The Sun. — London, England, 1853-12-06 00:00:00

~ ~ ry , 47 . "s, 7 6E3 THE CHOLERA.-MR. SIMON'S REPORT. At a meeting of the Commissioners of Sewers, held last week, Mr. Simon, the Medical Officer of Health, banded in his annual report, which was as follows : "Upper Grosvenor-street, Nov. 29. "Gentlemen, —According to the practice of previous years, I lay before you, in the annexed tables, a brief digest of your death register for the 52 weeks which termi nated at Michaelmas last. "The deaths there enumerated amount to 3,040, being 24 fewer than in the last preceding similar period. " Beyond the statistics of the past year, there are other facts which I have thought well to tabulate for your infor mation. They relate to the entire term of five years during which I have kept record of your mortality. Midway in this quinquennial period, nearly, in the spring of 1851, the general census happened to occur. The inhabitants of the city, then enumerated, may fairly be taken to represent the mean of your somewhat fluctuating population ; and the five years' mortality, compared with the numbers of this mean population, will express, pretty accurately their habitual death-rate. " The period mentioned is indeed short for the purpose of establishing an average : but 10 years at leas t must ela p se before even similar materials can again be given for calcu lation, and a still longer time before the statistical basis can be enlarged. I have therefore t hou g ht it desirable to make the best use in my power of such facts as were before ine for the construction of quinquennial tables ; out of which, with sufficient accuracy for all practical pur poses, you may draw your own inferences as to the health of that large population which is under your sanitary government. "The facts are classified, as heretofore, in the manner which will most easily display their practical meaning, First, namely, the deaths of the period are recorded in their local distribution ; so that you may compare one part of the city, with another in respect of healthiness. Next, they are so tabulated according to ages, as to indicate the prevailing proportion of untimely death. Thirdly, those of them are separately enumerated which, in their several classes, chiefly occur as results of acute disease in connec tion with removable causes. " In after years, when sanitary improvements, now only in contemplation or commencement, shall have produced their legitimate results and rewards, these tables may servo an important use. I n di ca ti ng the , standard of public health within the city before such works were achieved, and constituting a permauentrecord of your starting point, they will qualify your successors to. estimate the amount of amelioration which your endeavours shall have produced. " The details of m mg present sanitary condition, as vary ing in differom sit&llatricts of the city, and as fluctuating in the several years and seasons of the equinquennial period, are expressed in the figures of these tables, more compendiously and more clearly than I could hope to con vey them in words. Here, therefore, I restrict myself to telling you very briefly their theirag.oenuetrall3roemosult:. "The population of the city, persons, has been dying during these 5 years at the rate of about 24 per 1,000 per annum. The sub-district rates which give this aggregate vary from under 18 to above 29 ; the former d ea th- ra t e belonging to your healthiest locality, the north west sub-distr ict of the City of London Union ; while the , latter, more -than-60 per cent, highe r , mor t a lit y b e l ongs t o - the north sub-district of the West London Union. The lowest death-rate hitherto attained in the country for a cons iderable population, during a term of seven years, has been 14 per 1,000 per annum ; which your worst sub-dis trict mortality more than doubles. "As different districts contribute unequally toyour average death-rat e , so , a l so, do different ages. Among all the population exceeding five years of age the death-rate is under 17 per 1,000 per annum ; while for children under five years of age the rate is nearly 85. And these rates are unequally constituted by your three chief districts in the following proportion— viz., Annual rate of Deaths to 1,000 Over Under Five Years Five Years livin • g Persons. of Age. of Age. East London Union , 16.68' 91.9.; West London Union 2 0 .58 94'81 City of London Union 1 5 .06 71'72 Averaze death-rate in the City 1 6 .85 54.72 Average death-rate in the City " How various are the diseases which have conspired to produce your annual average of 3,120 deaths it would be tedious to describe ; and in table which I have devoted to a partial analysis of this subject I have restricted myself to a consideration of those ailments which are likely to be come less fatal under a well-developed sanitary system. To the annual average, typhus has contributed 140 deaths; choleraic affections (including the epidemic of 1849), 196 ; scarlet fever, 76 ; small pox, 40 ; erysipelas, 30 ; the acute nervous and mucous diseases of children, 572 ; their mea sles, hooping-cough, and croup, 182 ; making, from this class of disorders, an annual average of about 1,240 deaths, nearly two-fifths of the entire mortality. "My tables will show you that the different seasons of the year have pressed somewhat differently on human life, and there is exhibited in them a point of some interest to which I would beg your attention. In your healthier sub districts it is easy to perceive the influence—the almost inevitable influence—exerted by the inclemency of winter against the aged and feeble. In your unhealthier sub-dis tricts this effect is completely masked, and summer becomes the fatal.season ; its higher temperature acting in some sort as a test of defective sanitary conditions, and giving to the several local causes of endemic disease an augmentation of activity and virulence. " On the facts which these tables set forth, I have nothing further to say than would consist in a repetition of argu ments already submitted