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    914 THE L^A39ER. [Saturday ,

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    THE CHOLERA IN ENGLAND. OFFICIAI", 1'RKC...

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    /Treat War Is At Hand Appears To Be The ...

    the leading Minister ought to be a military man and an obscure accomplice ; but he has been unable to restore any respectable character to that Government which is exiled frottj dttrStdck Exchange . The complexion of the new Ministry is as little easy for us to describe as it would be to define the character of the present Town Council of Little Peddlington .

    France , according to the most probable accounts , is making way downwards . The immense expenditure of the Government , to feed and amuse the people , is attended by its natural consequence , a great deficit in the Exchequer . The Emperor , it is said , is bent upon peace ; but really it would seem probable that war would open to him one

    release from his home difficulties , by affording a good pretext for a loan j and if it were well contrived , with a fair prospect of a real alliance between France and England , and with some sort of prospective guarantee upon the future resources of France , by conquest or otherwise , a loan would not be unlikelv to take in London .

    Indeed , conquest might be turned to good account . Why should not foreign legions be paid with the lands of Russia or of Austria ? " Land orders" ' of that kind might find a market , as soon as we are fairly at work . At home , trade is undergoing the severe crisis which we have explained , and grave apprehensions are now entertained that , before our mercantile men can make both ends meet , or reconcile the

    conflict between ever-rising wages and expiring profits , some of them must go to the wall . Now , we believe they are reaping the effects of not having established , in quiet times , a better understanding with their hands , by a more genial and frank intercourse with their workpeople ^ We have seen how moderate and forbearing the working classes can be , if they are treated with consideration and candour .

    The great mill-owners might become really " Lords , " and take the place of our effete aristocracy , if they would but use the opportunities of their station to win the affection and confidence of those amongst whom they reside . Such festivals as those given by Mr . Salt , at Saltaire , near Bradford , are , in the true and noble sense , aristocratic displays of factory munificence , and they do good ; how much might be done , with even less cost , by ordinary candour and kindness in every day life !

    Ihc report from China , that the tea trade is stopped at Fou-Chou , is as little unexpected as the report of famine at Pegu . It was well understood that the truce proposed by the Court of Ava was solely to serve its own purposes of trade , and we arc as certain to pay for it , as our teapot is to suffer at first for the religious zeal of the Chinese Christians . The teapot however i . s not so precious as the loaf ; and the continued assurances that our harvest will not be worse than it was reckoned to be a few weeks back , with a certainty of ample supplies abroad , more than compensate for a few cargoes of tea stopped at Fou-Chou .

    The most gloomy fact is the general spread of the Cholera ; at present , however , in isolated spots about the country . The authorities , central and local , are active ; but the crying defect is want of power . Everybody is telling somebody else what to do , at the same time that everybody is very much inclined to rebel against " centralizing "

    orders ; and we have , this time , to pay for the neglect in setting our house in order legislatively and administratively , according to common sense . Many of the deaths have now to pay the penalty of that neglect ; and if , after so many warnings , we repeat these murders , we ought to erase from our titles the rank and nnme of n " civilized " people .

    914 The L^A39er. [Saturday ,

    914 THE L ^ A 39 ER . [ Saturday ,

    The Cholera In England. Officiai", 1'Rkc...

    THE CHOLERA IN ENGLAND . OFFICIAI " , 1 ' RKCAUTTONfl . Tiru following official notification of tlu » presence of tluj Cholora in England has boon issued by the Board of Health : —

    " In this widespread course it has everywhere overleaped the barriers which quarantine has erected to stay its progress ; and where this means of protection has been most rigidly enforced , it has not only disappointed the expectation of those who have relied upon it as a safeguard , often to the neglect and exclusion of the most important precautions , but has aggravated the evils of the pestilence , and added disastrous consequences of its own . " The experience already obtained of this pestilence at Newcastle , Gateshead , and Hexham , is decisive , that where the conditions are favourable to its localisation and development , as in the case in these towns , the disease has lost nothing of its former virulence . Tn the two former , indeed , the severity of the disease , as far as it has yet extended , has greatly exceeded that of any former visitation , and it has attacked in all those places , as it has abroad , a much larger proportion of the middle and higher classes .

    " General BoarcTIof Health ; Whitehall , Sept . 20 , 1853 . " It is the painful ditty of the General Board of Health to notify a third vMwition of the epidemic cholera . This disease again , first breaking out in Persia ^ has extended within the predisrit ; year over a large portion of Russia ; stretching as far northwards as Archangel , on the shores of the Arctic Ocean ; it has ravaged Denmark , Norway , end Sweden , and then developing itself in the north of Germany , it ha 3 attacked Stettin , Berlin , Rotterdam , and Hamburg ; and subsequently it has appeared in England , again breaking out , on its north-east coast , in the near neighbourhood of the town in which it made its first appearance in this country in 1831 .

