The cholera is not formidable yet in Western Europe, but
there are daily deaths from it ; and in Mecca, its usual Asiatic head-quarters, the scene now going on must be a frightful one. The deaths there have risen to a daily average of above six hundred, and according to a message from Jeddah, in the Times, which must, we should think, rest on information from the Consulate, the mortality on June 26th rose to 999. The water, in fact, is obviously poisoned with the disease. There are no doctors in Mecca, and no sanitary arrangements; the filth is indescribable; and the thronging crowds are all Mussulmans,—that is, men who think it posi- tively wrong to intercept the will of the Almighty by taking medical precautions. The pilgrims, worn-out, sick, and de- pressed, will carry the seeds of disease everywhere ; and we may have an alarming outburst in India, Egypt, and Con- stantinople all at once. There is no remedy except in the Khalif, and he would have to visit Mecca himself in order to effect a reform.
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