to your notice. In my third annual report, especially, I endeavoured to lay before you the con clusions, which are fairly deducible from the proportion of early deaths, and from the partial allotment of particular diseases. " These conditions are, indeed, in obvious mutual rela tion. To human life there has been affixed a normal range of duration; and when it prematurely fails—when children perisb in the cradle, or adults amid the glow of manhood, the exception iu every case is a thing to be investigated and explained. Of the 15,597 persons who have died within your jurisdiction, not an eighth part had reached the traditional three score years and ten,' while nearly three- , ighths died in the first five years of life. In propor tion as facts like these appear in the death-table of a parti cular district, in the same proportion we can trace the local prevalence of particular diseases, to explain the abridgment of life ; and passing from such a locality to other districts, where the natural term of existence is more nearly attained, invariably we find that these diseases have fallen into com parative inertness. Finally, in grouping the fatal results of such diseases in their proportionate geographical allot ment, invariably we find that their prevalence or non-pre valence, here or there, has been associated with demon strable physical differences; that life has not capriciously 'been long in one place and short in another; but that, where short, it has been shortened; that its untimely ex tinction has depended on the direct operation of local and preventible causes. " In this recognition of cause and effect, which the expe rience of late years has rendered vivid and precise ; and in that higher appreciation of human life which belongs to civilised notions in peaceful times ; and in that deeper sympathy for the suffering poor wlich should be at the heart of every Christian Government, sanitary legislation had its origin in this country ; and it has been the good fortune of the city of Loudon, in respect of your two acts of Parliament, to precede the rest of the metropolis in ac quiring and exercising authority for the mitigation of pre ventible dis ease . " Nearly five years have now passed over your tenure of ' this very grave responsibility; and although in many re spects the period must be regarded as one of apprenticeship to a new and difficult career—although you have hardly yet arrived at - what may permanently represent your method of action—although important changes which you have determined to adopt are not yet in actual working although the far greatest evils still repain for correction— yet I rejoice to inform you that sensible improvement has already shown itself in the sanitary state of your popula tion. My comparison of the pa s t Ave years with any con siderable previous period cannot be as precise as I i would wish, wish, owing to the absence of circumstantial the time anterior to m y a ppointment; but, •uirecrieogVnfr such information as I can consult on the subject, I ain 'm in duced to believe that t he deaths for equal au m b ers o f po pulation are about 4 per cent. fewer than before your acts of Parliament came into o p eratio n , and that the dispro portionate mortality of childre n is decidedly lessened." On this first improvemen t —the beginning, I would fain hope, of a long series o f similar ste p s for regaining th e allotted duration of human life —l be g to offer my resp ec tf ul congratulations to your hon. Court, under whose auspi ces it has been effected. Further impetus in the same direc tion will shortly be given by the removal of sanitary evils, already in fact or in principle condemned. The approach. ing institution of your extramural cemetery, and, I yen - ture to hope, the translation of all slaughtering establish ments to the site of your new Smithfield, will be import ant contributions to this effect. I therefore make bold to speak with some sanguineness of the slight change of death-rate already noticed, though, while so much remains to be accomplished, I doubt not you will welcome the amelioration rather as an encouragement to proceed than as the final reward of a completed task. " Here, gentlemen, terminates all that I have to submit for your consideration in respect of your past and present record of deaths. The greater extension which during the last two years I have given to my habitual weekly reports, and to sundry occasional statements which it has been my duty to lay before you, may seem, at least generally, to render it superfluous for my annual report to contain any thing beyond Such statistical particulars as I have now brought under your notice. But, however, this may gene rally be, there exist exceptional circumstances at the pre sent time which induce me to trouble you at somewhat greater length. " ll.—Two years ago, adverting to the non-completion of metropolitan sanitary works, on which the health of entire London is vitally dependent, I could not but com ment* on the utter unpreparedness with which the metro polis was awaiting any sudden return of Asiatic cholera. It was, indeed, impossible to foresee how soon or how late that dreadful visitation might recur to desolate - . our homes—whether it might return once or never, But tYPhus, averaging in 15 years double the fatality of that rarer epidemic, was adding day by day to its list o f pre - venitible death; and other endenaic diseases were co-ope rating 'with it demonstrably, uninterruptedly, to decimate, iland abase the people. the foreign whateverpestilence doubts might have existed as to a return of conclusion s had been were soon solved. 