THE EPIDEMIC OF 1853, IN LONDON.
It will be observed that Lambeth, which is supplied with water in a great measure by the Lambeth Company, occupies a lower position in the above table than it did in the previous table showing the mortality in 1849. Rotherhithe also has been removed from the first to the fifth place; owing, no doubt, to the portion of the district supplied with water from the Kent Water Works, instead of the ditches, being altogether free from the disease, as was noticed above.
As the Registrar-General published a list of all the deaths from cholera which occurred in London in 1853, from the commencement of the epidemic in August to its conclusion in January 1854, I have been able to add up the number which occurred in the various sub-districts on the south side of the Thames, to which the water supply of the Southwark and Vauxhall, and the Lambeth Companies, extends. I have presented them in the table opposite, arranged in three groups.
TABLE VI.
| Sub-Districts. | Population in 1851. | Deaths from Cholera in 1853. | Deaths by Cholera in each 100,000 living. | Water Supply. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| St. Saviour, Southwark | 19,709 | 45 | 227 | Southwark and Vauxhall Water Company only. |
| St. Olave | 8,015 | 19 | 237 | |
| St. John, Horsleydown | 11,360 | 7 | 61 | |
| St. James, Bermondsey | 18,899 | 21 | 111 | |
| St. Mary Magdalen | 13,934 | 27 | 193 | |
| Leather Market | 15,295 | 23 | 153 | |
| Rotherhithe[[15]] | 17,805 | 20 | 112 | |
| Wandsworth | 9,611 | 3 | 31 | |
| Battersea | 10,560 | 11 | 104 | |
| Putney | 5,280 | |||
| Camberwell | 17,742 | 9 | 50 | |
| Peckham | 19,444 | 7 | 36 | |
| Christchurch, Southwk. | 16,022 | 7 | 43 | Lambeth Water Company, and Southwark and Vauxhall Company |
| Kent Road | 18,126 | 37 | 204 | |
| Borough Road | 15,862 | 26 | 163 | |
| London Road | 17,836 | 9 | 50 | |
| Trinity, Newington | 20,922 | 11 | 52 | |
| St. Peter, Walworth | 29,861 | 23 | 77 | |
| St. Mary, Newington | 14,033 | 5 | 35 | |
| Waterloo (1st part) | 14,088 | 1 | 7 | |
| Waterloo (2nd part) | 18,348 | 7 | 38 | |
| Lambeth Church (1st part) | 18,409 | 9 | 48 | |
| Lambeth Church (2nd part) | 26,784 | 11 | 41 | |
| Kennington (1st part) | 24,261 | 12 | 49 | |
| Kennington (2nd part) | 18,848 | 6 | 31 | |
| Brixton | 14,610 | 2 | 13 | |
| Clapham | 16,290 | 10 | 61 | |
| St. George, Camberwell | 15,849 | 6 | 37 | |
| Norwood | 3,977 | Lambeth Water Company only. | ||
| Streatham | 9,023 | |||
| Dulwich | 1,632 | |||
| First 12 sub-districts | 167,654 | 192 | 114 | Southwk. & Vaux. |
| Next 16 sub-districts | 301,149 | 182 | 60 | Both Companies |
| Last 3 sub-districts | 14,632 | Lambeth Comp. |
Besides the general result shown in the table, there are some particular facts well worthy of consideration. In 1849, when the water of the Lambeth Company was quite as impure as that of the Southwark and Vauxhall Company, the parish of Christchurch suffered a rather higher rate of mortality from cholera than the adjoining parish of St. Saviour; but in 1853, whilst the mortality in St. Saviour’s was at the rate of two hundred and twenty-seven to one hundred thousand living, that of Christchurch was only at the rate of forty-three. Now St. Saviour’s is supplied with water entirely by the Southwark and Vauxhall Company, and Christchurch is chiefly supplied by the Lambeth Company. The pipes and other property of the Lambeth Company, in the parish of Christchurch, are rated at about £316, whilst the property of the Southwark and Vauxhall Company in this parish is only rated at about £108. Waterloo Road, 1st part, suffered almost as much as St. Saviour’s in 1849, and had but a single death in 1853; it is supplied almost exclusively by the Lambeth Company. The sub-districts of Kent Road and Borough Road, which suffered severely from cholera, are supplied, through a great part of their extent, exclusively by the Southwark and Vauxhall Company; the supply of the Lambeth Company being intermingled with that of the other only in a part of these districts, as may be seen by consulting the accompanying map (No. 2). The rural districts of Wandsworth and Peckham contain a number of pump-wells, and are only partially supplied by the Water Company; on this account they suffered a lower mortality than the other sub-districts supplied with the water from Battersea Fields. In the three sub-districts to which this water does not extend, there was no death from cholera in 1853.
MAP 2.
THE NEW WATER SUPPLY OF THE LAMBETH COMPANY.
Although the facts shown in the above table afford very strong evidence of the powerful influence which the drinking of water containing the sewage of a town exerts over the spread of cholera, when that disease is present, yet the question does not end here; for the intermixing of the water supply of the Southwark and Vauxhall Company with that of the Lambeth Company, over an extensive part of London, admitted of the subject being sifted in such a way as to yield the most incontrovertible proof on one side or the other. In the sub-districts enumerated in the above table as being supplied by both Companies, the mixing of the supply is of the most intimate kind. The pipes of each Company go down all the streets, and into nearly all the courts and alleys. A few houses are supplied by one Company and a few by the other, according to the decision of the owner or occupier at that time when the Water Companies were in active competition. In many cases a single house has a supply different from that on either side. Each Company supplies both rich and poor, both large houses and small; there is no difference either in the condition or occupation of the persons receiving the water of the different Companies. Now it must be evident that, if the diminution of cholera, in the districts partly supplied with the improved water, depended on this supply, the houses receiving it would be the houses enjoying the whole benefit of the diminution of the malady, whilst the houses supplied with the water from Battersea Fields would suffer the same mortality as they would if the improved supply did not exist at all. As there is no difference whatever, either in the houses or the people receiving the supply of the two Water Companies, or in any of the physical conditions with which they are surrounded, it is obvious that no experiment could have been devised which would more thoroughly test the effect of water supply on the progress of cholera than this, which circumstances placed ready made before the observer.