    " It is deeply to be lamented that the interval between the last visitation of this pestilence and the present , has not been generally employed in effecting a larger amount of improvement in our cities and towns . From such inspections as the General Board have recently been enabled to make of the state of populous districts , the former seats of the disease , in apprehension of its reappearance , they are compelled to state that there are extensive districts , and even entire towns , in which no perceptible improvement of any kind has been effected . On the other hand , there are instances in which , even where no general permanent works of improvement have been effected , better supplies of water , extensive flagging and paving , more frequent scavenging , and a more active removal of nuisances in epidemic localities have been accomplished . 1

    Combined and permanent works , involvingelaborate engineering measures , capable of remedying the neglect of years , cannot be effected in a few weeks- But the consciousness of past neglect should stimulate to immediate and resolute exertion , that all which the time requires , and which can be done , may be done . The results in some instances , even of limited and partial improvements , are highly encouraging . During the present epidemic in Hamburg , which has now been prevailing upwards of six weeks , only six cases of cholera have occurred in the improved parts of the town ; and during the whole of the epidemic in the metropolis in 1849 , not a single case of cholera occurred in any one of the model dwellings for the poor , oocupied by similar classes of the population , though the pestilence raged in the districts in which , these buildings are situated , and there were instances of two and even four deaths in single houses close to their walls .

    " Even in towns in which the greatest amount of improvement has been effected , and in which works under the Public Health Act are most advanced , much remains to bo done , and may bo done . Local Boards of Health are invested , under the Public Health Act , with ample powers of cleansing , for the removal of nuisances , for preventing the carrying on of unwholesome or noxious trades in such a manner as to injure health , for preventing tho occupation of cellars as dwelling-houses , unices under

    certain conditions ; for preventing the occupation oi any dwelling-house which , on the certificate of an officer of health , shall appear to bo in such a filthy and unwholesome stato as to endanger tho health of any portion , until such house shall have boon properly and effectually whitewashed , cleansed , and purified j and for administering tho Common Lodging Houses Act , tho provisions of which are most important . All thoso powers should bo exercised at tho present juncturo with extraordinary activity , vigilance , and

    stringency" But though it may be needful to prosecute tho work of cleansing more vigorously than in ordinary periods , yet it should bo done under supervision and with extraordinary care . In rornoving accumulations of filth , precautions should ho taken for disinfection and for preventing tho increase of noxious evaporation . Tho contents of foul drains , sowers , and ditches , should in no case bo spread upon tho surface , nnd no large accumulation of filth should bo removed , excepting under tho direction of a medical oflioor . Tho escape of noxious ellluvia in far more clangorous in an epidemic than in an ordinary season . " Tho evil of overcrowding , no general not only in common lodginghouses , but in tenements of all descriptions occupied by tho pooror classes , especially by tho Irish , an evil prevenl . iblo and , to a considerable extent , removeuble , . should bo at once , and by all practicable meant ) , reduced .

    " Wherever local boards of health exist , they should in all eases co-oporato with tho hoards of guardians , and it in believed that tho boards of guardians will , on their part , eo-oponito with local boards . Tho existing meant ) for tho extraordinary service now rnquirod are divided amongst independent , local juriu < lictionH ; modieal otlicern in Knghuul and Wales being under boards of guardians ; works of sewage and cleansing in towns , not under tho J ' ublie lloalth Act , being under town commissioners acting under local acts ; and tho enforcement of orders required for tho public Hnrvico being with tho magistrates or municipal authorities . It in confidently expected that n common fooling will give precedence ) to tho branch of Horvico specially needed ^ on thin occasion , and ensuro that unity of action which it is the main object of the rules and regulations issued herewith to authorize and promote for the common object . " lOxporionco has shown that , in tho caao of tho actual outbreak of tho epidemic tho cliiof inoaauroa to bo rolied

    on for checking its spread are those which prevent over , crowding , remove persons from affected houses , and brin ** the infected population under prompt and proper treat mentduring the premonitory stage of the disease . During the epidemic of 1849 , an organization for . effecting these objects was brought into operation , the main parts of which were the establishment of a system of house-to house visitation , the opening of dispensaries and houses of refuge in affected ^ districts for the gratuitous supply of medicines , the establishment of houses of refuge for tho reception of such indigent persons as appeared to be in imminent danger , resident in the most filth y and overcrowded houses , the provision of temporary hospitals for the reception of those who could not be properly treated at their homesand in instances

    own , some the supply of tents for the removal of the most susceptible and destitute classes to a distance from infected localities . The . result of this system was , that out of 130 , 000 premonitory cases brought under its operation , no fewer than 6000 of which were on the point of passing into the developed stage , only 250 went into the collapsed stage of cholera or 1 in 520 . But of the 43 , 737 cases under visitation in the metropolis , including 978 cases on the point of passing into tho collapsed stage of cholera , only 52 actuall y did so , —not 1 in 800 ; so that taking together the general result of this extended experience , it appears that the proportion of cases under early treatment which passe d from the premonitory into the developed stage varied firom 1 in 600 to 1 in 800 .

