i4r ubIir Taralt4.
The General Board of Health have published a statement on the cho- lera. Although there has been a general subsidence of the disease, and in England it has nowhere recently assumed an epidemic character, yet " there has been no day in which cases of disease have not occurred in different parts of the country." But the cold and frost have at present checked its progress. The only exception, perhaps, to this general statement, is the case of Redruth in Cornwall. There, a very severe outbreak has recently oc- curred; and there the disease is still prevailing, " chiefly in the same streets and houses it ravaged in 1849."
"Out of a population of about 11,000, there have occurred from September 28th to December 23d, from cholera, 41 deaths; from scarlet fever, measles, and hooping cough, within the quarter, 47 deaths; and from other dispaera, 52 deaths ; making a total of 140 deaths, being in the proportion of 52 in 1000. In one dirty court, containing 53 inhabitants, there have been 21 at- tacks of cholera and diarrhoea. So filthy were certain parts of the town, and so thoroughly did they present the appearance now so well known to be favourable to the development of oholera, that one of the medical prac- titioners pointed out as in imminent danger three or four of the localities that have been the most severely visited during the present epidemic, three weeks or more before the outbreak took place. Unfortunately, as in the majority of other places, little was done to ameliorate their condition till the disease actually broke out." Some extracts from the report of Dr. Waller Lewis, Health Inspector, sufficiently account for the disease and deaths. Here is one : the place is called Back Lane: the narrator is an elder daughter- " 'My father, Henry Mitchell, a miner, lost his life three months since, by an accident under-ground. My mother took ill of cholera one morning last week, and died the same night; she had had a bowel complaint three or four days before. One of my sisters was very ill with the complaint, but re- covered ; my brother died of measles a fortnight ago ; another brother is just getting over the measles. There are seven of us sleep in the bedroom.' There is a little garden at the back of this cottage, with no means of enter- ing it, h3wever, but by a little window 2 feet by 16 inches ; this reaches to the ceiling, and is 4 feet at the bottom from the floor, having no privy or convenience of any kind : when they want to go out, the elder girls mount upon the table, by means of which they make their exit through the win- dow into the garden. They also pass the children through in the same manner. Through the same aperture is thrown all the filth of the house. This house, as is the case almost without exception throughout the town, has neither flooring nor paving to the living-room : it is formed from the damp soil itself, sometimes covered with lime ashes. I have not seen proper flooring to the living-room of any house I have inspected : this is a lament- able deficiency, and greatly predisposes to disease characterized by low vital powers."
It is now reported that more than 100 cases of cholera have occurred in Liverpool since the beginning of October, and that not more than 12 have recovered. The state of the houses occupied by the lower classes is described as filthy in the extreme. There is en almost total absence of the commonest conveniences.
In Scotland, the disease is described as having been " steadily persist- ent" ; epidemic in several places. At Glasgow, a decided outbreak has taken place : 17 deaths arc recorded from the 17th to the 25th ; 10 deaths on the 26th; 14 deaths on the 27th. Dr. Gavin is cooperating with the authorities in organizing preventive measures. " Since the commencement of the epidemic there have occurred, in Dundee, 315 deaths; in Liff and Benvie, 20 deaths; in Leith, 9 ; in Kilbernie, 15 deaths, and 100 attacks of diarrhoea ; in Dairy, 14 attacks of cholera and 9 deaths; in Arbroath, 20 deaths; in Beith, 7 ; in Kilwinniug, 60 cans of choleraic disease, 13 cases of developed cholera, and 10 deaths." " It is remarkable," continues the report, " that in Scotland Abe
disease has proceeded unchecked by the cold of winter. In 1848 the pestilence was at its height in Glasgow on the first day of the year 1849, while the ground was covered with snow and a severe frost prevailed ; and at the same time it raged with great violence at Coatbridge and several other towns."
The London mortality-tables of the Registrar-General again exhibit a considerable increase in the number of deaths (1399) over the calculated average (1236). But the cholera becomes less fatal every week. Last week there were only ten deaths ; of these, 7 occurred in the East and 3 in the South district. The excess of mortality from other causes is attributed to the severity of the weather.
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