Report of the Committee for Scientific Inquiries in relation to the cholera-epidemic of 1854.

Date:
1855
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report of the Committee for Scientific Inquiries in relation to the cholera-epidemic of 1854. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    47/132 (page 47)
    8i>- 4? along the digestive caaal multiplied to such swarms that they would be obvious to the most casual observe)-, both in the discharges of living patients and in the subsequent examination of the dead. So far as this argument renders it improbable that the metropolitan water-supply produced cholera by means of the infusorial life engendered in it, the conclusion is strengthened by further remarks of Dr. Hassall's : . Of the (living) organic products discovered in the waters examined, the great majority belonged to species which are known, and which have been long described in systematic works ; and since the greater number of these are present in these waters at nearly all seasons, and since they are, therefore, constantly consumed, it is clear that they are in no way concerned in the production of cholera;— the number of those, the names of which were not known or their nature undetermined, was not considerable; and of these there was no one common to all the waters obtained from cholera houses which could be supposed to be influential in any degree in the production of the epi- demic. ^ We do, however, attach very great importance to the tact, that nearly all the waters consumed in London, show a remarkable aptitude to develope low forms of animal and vegetable life; but this importance belongs, in our judgment, not to any direct influence exerted by such organisms on our own, but to the indications which their development affords that the waters wherein they grow are fraught with dead organic impurities. • Tlie admixture of decomposing organic matter in the water-supply of the metropolis being attested equally by chemical analysis and by the microscopical evidence just L nT /w not hesitate to speak of this contamination snrend 5 T.T^ ^^^ exercised great influence on the spread of cholera among the population. The oeneral history of this disease estabhshes its infinite preference fo M^^^^^^^ f-tid with organic impurity; Td it aS in ft. ^«^^'7%^.^ther any specific chemical changes aWe bv It ^ th r ' ll'^J''^' ^^^^^^^ ^^^it- SnVC o J,V^^;g.b«dy-such changes or such action ^^^ont^^^^^^^^ ^y^^^ admixtLire- I ^^ea S of^«f ^i^trict likewise the samp ^ff^ . ^ It '^'^ alteration, and to originate same effects, as those of the atmosphere around it. I