The Sun.
London, England, 1866-09-19 00:00:00

THE PUBLIC HEALTH.

(From the Registrar-General's Return)
In the week that ended on Saturday, Sept. 15, the
births registered in London and 12 other large towns
of the United Kingdom were 4,261; the deaths re-
gistered 3,099. The annual rate of mortality was
26 per 1,000 persons living.
In Loudon the births of 1,080 boys and 1,035
girls, in all 2,115 children, were registered in the
week. In the corresponding weeks of ten years
1856-65 the average number, corrected for increase
of population, was 1,947.

The deaths registered in London during the week
were 1,371. It was the 37th week of the year, and
the average number of deaths for that week is,
with a correction for increase of population, 1,218.
The deaths in the present return exceed the esti-
mated number by 153. This number is exceeded by
the deaths in the week from cholera.

The first two weeks of September have hitherto
been noted in cholera epidemics ; in the first week
of September, 1849, no less than 2,026 personsdied
of cholera ; in the first week of September, 1854,
the deaths by the same disease were 2,050. The
deaths by cholera in the second week of the same
years fell to 1,682 and 1,549. In 1866 we have
been less unfortunate; the deaths sprang up with
unexampled rapidity, threatening all London with
devastation, and the❑ less suddenly, but decisively,
subsided. The deaths by cholera in the first two
weeks of September were 157 and 182. 132 and
110 persons died in the same weeks by diarrhoea.
Of the deaths by cholera, 10 occurred in the West
districts, 27 in the North, 20 in the Central, 77 in
the East, and 48 in the South districts. 'To insure
its rapid decline the utmost vigilance is required on
the part of the people, the health officers, and the
Board of Works.

It is very desirable to know what proceedings
have been taken by the authorities, not only in
drawing up regulations, but in seeing to their execu-
tion. The health officers of London have supplied
the Registrar-General with some information having
an immediate practical bearing.
The annual rate of mortality last week was 23
per 1,000 in London, 19 in Edinburgh, and 30 in
Dublin ; 18 in Bristol, 19 in Birmingham, 55 in
Liverpool, 28 in Manchester, 26 in Salford, 22 in
Sheffield, 29 in Leeds, 20 in Hull, 31 in Newcastle-
upon-Tyne, and 26 in Glasgow. The rate in
Vienna was 38 per 1,000 during the week ending
the Bth inst., when the mean temperature was 6.1
degrees Fahrenheit higher than in the same week in
London, where the rate was 23 per 1,000.
The 513 deaths in Liverpool last week showed an
increase of 20, and those referred to cholera, which
in the three previous weeks had been 146, 225, and
145, rose again last week to 182, while the fatal
cases of diarrhoea fell from 84 to 51. The annual
rate of mortality in this borough during the past 11
weeks of the current quarter has averaged 50.7 per
1,000 persons living. In Dublin, of the 181 deaths
last week, 55 resulted from cholera ; and in Vienna
during the week ending the Bth inst. the fatal cases
of this disease had increased to 64 in the previous
week to 107.

At the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, the mean
height of the barometer in the week was 29.544 in.
The barometrical reading decreased from 29.80 in.
on Wednesday to 29.29 in. on Friday. The mean
temperature of the air in the week was 56.7 deg.,
which
inhis 0.7 deg. below the average of the same
50 years (as determined by Mr. Glaisher).
The highest day temperature was 70.2 deg., on
Monday.
The 'lowest night temperature was 47.4
deg., on Saturday. The entire range of tempera-
ture in the week was, therefore, 22.8 deg. The
mean of the highest ;temperatures of the water of the
Thames was 60.2 deg. ; that of the lowest was 59.6
deg. The difference between the mean
temperature and air temperature was 6.6 deg. The
mean mean degree of humidity of the air was 79, completeo
saturation being represented by 100. Rain fell to
the amount of 0-87 in., half of which fell on Friday.
On Tuesday rain was measured at Eccles to the
amount of 0.76 in., and at Manchester to 0.65 in. ;
and at Clifton to the amount of 0.62 in. on Friday.
The mist was observed on every day except Sun-
day. The wind blew generally from the south-
west. At Liverpool on Tuesday, at 1 24 p.m., a
pressure of 281 b. on the square foot was recorded.

THE RISE AND DECIANE OF CHOLERA

IN LONDON.

