BRIEF HISTORY DURING THE SNOW ERA (1813-58)

Prisons are interesting sites for epidemiological studies since occupants remain in one location and exposure to various sources of water is easy to identify.  Dr. Snow made several observations about the occurrence of cholera in prisons during the epidemic of 1854.  He focused on deep well water versus water provided by various companies.  

FIRST COMMENTS

His first comments were about a prison and gaol (British variant of jail), south of the River Thames.

"... the Queen's Prison, Horsemonger Lane Gaol, and some other institutions, having deep wells on the premises, scarcely suffered at all from cholera in 1849, and there was no death in any of them during the part of the recent epidemic [1854] to which my inquiry extended.

- Snow, John. Communication of Cholera, 1855, p. 92 

SECOND COMMENTS

Snow's second comments were about Millbank Prison, Tothill Fields Prison and Newgate Prison, all north of the River Thames, and thus supplied by different sources of water.

"The water used in Millbank Prison, obtained from the Thames at Millbank [next to the prison], was filtered through sand and charcoal till it looked as clear as that of the Chelsea Company; yet, in every epidemic, the inmates of this prison suffered much more from cholera than the inhabitants of the neighboring streets and those of Tothill Fields Prison, supplied by that company. In 1849, there were forty-eight deaths from cholera in Milbank prison, amounting to 4.3 per cent, of the average number of prisoners. In Tothill Fields prison there were thirteen deaths among eight hundred prisoners, or 1.6 percent. The other prisons on the north side of the Thames are supplied either by the New River Company, or from pump-wells, and there was but one death from cholera in all of them; that death took place in Newgate [Prison].  In the early part of August last [1854], the use of the Thames water was entirely discontinued in Millbank Prison, and water from the Artesian well in Trafalgar Square was used instead, on the recommendation of Dr. Baly, the physician to the prison. In three or four days after this change, the cholera, which was prevailing to an alarming extent, entirely ceased."

- Snow, John. Communication of Cholera, 1855, p. 94