History of Sanitation

HISTORY OF SANITATION 101 reason unknown a partial purification began on September 2d, and thereafter proceeded rapidly. There was some evidence that on August 30th the water was much less infected than on the 31st, so that its dangerous condition was apparently temporary only. He further discovered that in the house No. 40 Broad Street, which was the nearest house to the well, there had been not only four fatal cases of cholera contemporaneous with the epidemic, but certain earlier cases of an obscure nature, which might have been cholera, and that dejecta from these had been thrown without disinfection into a cesspool very near the well. On his reporting these facts in April, 1855, to the main committee, Mr. J. York, sec- retary and sur- veyor to the com- mittee, was in- structed to survey the locality and examine the well, cesspool and drains at No. 40 Broad Street. Mr. York’s report re- vealed a startling condition of affairs. The well was circular in sec- tion, 28 feet 10 inches deep, 6 feet in diameter, lined with brick, and when examined contained 7 feet 6 inches of water. It was arched in at the top, dome fashion, and tightly closed at a level 3 feet 6 inches be- low the street by a cover occupying the crest of the dome. The bottom of the main drain of the house No. 40 Broad e*o CM 6'- •281 WATC? LlfJE, _ ASIATIC CHOLERA —and-------- THE BROAD STREET WELL . LONDON 1854. W_____WELL D-----MAIN DRAIM OFHOUSE No.40. V’andVJ'-CELLARS UNDER STREET. C-----Cesspool. P-----PRiVV. (after mr.yqrks ORIGINAL DRAWINGS.')