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to the higher parts of the town by engine power,' but the pumping engine broke down on August 1st, after which date no water was drawn from the new well, the supply being from the old well to both the high and low services of the town till 17th August.
"On that day, the water which had been stored in the new reservoir (from the new well) was distributed to the high-service houses of the town: 'it was distributed on no other day, and to no other houses.' Now, it turns out that all the houses first attacked with typhoid fever in the beginning of September had received water from this reservoir; and, without giving detailed statistics, it is sufficient to state that of the 150 cases occurring in the fortnight from August 28 to September 10 there were hardly a dozen persons attacked 'who had not had daily and hourly access to the water of the high service… Dr. Buchanan considers the outbreak was due to impure water supply.
Further source of impurity in water supply suggested, viz., the communication between Water Company's pipes and river (Wey), which is greatly contaminatedDr. Buchanan was unable, on careful and detailed inquiry, to find any condition at all coincident with the outbreak of the fever, save that of the water supply.
"But Dr. Buchanan suggests a possible further source of impurity in the water supply. 'There exists a communication between the river and the pipes of the waterworks. This is said to be very rarely used, and only for the purpose of getting a first sucking power to the pumps; and it is stated not to have been used at all during the present summer.' Whether this latter averment be true or not, is immaterial now, but with the story of the East London cholera outbreak fresh in our remembrance, we cannot but protest against the power thus left in the hands of the water engineer to throw at any moment into the service mains the water of a river so contaminated as the Wey at Guildford must, of necessity, be.
"In country towns and outlying hamlets, the poisoned water spring saps the vigour of the population, and swells, to a degree much greater than is generally supposed, the death-rate of the whole country"
The Outbreak of Fever at Terling, Essex.
8th February, 1868.
The Lancet, with extracts from Report of Dr. Thorne of the Medical Department of the Privy Council on the Terling Fever of 1867-8."The lengthened inquiry of Dr. Thorne, the medical inspector sent down to Terling by the Medical Department of the Privy Council Office, has been brought to a close.
