THE CHOLERA.
FaTaLisst is a feeling natural to the human breast, and many good Protestants are Mussulmans in sneering at any notion of preparing to meet the cholera, merely because they do not under- stand that any specific counter-agent has been discovered. Ague has its Peruvian bark, toothache its creosote, but there is no one drug thus curatively associated with cholera ; and therefore the desponding, in a mood compounded of despair, indolence, false shame at the fear of using exertions that may fail, and even a cowardice which makes passive submission less terrible because it recognizes the presence of danger less than action cover their indolence and their dismay by a sneering indifference' as the boy whistles in passing through the churchyard. But besides direct remedies, there are many things which may be done to prepare for disarming or weakening an epidemic.
influences which tends to promote health and remove depres- sing is of that nature. Although there may not be a known course of medical treatment, there must be a probable course ; and the public, who cannot universally "call in the doctor," should know what are the precautions to be taken in the economy of daily life. Above all, the public servants should speed whatever is desirable to fortify the public health. Now is the time when we feel the retribution for past sins of omission. We have drains, as in the Tower Hamlets district., that will not drain because the fall is too slight ; laws which permit home- owners to withhold communication between their houses and the main drain ; and bodies to administer those laws which possess neither the intelligence nor the motive to do their duties effectively.* Sewers, of course, cannot be made by the end of this month, about which time the cholera will be due; but much may be done by mere regulations. The New York Sun reports the arrival of an emigrant-ship with one hun- dred and sixty-live emigrants on board, and without a single case of sickness - a fact which can only be ascribed to the cleanliness that had been enforced by Mr. Watts, the commander. Now
• See a communication on this subject in the Journal of Public Health, a monthly periodical, published under the sanction of the Metropolitan Health of Towns Association: the first number appeared on Monday last. we all know what private emigrant-ships usually are—what is the conduct and condition of the "spontaneous " emigrants to North America ; and we know that no combination of circum- stances can be more adverse to sanatory regulation : surely, what Mr. Watts could effect by moral influence in the crowded space and among the piggish inmates of an emigrant-ship, may be done by competent authority in our towns. The pity is that we are still without that competent authority ; for although we cannot reconstruct our towns and dwellings by the arrival of the cholera, we might establish a Board of Health, and the Board might ad- vise and direct the public. This is work suitable to the early session of Parliament, because it is work that really belongs to the season.
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