Pitched Unfairly

The Parish of St James, WestminsterCustomer story · Soho, 1854

Our outbreak, traced to one pump in eight days.

Partner: Dr John Snow, physician and anaesthetist

  • 616deaths in Dr Snow's table
  • 8days, outbreak to handle off
  • 0of 70 brewery men died
Handle removed, Fri 8 Sept

The customer

A crowded Soho parish where a whole street drank from one pump.

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The problem

Within a week, cholera killed nearly one in ten on Broad Street.

500+
fatal attacks in ten days, within 250 yards of one corner
Hours
from first symptom to death, for most
3 in 4
residents of the worst streets fled within six days
90 of 896 residents died plus 28 who worked on the street

What everyone tried first

We inspected everything. Nothing explained the edge.

The deaths stopped at a sharp line on every side. Soil, drains and air don't keep to a line.

Inspection of the infected district

  1. Elevation of siteNo explanation
  2. Soil and subsoilNo explanation
  3. Streets and courtsNo explanation
  4. Density of populationNo explanation
  5. Cesspools, drains, sewerageMuch to condemn. No explanation
  6. The well, chemical and microscopeNothing peculiar found
  7. The well, Paving Board, 27 Nov 1854Free from any fissures
Inconclusive

The approach

One doctor, one register, and one question at every door: which pump?

  1. Sun 3 Sept Tests the pump water Little visible impurity. He keeps asking.
  2. That week Copies the death register 83 deaths in three days, at the General Register Office
  3. Door to door Asks each household 61 of 73 nearby deaths drank Broad Street water
  4. Thu 7 Sept, evening Briefs the Board of Guardians One meeting, one recommendation
  5. Fri 8 Sept Handle removed The next day

The evidence

Plot every death, and one pump sits in the middle.

359 of 578 deaths sit closer to Broad Street than to any other pump

Broad St pump Pump Death After Snow, 1855 · data: HistData

The evidence

The brewery's 70 men never drank from the pump. Not one of them died.

WhoPeopleDiedWhat they drank
The breweryBroad Street, beside the pump 70 men 0 ?Beer, and its own deep well
The workhousePoland Street, ringed by deaths 535 inmates 5 ?Its own pump-well
The cap factory37 Broad Street About 200 workers 18 ?Two tubs kept filled from the pump
A widowHampstead, miles away 3 drank it 2 ?A bottle from the pump, by daily cart

The evidence

Four in five who fell ill drank the pump water. Of those who stayed well, one in six.

House-to-house survey of Broad Street by the Rev. Henry Whitehead, for the parish, 1855

80%

Fell ill 80 of 100 drank from the pump

17%

Stayed well 57 of 336 drank from the pump

Drank the Broad Street water Did not Survey by the Rev. Henry Whitehead, for the parish, 1855

The result

The handle came off on 8 September. New cases had already fallen by nine tenths.

"The attacks had so far diminished ... that it is impossible to decide whether the well still contained the cholera poison in an active state."

Dr John Snow, 1855, on his own result
8 Sept 12 fatal attacks that day Handle off today
Handle off 143 on 1 Sept 100 50

What it took

Five days to the handle. Twelve years to convince.

Time to the handle
5 days
Meetings
1 evening
Parts removed
1 handle
Residents interviewed after
Nearly 500
Inquiry committee
16 people
The 5 days 1855Board of Health: "less to the water than the air"1858Dr Snow dies at 45, still in the minority1866William Farr comes round after East London
Sept 18541866

In the customer's words

Our curate set out to clear the pump. He proved Snow right.

Spring 1855

The same policy which had long used the Thames for a sewer, had at least in one case made a cesspool of a well.

40 Broad Street, facing the pump: a baby girl, five months old, fell ill on 28 August. Her nappies were rinsed into a cesspool two feet eight inches from the well.

Rev. Henry Whitehead Curate, St Luke's, Berwick Street · Macmillan's Magazine, 1865