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.
406/436 page 298
![The cholera broke out again in 1854 : the effects of the bad water were watched during the epidemic ; and the general results of a special inquiry are thus described in the Weekly Return (October 14th, 1854). Influence of the Waters of London on the Mortality of Cholera. The present epidemic of cholera in London presents a favourable opportunity for determining the influence of waters of various degrees of impurity on the mortality of cholera. The Lambeth Company, which in 1849 took up its supply from the Thames at the part where the water is most impure, has since January 1852 drawn its water from the Thames above the tidal flow, and has thus aiforded an opportunity for ascertaining the effects of this great improvement. It was observed in the first eruption (1853) of the present epidemic that the mortality was dimin- ished in districts which were partially supplied by that company. On October 13th, 1853, a circular had been sent to the London Water Companies, and the replies of aU, except the Lambeth Company, showed that their new works and improvements had not then been carried out, as they were only bound imder the Act of Parliament to complete them in 1855, 1856, or 1857.* The Southwark Company, which now supplies the most impure water stated, however, that though the Act “ allowed three years from August 1852 for the execution of the new works, the contracts for the whole having been made immediately after the passing of the Act, and being now [October] in a rapid course of fulfilment, the works will be completed and in operation one year within the time it prescribesf that is in September 1854. The hopes of the Company, notwithstanding their efforts on the approach of cholera, were defeated, the officers informed Lord Palmerston, by a concurrence of various causes, and the impure water of the Thames is stUl supplied by this Company. Bermondsey, one of the south districts of London, is exclusively supplied with the impure water, and the deaths by cholera are already more numerous than they were in 1849, while in the parish of Lambeth, which is supplied partly by the Southwark Company, and partly by the Lambeth Company, the mortality is much lower than it was in 1849. Deaths from Cholera. Districts. In the year 1849. In the 14 weeks ending 14th Oct. 1854. Bermondsey - -734 - - - - 829 Lambeth - - 1,618 - - - - go4 But the pipes of the two Companies which were once in active competition often run down the same streets, and through the same sub-districts, so that alternate streets or houses in the same sub-districts are supplied with the pure and the impure waters. Dr. Snow, who has devoted much time to the investigation, having procured from this office the addresses of the persons who died of cholera in Kennington and some other sub-districts, states, as the result of an inquiry from house to house where the pipes of the Lambeth Water Company are intimately mixed with those of the Southwark Company, that, in the 7 weeks ending August 26th, of 600 deaths from cholera, 475 have happened in houses supphed by the Southwark Company; 89 in houses supplied by the Lambeth Company ; 13 in houses supplied by pumps, wells, and springs ; 8 in houses which derived their water directly from the Thames and from ditches. The Registrars on the south side of London were instructed to inquire, in all cases of death by cholera, whether the house in which the patient was attacked was supplied by the Southwark, the Lambeth, or the Kent Companies, or with water from pumps, wells, ditches, or other sources. The inquiry was attended with considerable difficulty, as the information could not be obtained from hospitals or workhouses, and the informants and the householders themselves were often ignorant of the source of supply, as the water rate in the worst districts is paid by the landlord. The informa- tion was thus not obtained in 766 out of 3805 instances ; but it was stated that in 3039 instances 2284 deaths occurred in houses supplied with the impure Thames water, 294 in the houses supplied by the Lambeth Company with the purer filtered Thames water. The disparity was observed week after week in the progress of the epidemic. The total nixmber of houses supplied by the Southwark Company is stated to be 40,046 ; by the Lambeth Company to be 26,107 ; consequently there were in 6 weeks 57 deaths in every 1000 houses supplied with impure water, and 11 in every 1000 supplied with the less impure or comparatively pure water. * The Secretai-y of the East London Water Company in Augx;st 1854 wrote thus to Viscount Palmerston:— “ In reply to your Lordship’s inquiry, what steps have been taken by the East London Wateiworks Company to effect a remedy in rejiard to the water supplied by them, I am instructed to state that the Company ha^ already expended 150,OOOZ. in effecting improvements; the supply has, for two months past, been taken through a newly constructed aqueduct, from a point in the valley of the Lee, nearly three miles higher up than formerly; the sewage of the valley, so far as it can effect the purity of this Company’s supply, has been diverted by an intercepting drain, and the whole of the water delivered is filtered. Further works are also ja progress.”](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b24976854_0406.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
