Daily union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1865-1866, 1866-08-23
CHOLERA AND IMPURE WATER.

Something very like a discovery Of the
immediate cause Of cholera has been made
In London by DIR. Snow, Of the Committee
Of Inquiry. The new theory makes foul
water the chief means Of propagating the
disease The worst ravages Of the pest IN
London have been traced to the contamina-
ton Of drinking water by cess-pool filth.
The Registrar General attaches great impOr-
lance TO the theory, and speaks Of "the de
lection since lS49 Of the mode Of propaga-
ton of cholera" as being "among the great
est triumphs Of medical science" BY dill
gent inquiry II was found that the outbreak
of the disease in 1854 at St. James, West
minister, was caused by the use Of water
which had been contaminated by leakage
from a neighboring ccss-pool, into which
had been flown, during three days, the dllu-
ted excrement Of child that had died of
reported exhaustion after diarrhea." On the
2Sth Of August the objections of the sick in
FAINT began TO be deposited in the cess-pool.
IL died on the 30th.
On the 3lst the disease broke out and
spread in the immediate neighborhoOd Of
the foul well. The doctrine confines the
cause Of the pest 20 the discharges Of the
patient, the virus Of which may be difiused
BY water. Now, Il is found that almost all
AliN WITS VI AaAAAAlAA aAaA HNAAhANNA WIN e''A
face water, and large numbers Of them &C
tually take In eess-pool filth In ST. Georges,
Southwark, no less than four thousand Of
these obnoxious pits have been excavated.
The infected water, hypothesis explains the
curious fact Of instantaneous attacks OF
whole districts, and il follows the disease
through its freaks and eecentricities with
more probability than any other theory
which we have examined.
AT Horsslydown, in lS49, was court
having two rows of houses with their backs
together. One row had eleven deaths, the
other one. The side Of the greater mortali-
~ used water from well into which flowed
9th from kitchen yards; and the commits
sioners could not discover any other differ
ence. In Albion Terrace, consisting of sew
enteen houses twenty persons died of chole-
RI in a fortnight, and four ortivc Others were
fatally attacked after fleeing from the place.
The only popularity Of the Terrace was the
supply Of water from a spring in the road,
into which deposits Of foul matter were
made by the overflow Of cess pool and the
bursting Of a barrel drain. South London
contains but one-fourth of the whole popu-
lation. vet in 1919 nearly sixty per cent Of
an the deaths occurred on the south side Of
the Thames The drinking-water Of South
below Nauxhall, where the river had grown
90 be 90 foul as 70 call forth much complaint.
In 1882, when Exeter derived lis drinking
water from the river at point where IL re-
cCived the sewerage, the mortality was sew
enteen times greater than in 1919, when the
source Of supply had been changed TO a To-
Cality beyond the influence Of the tide. At
Nottingham the deaths in 1882 were twenty
times more numerous than in lS49, the To-
cal authorities attributing the difference 70 a
supply Of pure water 20 the poor, among
whom the disease had prevailed. In 1882,
Glasgow suffered very severely ON both sides
Of the Clyde, whose water supplied the city.
In lSIq, South Glasgow was supplied with
water from the neighboring hills, and es-
capped. We have no doubt that water and
filth are the two items Of thought and action
for the authorities Of the Northwest 20 busy
themselves about Chicago Tribune.