From figures such as these--and they related to only a tiny fragment of the whole--one can get some measure of the way the sanitary condition of the houses throughout London had been neglected, and the indifference of the owners to the condition of the premises they let. Mention has been made of the vast number of cesspools which existed in London before the passing of the Metropolis Local Management Act. The investigations of the various Medical Officers of Health soon demonstrated that the previous estimates of their prevalence, and of the disastrous consequences they entailed, had been in no way exaggerated. Their disastrous results were at once recognised. The Medical Officer of Health for Whitechapel, in his report for 1858, wrote:-- "I must now direct your attention to the most important subject, in a sanitary point of view, which can be brought before you. I allude to the existence of _cesspools_, more especially such as are situated either in the cellars of inhabited houses, or in the small backyards, which are surrounded by the walls of houses filled with lodgers.... "No cesspool ought to be allowed to exist in London, for wherever there is a cesspool, the ground in its vicinity is completely saturated with the foul and putrefying liquid contents, the stench from which is continually rising up and infecting the air which is breathed by the people, and in some instances poisoning the water which is drawn from the public pumps.... "I am thoroughly convinced by the result of experience, that the existence of cesspools and overcrowding are the chief causes of ill-health." And the Medical Officer of Health for Camberwell wrote:-- "... Of all the abominations which disgrace and pollute the dwellings of the poor, the imperfect, rarely emptied, and overflowing cesspools are by far the worst ... they not merely poison the atmosphere without, but pour their emanations constantly, silently, deadly, into the interior of the houses themselves." Upon the quality and supply of the water which was essential for the life of the people, and upon which their health, and cleanliness, and sanitation absolutely depended, the information supplied by the Medical Officers of Health as to their respective districts brings home, far more than any general descriptions do, the full import and actualities of the great evils endured by the people, and the disastrous consequences entailed upon them. As to the water from the surface and tidal wells, which large numbers of them used and consumed, the opinion, though expressed in various terms, was unanimous. From Shoreditch (1860), the Medical Officer of Health wrote: "I have hardly ever exposed a sample of town spring water to the heat of a summer day for some hours without observing it to become putrid."