History of Sanitation

by J. J. Cosgrove

"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.

With regard to the 73 deaths occurring in the locality belonging, as it were, to the pump, there were 61 instances in which I was informed that the deceased persons used to drink the water from the pump in Broad Street, either constantly or occasionally. In six (6) instances I could get no information, owing to the death or departure of every one connected with the deceased individuals; and in six (6) cases I was informed that the deceased persons did not drink the pump water before their illness.

The result of the inquiry consequently was that there had been no particular outbreak or increase of cholera in this part of London, except among the persons who were in the habit of drinking the water of the above mentioned pump well.

I had an interview with the Board of Guardians of St. James' Parish on the evening of Thursday, 7th of September, and represented the above circumstances to them. In consequence of which the handle of the pump was removed on the following day.

The additional facts that I have been able to ascertain are in accordance with those related above, and as regards the small number of those attacked, who were believed not to have drunk the water from the Broad Street pump, it must be obvious that there are various ways in which the deceased persons may have taken it without the knowledge of their friends. The water was used for mixing with spirits in some of the public houses around. It was used likewise at dining rooms and coffee shops. The keeper of a coffee shop which was frequented by mechanics and where the pump water was supplied at dinner time, informed us on the 6th of September that she was already aware of nine of her customers who were dead."

On the other hand, Dr. Swan discovered that while a workhouse (almshouse) in Poland Street was three-fourths surrounded by houses in which cholera deaths occurred, out of 525 inmates of the workhouse, only five cholera deaths occurred. The workhouse, however, had a well of its own in addition to the city supply, and never sent for water to the Broad Street pump. If the cholera mortality in the workhouse had been equal to that in its immediate vicinity, it would have had 50 deaths.

A brewery in Broad Street employing seventy workmen was entirely exempt, but having a well of its own, and allowances of malt liquor having been customarily made to the employees, it appears likely that the proprietor was right in his belief that resort was never had to the Broad Street well.

It was quite otherwise in a cartridge factory at No. 38 Broad Street, where about two hundred work people were employed, two tubs of drinking water having been kept on the premises and always filled from the Broad Street pump. Among these employees eighteen died of cholera. Similar facts were elicited for other factories on the same street, all tending to show that in general those who drank the water from the Broad Street pump well suffered either from cholera or diarrhœa, while those who did not drink that water escaped. The whole chain of evidence was made absolutely conclusive by several remarkable and striking cases, like the following:

"A gentleman in delicate health was sent for from Brighton to see his brother at No. 6 Poland Street, who was attacked by cholera and died in twelve hours, on the 1st of September. The gentleman arrived after his brother's death, and did not see the body. He only stayed about twenty minutes in the house, where he took a hasty and scanty luncheon of rump steak, taking with it a small tumbler of cold brandy and water, the water being from Broad Street pump. He went to Pentonville, was attacked with cholera on the evening of the following day, September 2d, and died the next evening.