The Sun.
London, England, 1866-09-12 00:00:00

poisonous excrementitious matter from producing violent
cramp atAd diarrhoea. The case upon which I founded
this op;,nion is the following : —A gentleman and his wife
partook of tea made with well-water, which was poured
&Wang from the teakettle into the teapot. Between three
and foul; hours after partaking of the tea, and after they
had been asleep for some time, they were both awoke by
violent cramps, both in the limbs and body, which were
soon followed by excessive diarrhoea. The cramps lasted
for several hours, and the diarrhoea until the following
afternoon. Both patients were affected in exactly the same
way. The well-water was suspected, and the well, which
was a very shallow one in slate rock, was at once opened
and examined. It was soon found that a pipe from a
water-closet had burst, and that some of the contents had
made their way into the well; in fact, some fragments of
excrementitious matter were found floating on the surface
of the water. The water from this well was never
again used, for the well was filled up, and another
excavated at some distance, and the symptom; which were
entirely novel to the patients, never again occurred.
" The attack took place in a very healthy locality in the
country, and at a time when no epidemic diarrhoea or cholera
prevailed. Were such an experiment tried now, the result
can scarcely be doubted. I am intimately acquainted with
the sufferers, and was at once informed of all the circum-
stances. The evidence afforded by this case is exceptionally
conclusive—first, because tho parties never, under any cir-
cumstances, drank this water except in the form of tea or
coffee; and, secondly, because they were at the time the
only inmates of the house, being without a servant ; there
can, therefore, bo no doubt about the water having been
boiled. The case excited my special interest on account of
the unexpected conclusion to which it leads ; and I mention
it because it is important, at the present juncture, that we
should not place implicit reliance upon a precautionary
measure founded upon the assumption that the noxious
qualities of the organic matters of sewage are destroyed by
boiling.—l have, &c., "E. FRANKLAND.
" The Registrar-General."

(From (he Registrar-General's Return.)
General Register-office, Somerset-house,
Sept. 10.
In the week that ended on Saturday, Sept. 8, the
births registered in London and 12 other large towns
of the United Kingdom were 3,884 ; the deaths re-
gistered 3,075. The annual rate of mortality was
26 per 1,000 persons living.
In London the births of 967 boys and 938 girls,
in all 1,905 children, were registered in the week.
In the corresponding weeks of ten years, 1856-65,
the average number, corrected for increase of popu-
lation, was 1,925.
_ _

