Cholera and the Water Supply in the South Districts of London in 1854Snow, John
History
Cholera and the Water Supply in the South Districts of London in 1854
Snow, John
Cholera -- England -- London -- Epidemiology; Water-supply -- England -- London
In the fifth table the numbers in the previous ones are added together,
and fresh calculations made, so as to show the result of the inquiry for
the whole epidemic. The instances in which the water supply was not
specified, or not ascertained, in the returns made by the district
registrars must evidently nearly all have been cases in which the house
was supplied by one or other of the water companies, for, if the persons
received no such supply, and obtained water from a pump well, canal, or
ditch, there could be no difficulty in knowing the fact. Moreover, as
the two water companies are guided by precisely the same regulations,
the difficulty in ascertaining the supply is exactly the same with
regard to one as the other; I, therefore, concluded that I could not be
wrong in dividing the non-ascertained cases between the two companies in
the same proportion as those which were ascertained, and I have done so
at the foot of table V, in order to obtain a complete view of the
influence of the water supply during the whole epidemic of 1854. These
general results I have employed as the basis of some further
calculations.
In table VI I have copied from the Weekly Returns of the
Registrar-General the mortality from cholera in every subdistrict to
which the supply of both, or either, of the water companies extends. I
have also calculated the number of deaths which would have taken place
in each subdistrict according to the number of persons supplied with
water by each company respectively, and in accordance with the mortality
ascertained for the whole of the population supplied; and it will be
observed that the calculated mortality bears a very close relation to
the real mortality in each subdistrict. This relation exists with regard
both to the gross mortality and to the mortality to each 10,000 living,
all through the table, and proves the overwhelming influence which the
nature of the water supply exerted over the mortality, overbearing every
other circumstance which could be expected to affect the progress of the
epidemic. Thus, in the crowded, dirty, and very poor subdistricts of
Lambeth Church, first part, and Waterloo, first part, lying by the river
side, the mortality was low in consequence of the water supply being
chiefly that of the Lambeth Company; whilst in the thinly peopled, and
comparatively genteel subdistricts of Clapham and Battersea the
mortality was very high, in consequence of the impure water of the
Southwark and Vauxhall Company. Taking this inquiry altogether, and
considering that the results which were published two years ago, and
could only be estimated collectively, are now corroborated in detail
through upwards of thirty subdistricts, it probably supplies a greater
amount of statistical evidence than was ever brought to bear on a
medical subject.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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