s imply a regular
organization, and it is to the public health service of Great Britain
that the complete mastery of cholera has mainly been due in recent
years, and particularly in 1893. Of sanitary conditions the most
important is unquestionably the water-supply. So many irrefragable
proofs of this fact were given during 1892-1893 that it is no longer
necessary to refer to the time-honoured case of the Broad Street pump.
At Samarkand three regiments were encamped side by side on a level plain
close to a stream of water. The colonel of one regiment took
extraordinary precautions, placing a guard over the river, and
compelling his men to use boiled water even for washing. Not a single
case of cholera occurred in that regiment, while the others, in which
only ordinary precautions were taken, lost over 100 men. At Askabad the
cholera had almost disappeared, when a banquet was given by the governor
in honour of the tsar's name-day. Of the guests one-half died within
twenty-four hours; a military band, which was present, lost 40 men out
of 50; and one regiment lost half its men and 9 officers. Within
forty-eight hours 1300 persons died out of a total population of about
13,000. The water supply came from a small stream, and just before the
banquet a heavy rain-storm had occurred, which swept into the stream all
surface refuse from an infected village higher up and some distance from
the banks. But the classical example was Hamburg. The water-supply is
obtained from the Elbe, which became infected by some means not
ascertained. The drainage from the town also runs into the river, and
the movement of the tide was sufficient to carry the sewage matter up
above the water-intake. The water itself, which is no cleaner than that
of the Thames at London Bridge, underwent no purification whatever
before distribution. It passed through a couple of ponds, supposed to
act as settling tanks, but owing to the growth of the town and increased
demand for water it was pumped through too rapidly to permit of any
subsidence. Eels and other fish constantly found their way into the
houses, while the mains were lined with vegetation and crustacea. The
water-pipes of Hamburg had a peculiar and abundant fauna and flora of
their own, and the water they delivered was commonly called
_Fleischbruehe_, from its resemblance to thick soup. On the other hand,
at Altona, which is continuous with Hamburg, the water was filtered
through sand. In all other res