4 NOVEMBER 1865, Page 2

At the same meeting Mr. Henley made a sharp remark

on the al- leged beneficent effects of the cattle plague. It was sent, said a Social Science doctor, like all other plagues, "to get rid of the weak ones." If we could only have cholera here in force, remarked Mr. Henley, what a fine breed of people we should soon be. The truth is, however, and it is a very curious truth, that these great epidemics change their habits from one visit to another. At one time cholera or fever in the tropics will carry off all the strong people, and scarcely affect the weak at all. At another visit it will select all the ailing and invalids, and never touch the healthy. There are more things even in epidemics and epizootics than are dreamt of in the Social Science doctors' philosophy.