(Prone a Syplentent to the Reyistrar-Geturats Report•)
Cholera has been very unequally distributed over
London ; it has been in overy district, but it is only
in the field of one water company that the violence
of the epidemic recalled the ravages of 1849 and
1854, when nearly the whole of the water was un-
filtered, and when much of it was drawn from parts
of the Thamea and its tributaries polluted with sew-
age. The cholera matter was in those years diffused
over London in large quantities, and the mortality
pursued its cour,,;e only checked by treatment of
diarrhoea in the early state of the malady.
The Lambeth and Southwark companies in 1849
could not improve their water supply ; the ground
was undrained ; the pumps were polluted ; and the
epidemic pursued its natural course. It first appeared
in the autumn of 1818, subsided partially to break
out again in the summer of 1849, when week after
week it grew more fatal, until in the first week of
Sept. it killed, reckoning diarrhoea, 2,298 persons.
The Lambeth water was drawn in 1853-4 from a

purer source, and the mortality by cholera was im-
mediately shown to have declined in the districts it
s.upplied ; but no great change was made in the
character of the water during the course of the epi-
demic, which was less fatal, and pursued its usual
course, culminating in September.
Nearly the same general law of development of
1866 was observed in the districts of the south, the
centre, the north, and the west of London, with this
exception, that in none of these districts did the
mortality approach the dimensions of previous epi-
de-mics. There it justified the anticipations that had
been indulged. In the midst of this calm the whole
of London was startled in three successive weeks of
July by 346, 904, and 1,053 deaths from cholera ;
and it was found that the great majority of deaths
happened in the houses supplied from the reservoirs
DA Old Ford belonging to one company.
To make this investigation more exact, the deaths
happening on each day in each of the fields of water
supply have been taken out, and are given in the
table, p. 547. The dates of death extend from Ist
July to Ist Sept. Three deaths from cholera hap-
pened on Wednesday, 11th July, 6 on the 12th,
12, 11, 12 on the three following days in the dis-
tricts supplied by the East London Company, includ-
ing West Ham on the east side of the Lea. On
Monday and the six days following the deaths ran
up to 31, 54, 59, 83, 91, 104, 104. The 23d July was
again an increase ; the deaths were 130 on Monday,
144 on Tuesday, 166 on Wednesday, when there
was a slight subsidence ; but on Monday, 30th
July, the deaths were 141, on Tuesday, 171, and
on Wednesday, Ist August, 170.
It appeared then right to call attention at once
to the complete coincidence of the cholera field
with the field of supply of the East London Water
Company, in the hope that the state of its water
might be immediately looked to. The weekly
report was published on Wednesday morning,
Ist August ; on that day the engineer of the
company called at the General Register Office, and
on the day following he published a letter in the
daily journals, showing that he fully appreciated
the importance of the crisis. The supply might
have been changed on Wednesday morning,
but on that day no result appears ; the deaths were
170; on Thursday ithe deaths fell to 155, on Friday
to 114, on Saturday to 112, on Sunday to 119, on
Monday, Aug. 6, to 115, on Monday, Aug. 13, to
44, on Monday, Aug. 20, to 31, on Monday, Aug. 27,
to 21, on Saturday, Sept. 1, to 8.
This coincidence between the intervention of Mr.
Greaves and the decisive declension of the cholera in
the- week following deserves to be noted. It
strengthens the circumstantial inference that a part
of the supply between July 8 and Aug. 1 was drawn
from the uncovered reservoirs ; but the unclean
matter might of course have entered the water
through other unknown channels.

No corresponding rise or fall was observed on the
same days in the other fields of water supply.
The covered reservoir at Old Ford, said to be 21
acres in area, and 101 ft. deep, will sot hold more
than about 7,126,100 gallons of water, and the com-
pany supplies 90,174 houses with 201 million gallons
daily. The uncovered reservoirs it is said cover nine
acres ; they are seen from the Great Eastern Rail-
way, but are not depicted either in Mr. Milne's map
or in that of the Government engineers.
The depth of the uncovered reservoirs is unknown ;
but they contain perhaps three times as much water
as the covered reservoir.

The system of the company consists of the water
in the reservoirs, in the mains, in the multitudinous
pipes, and in the butts of the consumers' houses;
through these channels the matter must have been
distributed irregularly; and it will be shown subse-
quently how slowly any zymotic matter once intro-
duced is eliminated from the water or from the

population.
The only sure method is to let all the water run off
simultaneously, and to let the fresh supply be scru-
pulously pure. This, with complete drainage, gets
rid of the zymotic stuff most expeditiously.
Now the epidemic has partly subsided in the
east, and the company's water, as far as we can
judge of the effects, is returning to the normal
state, it is desirable that Mr. Greaves, who
is deservedly held to be one of the hest practical
hydraulic engineers of the day, and whose truthful-
ness, in questions of science, no one would question,
should be permitted by the company to publish all
the facts of the case.

The difficulties of supplying 21 million gallons of
pure water daily from the Lea, with only one small
reservoir, holding a third part of the day's supply,
below, and in close juxtaposition to the tidal por-
tion of that river full of foul sewage, in all seasons
of the year, are im.nense ; and, in the conditions
given, casualties, which no skill can entirely avoid,
are almost inevitable.