8 AUGUST 1885, Page 2

The cholera in Spain is assuming more and more alarming

dimensions every week. It is spreading a panic like the plague itself. On August 5th, there were 4,294 cases reported in Spain and 1,638 deaths. In some of the villages where the local authorities and the medical men have been attacked, it is said that the sick are abandoned, and that the dead remain un- buried. Yet the difficulty interposed by local prejudice in the way of any scientific sanitary arrangements, is reported to be almost insuperable. Nor is the plague now confined to Spain. The cholera has definitely reappeared at Marseilles. In the twenty-four hours ending at 5 o'clock on Wednesday evening, there were thirty-five deaths from cholera, which is now unfortunately re-established in that unhealthy city. We shall be very fortunate if we escape it in England. Dr. Burdon Sanderson, we see, expects that it will appear in Germany and on the coasts of the Baltic before it revisits our shores ; and if so, we may escape fur yet another year. But every respite ought to be used by us to apply the only effective precautions against cholera,—a good supply of pure water, an effective drainage system, and habits of personal cleanliness.