Cholera in relation to certain physical phenomena : a contribution towards the special enquiry sanctioned by the Right Hon. the Secretaries of State for War and for India / by T.R. Lewis and D.D. Cunningham.

  • Timothy Richards Lewis
Date:
1878
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Cholera in relation to certain physical phenomena : a contribution towards the special enquiry sanctioned by the Right Hon. the Secretaries of State for War and for India / by T.R. Lewis and D.D. Cunningham. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    mother died shortly afterwards; the dog alone recovered. The State ordered an enquiry to he held, as it was scarcely conceivable that the deaths could be attri- buted to an escape of gas, as no pipes were connected with the house. That gas could get into the room, however, was shown by analysis of the air which it contained, and after minute investigation it turned out that gas was escaping through an imperfectly fitting plug of one of the main pipes which had been sunk about a yard below the surface (in earth of an alluvial nature), and 15 feet 7 inches removed from the room in which the poor people had slept. The gas had been aspired into the room instead of escaping into the street, for the air of the room at night had been warmer than the air outside. The importance of bearing observations of tills kind in mind in connection with attempts at tracing to their source foul emanations from covered sewers and other unwholesome sub-soil recesses and tracts is too obvious to require spe- cial note. It is in this light that, as we understand it, Dr. von Pettenkofer suggests that the relation of soil-influences should be studied, and urges that it is abso- lutely necessary that each locality should be studied for itself at different times, seeing that constant variations take place not only in the generating power -of the soil, but also in its porosity, or, in other words, in its capacity for permitting any noxious elements which it might contain to mingle with the upper air. A layer of asphalt beneath the flooring of that gas-infected house would doubt- less have prevented the occurrence of poisoning, as would, possibly equally well, a layer of wet clay. With this brief summary of our conception of the learned Professor’s views, we pass on to draw attention to the epitome of the Water-Level Registers [Tables I to VII at the end of tins paper] which have been kept in Bengal during the last seven years. Some of the returns we have been obliged to leave out of the tables, owing to obvious and irremediable inaccuracies, due, probably in great part, to misconcep- tion on the part of the observers as to the precise nature of the information required. Some other returns which were also manifestly incorrect we have been able in some degree to rectify, especially such of them as presented inverse readings of the fluctuations of the water-level. These have been marked with an asterisk in the tables. It will be observed, also, that at some of the stations observations have been made only during very short periods. These have, how- ever, been put on record, as they may, perchance, be of use to future observers Tables of Water-Level Registers.
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