“8. Had you an attack of cholera in 1849? Yes. A very sharp attack.
“9. What was the state of the water supply in 1849? In 1848 and 1849 the town was but partially supplied with water, and some of the large suburbs, such as Charleston, were not supplied with the town’s water. Charleston was supplied with water from wells. There was one well that belonged to Baille Smith, which supplied a large quadrangle of buildings; that well was at the bottom of an incline, surmounted by buildings on all sides except one. Those wells took a supply from the surface. They were surrounded by dung-pits, and the wells imbibed the impurities of the dung-pits. I took occasion to warn the people of the district not to use water from the wells, but to get the town’s water. I recommended the authorities to open pipes connected with the town’s water, and to supply Charleston with pure water; and very soon after that was done the cholera disappeared from that district. At the last threatened visitation of cholera, in 1866, the Sanitary Committee took the precaution to remove all the handles from the pumps, and they had the wells shut up.
“10. Do you think there is a direct connection between the water supplied to a town and the propagation of cholera? I believe that there is a very intimate connection between the use of impure water and the propagation of cholera; and the proper antidote to that is a free and unrestricted supply of pure water.”
In Calcutta the yearly death rates from cholera averaged nearly 4,000 from 1841 to 1870. When water-works were introduced the rate of deaths were:
| 1870 | 1,560 | 1872 | 1,068 | |
| 1871 | 790 | 1873 | 1,134 |
The famous Broad Street pump, in London, in 1848, killed 500 persons in a single week.
In 1866 many deaths occurred from the use of water from a famous pump in Brooklyn. All trouble was brought to an end when the health officers removed the handle.
Typhoid fever and diarrhea are universally traced to impure water, and numerous examples can be given that were directly due to this cause. The enterprising town of Rugby, on the Cincinnati Southern Railroad, furnished us with a case of this nature. In Millbank Prison, England, typhoid fever was especially fatal until the year 1854, when the supply was taken from an artesian well in Trafalgar Square, instead of the Thames; and immediately thereafter, and up to April, 1872, a period of eighteen years, there have been only three deaths from typhoid fever.
CHAPTER II.
RIVER POLLUTION.
This subject is possibly most interesting to Cincinnati, because of its direct application to our source. River water is next to the most suspicious of waters, and the character is the bone of contention among scientists. Just how far and how much sewage may be admitted, and what influences are exerted to destroy it, are interesting discussions, part of which we have quoted.