The cholera, which is becoming severe in Southampton, and has
broken out in Newcastle, has evidently arrived in Loudon. In the Registrar-General's return for the week ending 16th July thirty-three deaths are recorded from cholera, sixteen of them from the Asiatic form of the disease, death occurring usually within twelve hours of seizure. The Registrar-General advises a system of house-to-house visitation, so that the disease may always be dealt with in its earlier stages. We would venture to warn officials against the use of phrases in their reports j.ending to deepen the popular impression that cholera is contagious. It could no more, for instance, be brought in a ship across sea than gout could, and the assertion that it could only serves to give an excuse for desertions at once cowardly and cruel. In India a regiment visited with the disease is constantly saved by a march of a few miles, proof positive that the poison, though it may travel, is conveyed by the air, and not by sick persons.
