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Vital statistics are sources of reliable information; and from them we can learn more of the propagation or dissemination of certain diseases through the water supply, and the relation of water to health. The cholera epidemics of Great Britain exhibit striking examples.

The following are tabulations from the Rivers Pollution Commission Report, 1874:

LONDON. YEAR. CHARACTER OF WATER. MORTALITY. RATE PER 10,000. 1832 Polluted 5,275 31.4 1849 Very much polluted 14,137 61.8 1854 Less polluted 10,738 42.9 1866 Much less polluted 5,596 18.4

Between the years 1849 and 1854, the water supply was much improved by removal of intakes to purer sources.

The area of intense cholera of 1866 was confined within the limits of the foul or unfiltered water supply by the East London Company; and, when notified and stopped the rate of deaths immediately decreased. It was almost exactly the area of this particular water supply, nearly if not absolutely filling it, and scarcely at all reaching beyond it.

MANCHESTER AND SALFORD. YEAR. CHARACTER OF WATER. NUMBER OF DEATHS. 1832 Used polluted water 890 1849 Used polluted water 1,115 1854 Used pure water 50 1866 Used pure water 88

In 1851 the new supply of unpolluted upland-surface water was introduced in place of shallow wells.