Accordingly special inquiries were made within the district involved in regard to its elevation of site, soil and subsoil, including an extended inquiry into the history of a pest field said to have been located within this area in 1665, 1666, to which some had attributed the cholera of 1854; surface and ground plan; streets and courts; density of population; character of the population; dwelling houses; internal economy as to space, light, ventilation and 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 condition or adequate explanation of the origin of the epidemic was discovered in any of these, even after the most searching 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 2nd 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 therefore 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 were known to have drunk the water and the parents of the third think it probable that it did so. The other two deaths beyond the district which the pump supplies, represent only the amount of mortality from cholera that was occurring before the eruption took place.