The Sun.
London, England, 1866-08-22 00:00:00

FROM CHOLERA.

We may now venture to look back and draw some
deductions from the facts as they are recorded iu
the tables for the five weeks ending Aug. 11, during
which 4,454 men, women, and children died of cho-
lera and diarrhoea.
The mortality in the five weeks has been at the
rate of 37 per 1,000 living annually ; but in both
the south and west districts, covered by 1,400,000
people, the mortality has scarcely exceeded the ave-
rage by 1 per 1,000. The annual rate of mortality
by cholera was 1 in Kensington and Paddington,
0.3 in Chelsea, 0.4 in St. George's, Hanover-square,
1 in Westminster, 0.5 in St. Martin's-in-the-fields,
1.5 in St. James's, Westminster. The mortality from
cholera and diarrhoea was highest in Kensington (G),
and lowest (2) in St. James, Westminster, the scene
formerly of the Broad-street pump mortality. The
west districts are supplied chiefly by the Thames
water companies, the New River supplying portions
of St. James, Westminister, and St. Martin's.

The mortality in the southern districts by cholera
was 3 in 1,000 in St. Saviour, Southwark, 2 in St.
Olave, 2 in Bermondsey, 2 in St. George, South-
wark, 0.3 in Newington, 1 in Lambeth, 2 in Wands-
worth, 3 in Camberwell, 3 in Rotherhithe, 3 in
Greenwich, where Mr. Glaisher has observed the fa-

inous " blue mist," and 0.2 in Lewisham. The mor.

tality by cholera and diarrhoea was highest in St.
Saviour, Southwark (8), and lowest in Lewisham
(1). These southern districts are generally poor,
they lie low, and were decimated by cholera in the
epidemics of 1849 and 1854, where the impure water
of the tidal Thames was distributed. Their water is
now drawn above Tedding,ton lock from the Thames.
The five north districts fared nearly as the central
districts ; the mortality by cholera was 0.5 in Mary-
lebone, 0.4 in Hampstead, 1.2 in Pancras, 1.9 in
Islington, and 4.9 in Hackney ; the mortality by
cholera and diarrhea was lowest in Hampstead (3)

and highest in Hackney (8). These districts are
chiefly supplied by the New River, one of the Thames
companies, and a portion of Hackney, it is believed,

from the Lea-bridge reservoir of the East London

Company.
The dense Central Districts are, some of them,
such as St. Luke's, remarkable for poverty ; others,
such as the City of London within the walls, for
their wealth. The mortality by cholera was at the
rate of 1 per 1,000 in St. Giles's, 2 in the Strand,
0 in Holborn (which appears to return all its cases
as diarrhoea), 1 in Clerkenwell, 1 in St. Luke, 7 in
East London, 7 in `Vest London, and 2 in the City
district ; from cholera and diarrhcea the mortality
was highest in the City without the walls, 10 ; and
St. Giles, 9 ; lowest in the city within the walls,
3. The whole of the Central Districts are supplied
by the New River, which draws part of its
supply
from the Lea river and part from springs. it:,
East London Company enters the city sub-district
in Vt. Botolph, where a few deaths from cholera
have been registered.
There are seven districts in the east; the mortality
by cholera in the poor district of Shoreditch was
at the annual rate of 4, by cholera and diarrhoea 8
in 1,000 ; five of its sub-districts are supplied by
the New River, one partially, and one wholly by
the East London, probably from Lea-bridge. In
the restof the East Districts the mortality by cholera
was at very different rates ; it was at the rate of 39
per 1,000 in Bethnal-green, 50 in Mile-end Old
Town, 60 in St. George-in-the-East, 70 in White-
chapel, including deaths in the London Hospital
from other eastern districts, 70 in Poplar and Bow,
and 80 in Stepney. Bethnal-green is one of the
Poorest districts of London, if we may judge by the
annual value of the houses ; but the people of Bow
and Poplar are not conspicuous for poverty. The
whole of these districts, where the mortality from
cholera was from 30 to 40 fold higher than it was
either in the west or the
central,. in. the north or the
south of London, were supped with water from the
Old Ford reservoirs. London l i
is divided into 37 dis-
tricts ; six districts are supplied from Old Ford, and
every one has been ravage" by
ec cholera ; the other
31 districts have for si
s
sufferied slightly.
The 37 districts are subdivided into
sub-dis-
tricts ; 21 are supplied with the t
same a
v:6 a er, and
have all suffered six weeks in succession
; 115 sub St.
districts have suffered inconsiderably, except in
Botolph and a few other districts, where the same
water has crept in, and the mortality is partially
swollen.

By the doctrine of chances it is impossible that
the coincidence between this particular water and the

high mortality should be fortuitous, in 135 cases,

during six weeks in succession.
The induction extends over all the area of obser-
vation in previous epidemics, where sewage water

has so often led to cholera outbreaks.

The persistenceof the epidemic in the East Londcn
districts is no proof that the supply of the company
is now worse than that of other companies, as its

effects on the place and on the population only sub-
side slowly. .

This great lesson should be taken to h ,i rt by every
water company and every community in the king-
dom. Unclean water cannot be consumed with
impunity ; its consumption is Cie sin of which
cholera is the punishment.