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tions that might be floating in the wards, it was ordered that every part of the
building should be separately fumigated by an atmosphere of chlorine gas.
This was efficiently done under the superintendence of Mr. Robinson, a
receptacle of the ingredients for evolving gas having been placed in each room
during the temporary absence of the patients.
In attempting to relieve the patients, I am glad to be able to report that
Mr. Robinson and his family, and also the Hospital Assistant, appeared to vie with
each other by availing themselves of every suggestion which their own experience
or the recommendation of others rendered probable, and their directions, I have
every reason to believe, were efficiently and perseveringly carried out by the sub-
ordinate establishment.
With reference to the causes of this invasion of cholera in the asylum and
as to the mode of its development and of its imbibition into the system, I am
sorry to say I am unable to offer a decided opinion.
On this difficult point I have very little solution to offer, except such as may
be deduced from a comparison of the meteorological register with the progress
of the disease.
But, even if any atmospheric changes be observed which appear parallel to
other changes in the pathological record, the doubt remains, which attends all
speculations on meteorological phenomena that have been advanced to account
for cholera, namely, the want of proof that similar conditions do not often occur
during the long series of years when the disease is unknown in the asylum.
I am inclined to attribute the cause to a combination of circumstances, and
chiefly to the very unusual weather we had in November.
The barometer had been high in November, reading a daily mean of 29.965
from the 15th of the month and remaining above 30.033 during the rest of the
month without any remarkable fluctuations. The thermometer was 80° from the
15th, falling to 75.5 on the 27th, the date on which the largest number of patients
were admitted. The wet and dry bulb thermometers showed a greater amount of
moisture in the air from the 16th than in October. The earlier part of the month
was very hot and oppressive, and about the 16th it became unusually muggy and
close, the prevailing wind from N. N. E., and a good deal of rain falling almost
every day. The 27th was particularly oppressive, the air damp, foggy, and
sultry, and just such a day as might be expected to aggravate pestilential mias-
mata.
The water in the wells was lower during the past hot season than during any
year since the asylum was opened. The inference from this fact is that the water
in the wells is after all principally surface drainage more or less filtered; it is
possible that most of the soil-water drains down between the steining of the well
and the surrounding soil without undergoing much efficient filtration. The only
other source of pollution I can think of is the fact of the insanes, when drawing
water, standing on the well-covers, and the effect of this arrangement is that
droppings and washings of the feet and loongyees must fall into the well, and thus,
when the wells are low, the water must be somewhat impregnated with impurities.
The other defect in the sanitary arrangement, and which must predispose to the
disease, is the state of the ground underneath the cottages, and especially the
cottages occupied by the filthy lunatics. Much difficulty is always experienced
when washing these cottages, which must be done daily, to prevent this water
passing between the boards and the floor beneath, and it is considered that this is
an evil which must be put a stop to as soon as possible; and I propose that the
floors of each cottage be constructed on the same plan as the incurable ward at
the General Hospital, namely, by using corrugated iron sheet flooring having on the
surface concrete and asphalte, rendering the whole floor perfectly water-tight, with
gutters at each side leading into a receptacle to collect the filth. There is no
doubt that the earth under the cottages is, although constantly renewed, strongly
impregnated with poisonous matter, and a very disagreeable odour abides, especi-
ally in the morning; and no doubt the boards of the flooring are also thoroughly
saturated with filth, which the strongest disinfectant often fails to remove.
There should be no time lost in carrying out the latter suggestion.