Instance of Albion-terrace, Wandsworth-road.

Dr. Milroy has given anotlier important report relative to one of the most severe outbreaks of cholera that occurred in the metropolis, namely, that of Albion-terrace, Wand.sworth-road. This place consists of 17 houses, letting for 50/. and 60Z. a year, and having the appearance of commodious, comfortable dwellings ; calculating seven persons to each house, the total population would amount to about 120 persons. The first case of cholera took place on July 28, 1849, at No. 13 ; and up to August 12, no fewer than 42 cases occurred, of which 30, or 71'4 per cent., proved fatal. It is evident that there must have been some unusual circumstances to explain this awful mortality ; and the information obtained by Dr. Milroy shows very unequivocally what these circumstances were.

" About 200 yards in the rear of the Terrace is an open black ditch, known as the 'sewer in Battersea fields,' and which receives the drainage from Clapham, Streatham, and Brixton HiU. The inmates of se\-eral of the houses complain of ofltnsive effluvia perceived in their gai'dens behind when the wind sets in a particular direction. But it would seem that there is a source of foul exhalations much nearer the dwellings than tliis black ditch. In almost every house the servants complain of a stench in diifercnt parts of the kitchen floor, and more especially over the sink in the back kitchen

Cholera at Albion-terrace.

57 This nuisance, always present to a greater or less clegi-ee, became much worse immediately after the heavy storm of rain on the 2(>th of July, and at the very same time the water was found to be not only muddy, but positi\'ely fetid, so that it was utterly unfit for use. " Besides the efPects of the late storm, already noticed, a drain or server which crosses the Wandsworth-road, and passes under No. 8, burst open on the evening of the 2()th ult., and inundated the whole of the lower pre- mises of that and of the adjoining house, No. 9, with its black and fetid contents. Tlie cellai's of these houses are stiU damp and ofiFensi\'e. "There was another most pernicious som'ce of insalubrity that is still more to be deplored, seeing that it might have been so easily prevented. I allude to an enormous accumulation of most oifensive rubbish in a cellar of No. 13. It appears that this accumulation must have been going on for 18 months or a couple of years at least, as, when removed on the 30th or 31st ult., it amounted to seven or eight cartloads of what is described as a most disgust- ing compound, swarming with maggots, and exhaling a putrid elflu\ium. '• It was at this house, No. 13, that the first case of the fatal disease occurred on the 2Sth of July, in one of the ser^'ants, who had been aifected for a day or two pre\'iously with diarrhoea, and had not attended to it. Her sistei', who had come from the countiy to nurse her, was seized a few days afterwards, and also died. Most of the members of the family were affected with diaiThoea; they had gone to the country, and the house was deserted. About the same time, the disease began to manifest itself in other houses of the Terrace, and in many instances with terrible \Trulence. The entire household of No. 6 has been swept away." The nature of the water-supply is very important. Oa this Dr. Milroy remarks — " The whole of the underground arrangements for the supply of water to, and the removal of the di-ainage from, the houses was found to be most faulty and imperfect. The suspicion expressed in my former Report that the water-tanks or cisterns and the cesspools were in close proximity to each other, and that the water in the former had become contaminated mth the contents of the latter after th

The nature of the water-supply is very important. Oa this Dr. Milroy remarks — " The whole of the underground arrangements for the supply of water to, and the removal of the di-ainage from, the houses was found to be most faulty and imperfect. The suspicion expressed in my former Report that the water-tanks or cisterns and the cesspools were in close proximity to each other, and that the water in the former had become contaminated mth the contents of the latter after the hea-\fy storm of rain on July 26, proved on examination to be correct."

Influence of Graveyards. — The influence exerted by graveyards in the development of cholera is intimately connected with the point under consideration ; but a special Report having been already published by the General Board on the subject of extramural sepulture, it will not be necessary to refer to it in the present document. It may, however, be observed, that abundant evidence has been collected, especially by Dr. Milroy, to prove that in the metropolis the most oifensive putrid effluvia escape from the burial-grounds; that these are predisposing causes of disease, and especially of fever, disturbance of the alimentary canal, and of various affections depending upon a poisoned condition of the blood, and that in the houses immediately adjoining these places cholera was observed to prevail. It is known that a most distinguished surgeon, whose valuable life fell a sacrifice to the late epidemic, resided in a house, the back windows of which looked directly into a graveyaixl ; that he was much in the habit of sitting at these windows when opened ; that he had complaiilcd to his servant several times shortly before his attack of the offensive smell proceeding from the burial-ground, in which some cholera corpses had been interred ; and that on tiie very day of the fiital seizure a grave had noxious been dug wliicli attracted his attention as having,increased the efHuvia.

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