Report on the cholera epidemic of 1866 in England : supplement to the twenty-ninth annual report of the Registrar-General of births, deaths, and marriages in England / presented to both Houses of Parliament by command.
- General Register Office Northern Ireland
- Date:
- 1868
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Report on the cholera epidemic of 1866 in England : supplement to the twenty-ninth annual report of the Registrar-General of births, deaths, and marriages in England / presented to both Houses of Parliament by command. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.
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![parishes which suffered excessively from cholera, and were supplied with the waters of Old Ford, were not supplied with gas by the Commercial Company.*' But let that pass. And to test the parallelism, take the hypothesis, that the Commercial gas did diffuse cholera over Poplar, and see what the hypothesis implies. It implies that the specific poison finds its way in epidemics into the company’s retorts or into its reservoirs ; that it travels like gas through pipes ; that it is indestructible in the flames through which it is diffused with the products of combustion. But there is no evidence that coal gas, or that any of its poisonous impurities, will produce cholera; that any cholera dejections could get into the Commercial Company’s pipes ; that cholera matter, more than small-pox matter, is indestructible by flame. All zymotic matter, on the contrary, it is believed, is rendered inert by exposure to a high temperature, and is absolutely destroyed by flame. It would be as rational to assume that live eels as that this matter could be distributed quick through flames. The hypothesis is on the face of it absurd, and is at once rejected. Not so the hypothesis of diffusion by water, which carries any living organic matter, and has incontrovertibly been the channel of cholera diffusion in numerous instances. 6. The Hospitals, The London Hospital is in the midst of the East London water-field supplied from Old Ford ; and Dr. Letheby in his evidence before the Parliamentary Com- mittee made this striking statement respecting this hospital, his own hospital There were about 487 people residing, excluding the cholera patients, and they were all taking the water exactly as it is delivered from the main^ ivithout any ‘‘ filtering process whatever, and not a single instance of Cholera occurred.” As the patients are visited every day it is certain that the first symptoms of diarrhoea would be treated with the skill for which the staff of this hospital is distinguished ; and Dr. Jackson, the resident medical officer, tells us in his General Peport that active measures were taken to prevent contagion in the hospital. The cholera dejections were received in vessels containing carbolic acid, and buried in the ground. The linen was passed through a solution of chloride of lime, and washed with carbolic soap. The carbolic powder was sprinkled freely in all the wards to such an extent that the nurses complained, and said it produced headache and sore-throat. These precautions might account for the exemption of the inmates if it had existed. But there is a conflict of evidence. Dr. Letheby affirms that “ not one” inmate, “ not one” attendant, was affected by cholera. Mr. Bathurst Dove, in the official hospital report, on the other hand, not only states, but gives the explicit details of seven cases among the attendants, of whom five died; and of one patient^ a child, that died. Thus out of the number taken at 487 resident 6 died or 123 in 10,000 ; and out of the 130 attendants 5 died, so the mortality was in the proportion of 385 in 10,000. The laundry woman who died was one of 10 and lived out of the hospital; of the 6 nurses, &c. attacked 3 are said to have slept out of the hospital, but all lived day and night within the East London waterfield. As this is a question of fact it is useless to proceed further in the reasoning. That the reader may have an opportunity of judging for himself, I subjoin verbatim copies of the evidence on both sides, j- St. George-in-the-East, St. Paul Sliadwell, St. John Wapping, West Ham and Sti-atford suh- districts, are not supplied by this company. Letter of Secretary, date 14th September 1867. f [Evidence of H. Letheby, Esq., M.B., before Select Committee of House of Commons on East London Water Bills, 23 May 1867.] Q. 640. Mr. Chrh.'] This water has been used, I believe, for a great many years in the London Hospital ?—It has been used ever since I have known the hospital, and I think that is pretty nearly a quarter of a century. It was used during the whole of the ^cholera time, when the hospital was full of cholera patients, and when there were nearly 900]; people in the hospital; and there was not t Probably a misprint; the average number resident was 487; viz., patients 357, attendants 130, during tha vuiole year {Eeport). The ordinary patients Mr. Mackenzie, the house surgeon, says were fewer in the months or d u!y, August, and September, because new patients were afraid to apply on account of cholera.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b24976854_0035.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