The deaths registered in London during the week
were 1,335. It was the 36th week of the year; and
the average number of deaths for that week is, with
a correction for increase of population, 1,245. The
deaths in the present return exceed the estimated
number by 90.
The weekly deaths by cholera have fallen progres-
sively from 1,053, 781, 455, 265, and 198, to 157 ;
by cholera and diarrhoea from 1,407, 1,045, 649,
394, and 326 to 289. In the East districts the
weekly deaths by cholera have fallen from 916 to 74;
in the South districts from 47 to 39 ; in the rest of
London from 90 to 44. The rate of mortality by
cholera and diarrhcea in East London is rather more
than double the mortality by those diseases in the
whole of the metropolis. Of the deaths in the South
districts an undue proportion is still observed ; last
week 7 deaths by cholera, 5 by diarrhcea were regis-
tered in Deptford; 7 by cholera and 4 by diarrhcea in
Woolwich, where the rector states that precautions
are taken by the Health Committee. The efficiency
of the measures in both these districts on the banks
. of the Thames should be closely watched. Last
week the deaths by cholera in the Poplar district
were 7, in Greenwich-Union, including Deptford
and Woolwich, 17.
Dr. Frankland has related a remarkable case in
which boiling did not deprive cesspool stuff of its
poisonous qualities. The experiment is decisive as
it goes, and shows the absolute exclusion of sewage
from water for domestic use. Boiling the water is
a useful precaution, but Dr. Frankland prefers fil-
tration through animal charcoal, or the use of the
permanganate of potash.
Sporadic cases of cholera have been observed from
the cause to which Dr. Franklank refers ; in the
dead of the winter of 1838, between the 7th of
January and the sth of February, 55 persons died
of cholera in the Coventry House of Industry, evi-
dently from common polluted water, as cholera was
not at the time epidemic. In the Union Workhouse
of Epping cholera suddenly broke out on the sth of
August, 1854, and by the 14th destroyed 23 lives ;
" the well of the workhouse was close to the main
sewer," and to this "dreadful state of drainage" the
fatality of cholera was traced.* In this year epi-
demic cholera prevailed.
The annual rate of mortality last week was 23
per 1,000 in London, 24 in Edinburgh, and 30 in
Dublin; 21 in Bristol, 21. in Birmingham, 53 in
Liverpool, 28 in Manchester, 26 in Salford,. 22 in
Sheffield, 29 in Leeds, 21 in Hull, 34 in Newcastle-
upon-Tyne, and 23 in Glasgow. The rate in Vienna
was- 35 per 1,000 during the week ending the Ist
inst., when the temperature was
.5.6 deg. Fahren-
heit higher than in the same week in London, where
the rate was 24 per 1,000. The 374 deaths in this
city included 64 from cholera.
At the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, the mean
height of the barometer in the week was 29.475 in.
The barometrical reading decreased from 29.74 in.
on Monday to: 29.21 in. on Wednesday. The
mean temperature of the air in the week 'was 58.5
dog., which is 0.4 deg. above the average of the
same week in 50 years (as determined by Mr.
Glaisher). The highest day temperature was 69.3
deg., on Wednesday and Friday. The lowest night
temperature was 45.8 deg., on Monday. The entire
range of temperature in the week was, therefore,
23.5.de,g. The mean of the highest temperatures
of the water of the Thames was 61.1 deg. ; that of
the 'lowest was 601 deg. The difference between
the mean dew-point temperature and air tempera.
ture was 4.7 deg. The mean degree of humidity of
the air was 85, complete saturation being repre-
sented by 100. Rain fell to the amount of 1.91 in.,
of which 0.90 in. fell on Sunday. 'The blue miss
was observed on Sunday, Monday, Friday, and Sa-
turday. On Saturday all traces of the blue mist
were oblitered by a grayish mist.
SUPPLEMENT TO THE WEEKLY RETURN, No. 36,
WEST lIA3r.
The registration district of West Ham properly
belongs to London, with which it is intimately as
sociated. Its four sub-districts are Walthamstow,
Leyton, Stratford, and West Ham proper ; at the
north-east angle of London, it lies between Epping
Forest and the Thames, the river Lea and the
Roding at Barking, without touching Barking
Creek. It has docks as well as manufactures; and
at New Stratford are the extensive works of the
Great Eastern Railway. West Ham has been by
error left out of London, and in consequence sends
down its ample sewage by an independent channel
across the northern outfall sewer of the Metropolitan
Board to an arm of the river Lea, which Mr. Beard-
more, C.E., says, "has the disadvantage of being
tidal below Old Ford, and is therefore liable to the
inflow of impurity from the Thames, and from the
sewage of Stratford and West Ham, turned into
the Bow Creek arm of the Lea without deodoriza-
tion." By this unhappy arrangement the tide car-
ries the sewage of West Ham up and down the river
Lea, close to the reservoirs from which Stratford
and West Ham proper get water.
The population of West Ham was 59,319 in 1861,
and has since increased rapidly; at the rates of
1851 and 1861 it will be 81,718 in the year 1866.
Walthamstow to the north is supplied with water
from a deep well, from springs, and in part 'from
the Lea-bridge reservoirs of the East London Water-
works Company ; Leyton is supplied partly in the
same manner. The deaths from cholera in these
two sub-districts were only 11 in t 6. eight weeks
ending September 1.
Far otherwise was it at Stratford and West Ham
proper, where the mortality in the last week of July
was appalling enough ; in one week 45 persons were
killed in Stratford, 76 in West Ilan, by cholera
alone, exclusive of deaths by diarrhcea. The deaths
by cholera to 10,000 living were 78 in Stratford and
49 in West Ham proper during the eight weeks
ending September 1. The particulars of each case
are printed in the supplement, and the mortality
should be compared with the mortality by cholera
in each of the London districts.
Both Stratford and West Ham are detached from
-the main drainage system, and have a system of
drainage of their own. They are both supplied with
water from the Old Ford reservoirs of the East
London Company.

The Sanitary Condition of the City.

