History of Sanitation

104 HISTORY OF SANITATION undoubted cholera subsequently in the same house, with no known change in the drainage, have produced even greater disaster ? This question remains unanswered, ex- cept that after the removal of the pump handle on the 8th of September access to the well was shut off, and during the intermediate week the well may have been avoided by the frightened people; or owing to illness less water may have been used in No. 40 Broad Street, so that the cess- pool did not overflow, or some other condition unknown may have been changed.” Following closely on the heels of the report of the Cholera Inquiry Commission came an event, which, though fraught with no danger, nevertheless did more to call attention of people in general and lawmakers in particular to the necessity for sanitary surroundings and the danger of polluted water supply, than had all the epidemics of cholera and typhoid fever which had preceded. This event was one of the most famous stinks recorded, if not the most famous, and arose from the Thames in London in 1858 and 1859. The following account of this historic stink is by Dr. Budd.* “The need of some radical modification in the view commonly taken of the relation which subsists between typhoid fever and sewage was placed in a very striking light by the state of the public health in London during the hot months of 1858 and 1859, when the Thames stank so badly. The late Dr. McWilliam pointed out at the time, in fitting and emphatic terms, the utter inconsistency of the facts with the received notion of the subject. Never before had nature laid down the data for the solution of a problem of this kind in terms so large, or wrought them out to so decisive an issue. As the lesson then taught us seems to be already well nigh forgotten, I may perhaps be allowed to recall some of its most salient points. 7 he occasion, indeed, as has already been hinted, was no common one. An extreme case, a gigantic scale in the phenomena, and perfect accuracy in the registration of the * Typhoid Fever, its Nature, Mode of Spreading and Prevention.