History of Sanitation

HISTORY OF SANITATION 95 general cleanliness; dust bins and accumulations in yards, cellars and areas; cesspools, closets and house drains; sewers, their water flow and atmospheric connection; public water supply and well water supply. No peculiar condi- tion or adequate explanation of the origin of the epidemic was discovered in any of these, even after the most search- ing inquiry, except in the well water supply. Abundant general defects were found in the other sanitary factors, but nothing peculiar to the cholera area, or if peculiar, common to those attacked by the disease, could be found excepting the water supply. At the very beginning of the outbreak, Dr. John Snow, with commendable energy, had taken the trouble to get the number and location of the fatal cases, as is stated in his own report: “ I requested permission, on the 5th of September, to take a list, at the general register office, of the deaths from cholera registered during the week ending the 22d of September, in the subdistricts of Golden Square and Berwick Street, St. James’ and St. Anne’s, Soho, which was kindly granted. Eighty-nine (89) deaths from cholera were registered during the week in the three subdistricts, of these only six (6) occurred on the first four days of the week, four occurred on Thursday, August 31, and the remaining 79 on Friday and Saturday. I considered there- fore that the outbreak commenced on the Thursday, and I made inquiry in detail respecting the 83 deaths registered as having taken place during the last three days of the week. On proceeding to the spot I found that nearly all the deaths had taken place within a short distance of the pump in Broad Street. There were only ten deaths in houses situated decidedly nearer to another street pump. In five of these cases the families of the deceased persons told me that they always sent to the pump in Broad Street, as they preferred the water to that of the pump which was nearer. In three other cases the deceased were children who went to school near the pump in Broad Street. Two of them