supplied with this water, into which not only all the filth of the boats
goes, but many sewers empty.

I agree with all that is generally said about civic filth favoring the
spread of cholera, but it does not generate, but only supplies the
pabulum for the germs. I believe as long as the Croton water is kept pure
there can be no general outbreak of cholera in New York, only isolated
cases, or at most a few in each house, and those only into which
diarrhoeal cases come, or soiled clothes are brought; that it will not
spread even to the next house, and that there are no pandemic waves of
cholera.

I think it impossible to pump New York dock water into the sewers, and
that it would be very injurious if it could be done. Almost all our
sewers empty into the docks, and the water there is of the foulest kind.
I do not believe in a long quarantine, and think that of the Dutch is the
best. They only detained the sick, but took the addresses of all who were
let through, or kept back all their soiled clothing, which they had
washed, disinfected, and sent after their owners in three days.

St. Louis still has 20,000 privy pits and as many surface wells. The
importation of cholera into St. Louis is well proved for 1832, 1848,
1849, 1854, 1866, and 1873. Those who used surface well water suffered
much more than those who drank Mississippi water, however foul that may
have been. The history of cholera in St. Louis has been better and more
accurately written up quite lately by Mr. Robert Moore, civil engineer,
than that of any city in this country. He has kindly given me maps of the
city, with every case marked down, with street and number, for all the
epidemic.