giving signs of illness in them. In 1854, for example, a young lawyer went from Munich to Darmstadt, where his father resided. Up to that time the father had never lived out of Darmstadt, and Darmstadt was as free from cholera as Hampstead, and the distance from Munich was much greater than Hampstead from Broad Street. The lawyer was as well in health as Mr. Eley had been, but the lawyer's father fell ill and died of cholera. There was no other factor in the case than the return of the son from Munich. Darmstadt enjoyed an immunity from cholera as great as that of Lyons, Versailles, Stuttgart, and many other large cities. In 1854 a workman went home from the Exhibition of Munich to Darmstadt, where he fell ill and died of cholera without the disease being spread to any other house, and no means for disinfection or isolation had been adopted. In 1866 Prussian troops were quartered in Darmstadt, and brought the cholera with them. About thirty of the soldiers became ill with cholera, and many of them succumbed; again, none of the inhabitants of Darmstadt had the disease. It must be admitted that Mrs. Eley might have been infected through the intercommunication of her son, just as the lawyer's father had been, without the intervention of drinking-water. The argument in favor of the drinking-water theory rests on the fact that the cholera ceased when the supply of water was cut off; but no notice was taken of the great majority of cases in which the water-springs were not closed, and the supply of water not cut off, and yet the epidemics came to an end. Again, in Broad Street the pump-handle was not taken off till September 8th. Now, an examination of the facts will show that the cholera was already subsiding. In Broad Street, on August 31st, there were thirty-one cases of cholera; on September 1st, one hundred and thirty-one cases; on the 2d, one hundred and twenty-five; on the 3d, fifty-eight; on the 4th, fifty-two; on the 5th, twenty-six; on the 6th, twenty-eight; on the 7th, twenty-two; and on the 8th, fourteen. Just as occurs in India and elsewhere, a violent epidemic generally subsides rapidly.
The further one investigates the drinking-water theory the more and more improbable does it appear. Robert Koch, too, the famous bacteriologist, has hitherto failed to substantiate the drinking-water theory, and I feel convinced that the time is not far distant when he will own that he has gone in the wrong direction. Koch has succeeded in finding the comma bacillus in a water-tank in a region where cholera was prevalent. I have the greatest respect for this important discovery, not as a solution of the cholera question, but only as a very promising field for pathological, not epidemiological, inquiry. It must be remembered that cholera was already prevalent in the neighborhood of the water-tank from which Koch obtained the bacillus. Now, this tank was used not only for drinking purposes, but also for bathing the person and washing clothes, as Koch himself admits. According to my view the comma bacillus must have been present in the water. It
