History of Sanitation

by J. J. Cosgrove

ASIATIC CHOLERA
- AND -
THE BROAD STREET WELL.
LONDON 1854.

After opening back the main drain, a cesspool, intended for a trap but misconstructed, was found in the area, 3 feet 8 inches long by 2 feet 6 inches wide and 3 feet deep, and upon or over a part of this cesspool a common open privy, without water supply, for the use of the house, was erected, the cesspool being fully charged with soil. This privy was formed across the east end of the area, and upon removing the soil the brickwork of the cesspool was found to be in the same decayed condition as the drain, and which may be better comprehended by stating that the bricks were easily lifted from their beds without the least force, so that any fluid could readily pass through the work, or as was the case when first opened, over the top course of bricks of the trap into the earth or made ground, immediately under and adjoining the end wall eastward, this surface drainage being caused by the accumulation of soil in, and the misconstruction of, the cesspool.

Thus, therefore, from the charged condition of the cesspool, the defective state of its brickwork and also that of the drain, no doubt remains in my mind that constant percolation for a considerable period had been conveying fluid matter from the drains into the well; but lest any doubt should arise on this subject hereafter, I had two spaces of the brick stemming, 2 feet square each, taken out of the inside of the well, the first 13 feet deep from the level of the street paving, the second 18 feet deep, and a third was afterward opened still lower, when the washed appearance of the ground and gravel fully corroborated the assumption. In addition thereto, the ground was dug out between the cesspool and the well to 3 feet below the bottom of the former, and its black, saturated, swampy condition clearly demonstrated the fact, as did also the small furrowed appearance of the underlying gravel observed from the inside of the well, from which the fine sand had been washed away during the process of filtration. It was thus established as clearly as can be done by circumstantial evidence, that the great epidemic in St. James' Parish, Westminster, London, in 1854, was caused by the polluted water of the Broad Street well, which for a very few days was probably infected with cholera germs. It is much less clear how the well became infected, but it seems probable that the dejecta of a cholera patient found tolerably direct access to the well from the cesspool or drain of a house nearby. There is no evidence whatever that the germs multiplied in the well, but rather much evidence that they rapidly died out. It is repeatedly stated in the report that the water was preferred for drinking because it was cold, i. e., colder than the cistern water derived from public water supply and this condition would probably favor such dying out.

That the water had long been polluted there can be no doubt. There was evidence of this, and also some evidence that it was worse than usual at the time when it was probably infected. One consumer spoke of it as having been at the time offensive in taste and odor. It is instructive to note that mere pollution seems to have done no obvious harm. Specific infection, however, produced Asiatic cholera.

Mr. Whitehead in his singularly fair and candid report raises an interesting question, viz: Why, if an early and unrecognized case in the house in question brought about infection of the well, should not the four severer cases of undoubted cholera subsequently in the same house, with no known change in the drainage, have produced even greater disaster? This question remains unanswered, except 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 cesspool 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.[7]

"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.

The 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 results—three of the best of all the guarantees against fallacy—were combined to make the inductions sure. For the first time in the history of man, the sewage of nearly three millions of people had been brought to seethe and ferment under a burning sun, in one vast open cloaca lying in their midst. The result we all know. Stench so foul we may well believe had never before ascended to pollute this lower air. Never before at least had a stink risen to the height of an historic event. Even ancient fable failed to furnish figures adequate to convey a conception of its thrice-Augean foulness. For many weeks the atmosphere of Parliamentary committee rooms was only rendered barely tolerable by the suspension before every window of blinds saturated with chloride of lime, and by the lavish use of this and other disinfectants. More than once, in spite of similar precautions, the law courts were suddenly broken up by an insupportable invasion of the noxious vapor. The river steamers lost their accustomed traffic, and travelers pressed for time often made circuit of many miles rather than cross one of the city bridges.