fever, might at any time become involved by subsidence and allow the sewage to flow into the disused underground workings and thence perhaps into the water bearing stratum. The direction of the flow of water would be such as to convey such matters towards the well No. 1. Samples of the water from the reservoir at Durlston Head, from source No. 4, which was at that time supplying the area usually supplied from source No. 1, and from source No. 1 itself, were collected by the officers of the urban district council on November 4th, and forwarded for analysis to the Clinical Research Association. The results of chemical and bacteriological examina- tions of these samples are annexed, in the order mentioned, as an appendix to this report. The results showed, as regards chemical analyses, a close agreement with the analyses already referred to as having been made at the instance of the water company, and as far as their chemical composition was concerned, did not disclose any obvious pollution of any of the waters examined. The results