The City Commissioners of Sewers reassembled
yesterday at Guildhall after their summer recess of
six weeks. Mr. Deputy De Jersey occupied the
chair, and there was an unusually large number of
members present, most if not all of whom assembled
together for the purpose of hearing Dr. Letheby's
report upon the past and present sanitary condition
of the City.
Dr. Letheby, the medical officer of health for the
City, reported that during the six weeks which had
elapsed since the last meeting of the commissioners
the officers had inspected 1,721 houses, and had
made 403 visits to the common lodging-houses of
the City, making a total of 2,124 inspections of
houses. These had resulted in the issuing of 919
orders for sanitary improvement in the following
particulars :-613 cleansing of - houses, or parts of
houses; 296 amendMents of water supply, and cleans-
ing of cisterns and butts; 165 cleansing and repair-
ing privies; 107 improvements of drainage, trapping
sinks and gullies; 127 orders for removal of dust,
dung, and other refuse, besides summary orders to
abate overcrowding, &c., making a total of 1,717
items of sanitary improvement in 919 houses. In ad-
dition to this the common lodging-houses, and nearly
all the poorer classes of houses in the City, amount-
ing to 3,000 in number, had been disinfected with
chloride of lime from three to seven times over, and
147 of the public courts had been lime-whited with
the view of destroying the filth on the walls. A staff
of 16 men had been employed every night in cleans-
ing, flushing, and disinfecting the 184 courts which
the medical officers considered required it, and the
streets had been daily watered with a solution of
carbolic acid. In the performance of these sanitary
works a staff of from 44 to 90 men had been daily
engaged, in addition to the usual sanitary staff of
the City ; and upwards of seven tons of chloride of
lime and 1,000 gallons of carbolic acid, besides a con-
siderable quantity of carbolate of lime, had been used.
Dr. Letheby next reported that in consequence of
the compulsory disuse of the pumps in the City a
large number of stand pipes, provided with a constant
supply of water, had been erected, and that great
assistance had been afforded in this matter by the
New River and East London Water Companies. In
consequence of the additional duty which devolved
on the Commissioners of Sewers by the provisions
of the Public Health Act of 1866, with regard to the
supervision of the sanitary condition of the shipping
within the confines of the City, the inspector of
shipping had inspected 53 vessels, chiefly steamers,
lying at Fresh Wharf and.Breiver's Quay, and car-
rying passengers and cargo. Six of these were
found defective in respect of the cleanliness and
ventilation of the forecastle, where the crew sleep,
and the captain of one of them had died of cholera,
and his body was taken to an undertaker's in Fore-
street, Cripplegate, where it was kept until it was
buried.

