A municipal note observes that the wards in which the largest number of public taps have been sunk are also the wards with the fewest cases of stomach illness, and concludes that a household drawing its water from a public tap is less likely to fall ill than one that does not. The note's reasoning is most open to criticism because it

The figures pair a ward with a ward; the conclusion pairs a household with a household, and the two need not agree. Taps may have been sunk in the better-off wards, whose piped households stay well while the few families at the taps fall ill as often as ever — and every ward figure would look precisely as it does. The number of taps per ward is exactly what the note relies on and would not mend the step; under-reporting would have to be shown, and would tell against the figures rather than against this move; and the note generalises from wards to households, not from some wards to the town.