    " No doubt is now entertained of the efficacy of thia system , or of the duty of local authorities to carry it into effect on the very first appearance of this disease in an epidemic form ; and , as none ^ can tell where or how suddenly the pestilence may alight , it is the duty of local authorities to be prepared for the emergency before its arrival . Preparation will be attended with little cost ; the power to act with promptitude and efficiency when the necessity for action arises will be attended with a great economy of money as well as of life . " With reference to those precautions against the disease -which each individual may take for himself , or the heads of families or establishments for those under their

    charge , the first in importance are personal and household cleanliness , and the freest ventilation of living and sleeping rooms with pure air ; the purity of the air we breathe being even more essential than the wholesomeness of food and drink . " When the disease has actually broken out and becoma epidemic in any district or locality , then the one essential precaution is not to neglect for a single hour any degree of looseness of bowels . This symptom being commonly without pain , and so slight that it is difficult to conceive that it can be of the smallest consequence , naturally leads to neglect , and this neglect has cost the lives of thousands . Were any additional proof of this required it would be found in the events that are now occurring at Newcastle and Gateshead ; all the medical men there bear testimony that premonitory diarrhoea is all but universal , and that life depends on instant attention to this symptom .

    " Thus , one physician says , ' He has never yet seen a case without premonitory symptoms ; ' another states , 'He has found in a great number of instances , where the men said they had been first seized with collapse , there had been neglected diarrhoea for 24 , or even 48 hours or longer ; ' another declares , ' In all cases of collapse investigated , it is found there had been neglected diarrhoea . Even in the cases in which death takes place with the greatest rapidity , tho suddenness is apparent only , not real ; for tho fatal collapse is the final but gradual result of diarrhoea neglected for several hours , and sometimes tor entire days . It must , then , bo repeated , that in any district in which cholera ia ep idemic , lifo may depend on obtaining prompt and proper relief for painless and apparently trilling looseness of tho bowels . in relates

    " the mcasuro of precaution next importance to the proper regulation of tho diet . Great moderation both of food and drink , is absolutely essential to salety during tho whole duration of tho epidemic period ; an at of indiscretion has been often followed by a sovere ; attacK , intemperance at such a time is fraught with the . mow extremo danger . During the epidemic of 184 ., J'IUU and fatal attacks of tho disease followed ™ 1 * ' < K tho indulgence of habits of drinking after tho > W »{ P * jJ weekly wages . Tho intervals between the inenla BUom not be lorfg ; cholera being uniformly found to preva with extraordinary intensity among tho classes t ^ f ^ the protracted fasts common in eastern and sonio ^ i" v countries . . i .. njrainst " Tho utmost practicable caro should bo taicon h . ^ fatiguo , which is a very powerful predisposing cau 8 ^ disease . Employers and persons engaged raj ^ occupations should endeavour , as far as poss ui ,. . , arrange tho amount and time of work , as to avoid P y

    exhaustion . "Dunn" " )" " Warm clothing is of groat imp ortance . " f t ] iat present epidemic in Hamburg , it has uco ^ incautious exposure to cold nnd damp has di oi j , attack aa rapidly as improper food or exceas . ^ tho caution against damp in . rendered tloulily Jiri * filUiecl an peculiarity of tho present season . UmR " » ' d tho excessive ruins have , in many place " , , ' j io W . ly i » g ground with moisture , especially undramwi u c () nti , u 0 Urt distnetn , plneing , in many instances , ''"" „ * , arai " *? ' to towns , and beyond tho usual raugo oi i" tion 9 urisalmoHfc in tho condition of marshes . J - ° . , wfltor , holding ing from a surface thus saturated often w"iw « ^ ^ decomposing matter in solution , Bjproaj i i » ^ ncdi ^ afreet tho inhabitants , howovorwol ¦ droincu , ^ 90 sites of tho towns may bo . ' ^« "CnHivcly I ' rodUC ° apprehensive that disease would bo ° y ^ , "' portion «' by thin unusual and dangerous state oi a b ubBoqU ont » y tho country ( an apprehension whwn w character realized by tho breaking out ot disease »» gj lion , issonj to cholerafin sixty towns ) , that in ^ J ^ l au **!* £ in . December , 1859 , they represented to w for adBJ i »» - thut thia calamity afforded a special occasion

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Sept. 24, 1853, page 2, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_24091853/page/2/