Dr. Letheby further reported that the markets,
slaughter-houses, and cow-houses of the City had
been duly inspected and that the officers had con-
demned about 30,0001 b. of meat as unfit for human
food. It consisted of 84 sheep, 62 pigs, 109 quarters
of beef, and 928 joints of meat, besides 327 rabbits,
171 ducks, 55 geese, 2 hares, and 1 buck, all of
which had been destroyed. He recommended that
in four cases the matter should be further investi-
gated, with a view to legal proceedings, and he re-
ported four cases in which fines had been inflicted
for exposing unwholesome food and putrid hides for
sale in the City markets.
Dr. Letheby next reported that the mortality re-
turns for the last six weeks (319 deaths) were a little
above the average (290) for the corresponding period
of the last ten years. Rather more than one-third
of the deaths (109) had been among children of less
than five years of age, and 75 bad been among per-
sons at 60 and upwards. The chief causes of death
were as follow :—Yhthisis, 33; mesenteric disease, 16 ;
hydrocephalus, 4; pneutnonia,7 ; bronchitis, 9; con-
tinued fever,s ; smallpox,s; scarlet fever,9 ; erysipelis,
4 ; measles, 11; croup, 2; cholera and choleraic
diarrhcea, 65 ; and common diarrhea, 24, making
together 53 deaths from tubercular diseases, 16 from
inflammatory affections of the lungs, and 129 from
diseases of a zymotic character. Of the 65 deaths
from cholera and choleraic diarrhcea, 12 occurred
in the workhouses, which are not in the City, and
of the remainder (53), 12 were among children of
less than five years of age. So also of the 24 deaths
from common diarrhcea, five were in the workhouses,
and of the remainder five only were among adults.
In the corresponding period of the last ten years
the average mortality in the City from alvine flux
had been only five among adults, instead of 65, and
22 among children instead of 24. But, although
the mortality has been excessive, yet it has not
reached to anything like the proportion of the neigh-
Ibouring district.s, or even the general average for
the whole of the metropolis. In the eastern deathsdis-
gthelasftrosmix cwheoelkersah andav e
been cho-
leraict rict
doifarLaohnceda duonthrien
at the rate of about 375 per 100,000 of population,
and in all London it has been at the rate of nearly
..
100 per 100,000, whereas in the it has
only been about 47 per 100,000 of the inhabitants,
and the mortality from diarrhoea has been but
14 per 100,000, while in the other districts of
the metropolis it has ranged from
was inclinedrom26toCl
to
100,000 of the people.
ftrhoinmk,dfiraorrmhtcehais, i tnh atth
ea lacrigtye phroapdorbtieoenn orfe
ttheur
ndeeda t hass
cholera, or choleraic diarrhoea,
for there w
other part of London where the proportionofdeaths
from diarrhoea was so low. This asn
o
indi-
cated by the sickness returns for the
was
City
ythunions,
which showed that of nearly 1,500 cases of diar-
rhoeate
East and West London unions, only five were re-
ported as having terminated fatally. Even the
cases which were entered as cholera must have
been of a singularly mild type, as out of five of 142
which had been returned as cases of cholera, only
13 had terminated fatally, the usual mortality being
about one-third. In point of fact, although the
amount of sickness recorded on the books of the
medical visitors was unusually large, yet it was un-
usually mild, for of 2,393 cases of alvine disorder
attended during the last few weeks by the union
medical officers only 21 had terminated fatally.
The contrast of this condition of things in the City
• with what it had been during the same i
City Workhouse at Bromley most striking; for
there, with a population less than 800 persons,
there had been 27 deaths from cholera and four from
diarrhoea, while in: the whole of the Cit
with its 46,000 inhabitants y p
, there had been but
eleven deaths from cholera and six from diarrhceau.
The death-rate from cholera in the City Work-
house had been nearly 400 per 10,000 persons,

DRAINAGE OF EAST LONDON.
The d •
ramage of a part of the cholera field by the
low-level sewer will not be completed until next
summer i but upon the present emergency, in answer
Registrar_GenioaZ, Mr. Bazalgette informed the
that he should recommend the
Metropolitan
to erect " a temporary station
at Abbey Mills tolrci lift the sewage of this district into
the northern outfall
se ”
The pumping, it.wer.
of IsAugratifying to learn, was
started on the 24th
woulciglift' as appears from the
annexed letter. It
an excellent ment, if it were practicablesewarre pump
oumtphe
,
to
arrange-
part of the West 'lain atnol
northern
of outfall sewer, and thus furthc; into
the •
of sewage in the Lea river. quantity
" Metropolitan Board of Work E
"partment, Spring-gardeus,; s.ri4Oueer's Do-
" Sir,--fu compliance with the request tna,iBel)t. 7.
at this
office yesterday, I beg to inform you that the teal
pumping engines for diverting the discharge o e:r
from the river Lea and Liniehouie Cut into the nor }tern
outfall sewer, near Abbey Mills, were started on the 24thrn
ultimo.

" I am, 4T.

F. W. MAUL."

" The Registrar-General."

The Registrar-General has received the following
letter from Professor Falkland :
" Royal College of Chemistry, Oxford-street, Sept. 8.
" my report to you, upon the water supply of.
boiling will not prevent water which is contaminated with

Letter of Mr. Windus, clerk to Epping Union, addressed
to the Registrar-General Nov. 1, 1865. The water id now

while in the very heart of the City it had been only
about 2 per 10,000 persons. In fact, if the City mor-
tality had been equal to that of the City Workhouse,
there would have been 3,800 deaths from cholera
instead of M. He would not pretend to account
for the remarkable difference in the intensity of the
disease, but in so far as it related to the City it was
a subject of sincere thankfulness that its ravages had
been confined within so narrow a circle.
Upon the motion of Mr. Pedler, these reports of
Dr. Letheby were unanimously adopted, and
ordered to be printed and circulated among the
members of the court and the various boards of
City guardians.

TitiE LOlsitiO/S, WEDNESDAY EVENING, SEPTEMBER 12, 1866.