The last report of the Registrar-General is a terrible one.
In the week ending Saturday, July 28, the deaths rose from their average of 1,387 to 2,600, the increase being entirely due to cholera. The deaths from the epidemic amounted to 904, while 349 are assigned to diarrhoea, which is under such circumstances but another name for the same disease. As might have been ex- pected, the virulence of the disease is greatest in the " bad " districts, Bethnal Green, Whitechapel, St. George's in the East, Stepney, Mile End Old Town, and Poplar, Limehouse Basin and Regent's Canal being the central line of the attack. In Poplar and Bow "the people are falling ill every hour," the medical officers are overworked, and the Registrar-General ear- nestly calls for help. The people fortunately do not desert one another, but with putrid water, little medicine, and no knowledge, what can they do? There is no organization, not as much as in a good country village, and no upper class to take the lead. The results of the neglect of years are being crowded into a month, but the moment the storm has passed the neglect will recommence. Peers and members live in the country, and cannot be induced to organize the collection of towns called London on any scientific system. With no means of government, they must be "self- governing."