'Whatever hasty sent during half a ee , n formed as to its again remaining ab .,43lneeration were soon disappointed and reversed. Even was addressing you on the subject the plague had while cleat the smouldering fire and was vvidening its circle of t.ion. Perhaps from the Eastern centres of its habitual de ni m Atm—from the alluvial swamps " and malarious jungles of where it was first engen &red. amid miles of vapouronf: and still broodsover ill'uoxzim'ao.netr:arble deaths, or, per. wasted nations as an agent of i - ha s, from the congenial flats or atienetEl:utloePef:tlythlf:fri"'erit may have lingered latent a,nd acclimatised, kindred. soils. spreading- its now infection to all acclivities of the went was the dry and airy the B,epelled again from earth and their hardier population, it filtered aloof blending line of land and water- the shore, the river bank Conducted by the Oder and Vist 1 ' and the marsh. u a from of Poland to the ports of the Baltic, it ra the swamps to Copenhagen, gee. ' east and west, from St. Petersburg frightful severity, and, obedient to old precedents, has let us witness its arrival in Hamburg. " Twice in the European history of cholera had this town seemed the immediate channel of epidemic communication to our island, the disease having o n each occasion coal_ menced in our north-eastern seaports , w ithin a very short tithe of its outburst there. A third time, not unexpect - edlv,has this dreadful guest, following the line of former iiisitatinnktouched upon the banks of the Tyne, where a worse thankteastly condition of the crowded poor, and sewage'waferAliluted through the people's drink, had pre , pared it'an ifivropriate welcome. ",Noxt the, disease was rumoured to be in London. • 'llepe and bey are too near akin for this not to have been Third Annaal Report, p. 40. iyazzA lasi t • THE SUN,_ LONDON, TUESDAY EVENING, DECEMBER 6, 1853. doubted and denied ; but the last few weeks have shown I with sad incontrovertible certaint y that, after onl y four 1 years' absence, cholera has maters obtained a footing on our soil. 600 or 700 deaths, red in the metropolis since the beginning of September, have already attested its presence. " Anxiously adverting to the future, and ask;ng what may be the onward progress of the disease, we can appeal only to a narrow experience. Before us lie the records of only two complete visitations of the disease, and the com mencement of this the third. It would be a shallow phi losophy that should pretend, from two observations, to predict the possible orbit of this obscurely wandering plague. " Yet I dare not disguise from you that such knowledge 3 , s we have, to justify scientific anticipation, is pregnant with threats and gloom. For, let me remind you of the past. At each former period of attack, the infection, after a certain course over continental Europe, struck upon our eastern coast in the summer of an unforgotten year. In the northern parts of Great Britain, so soon as it had lit among the population, each time it burst forth into explo sive activity, and worked its full measure of destruction without delay. More faintly it reached the south. On each occasion, indeed, at the close of summer, London was sen sibly affected by the disease ; but, we hoped, under a milder infliction. Here and there, within its bills of mor tality (as at Tooting, in 1848) there was thrown some astounding flash on a particular hotbed of co-operating poison ; but on the whole, it seemed to the sanguine on each occasion, that the fury of the epidemic was expending itself in our northern towns, and that the metropolis was to be comparatively spared. " Each time, at the commencement of the new year, our London mortality from cholera seemed stationary within the limit of a few hundred deaths. Each time winter and spring a:lowed a long truce to our invaded city, and con firmed the omens of the hopeful. " But each time there was disappointment. Each time, as the warmth of summer re-quickened the exterior con ditions of chemical activity, the dormant fire kindled afresh —slowly at first, but with speedy acceleration of rate. Each time, in the few weeks before Michaelmas, am id almost universal threatenings of the disease, and amid such panic of death as the metropolis had not known since the Great Plague, there suddenly fell many thousands of the population. Thus, then, our position stands. Scientific prediction of phenomena can arise only in the knowledge of laws. That the phenomena of the disease, however capricious they may seem, are obedient to some absolute uniformity as yet beyond our ken, are enchained by that same rigid sequence of cause and effect which is imposed on all re maining nature, it would be impossible to doubt. But these conditions are hitherto unknown to science. Hither to we can speak of the facts alone, with a short enalpirical knowledge of their succession. But in this light, such as it is, the conclusion is only too obvious. If the disease, already notorious for tendency to return on its former vestiges, repeat on this third occasion the steps of its two previous courses ; or, perhaps I should rather say, if it now proceed to complete a repetition, which it has already half effected, Asiatic cholera will be severely epidemic in London in the third quarter of next year, and will proceed, with a stern unflattering test, to measure the degree in which those promises of sanitary improvement have been redeemed which the terror of its recent visitation eitortad even from the supinest and most ignorant of its witnesses. " In the face of so great a danger, you will reasonably claim of your Officer of Health that he shall report to you how far the city is fortified against this dreadful invasion —how far the hygienic defences of life, if weak, may be strengthened—how far there remain breaches now insus ceptible of repair. 1. It forms an all-important part of these considera tions for resistance to the disease to recognise quite accu rately what is its fashion of attack. Since I last addressed you on the subject, in my report for 1849-50, the materials for correct generalisation have been very largely increased by Mr. Farr's admirable Report to the Registrar-General on the cholera in England, and by numerous other important publications. By collating with these works the more re stricted, yet not uninstructive, experience which arose within your particular jurisdiction, I hope to have en larged my knowledge of the subject, and to have become able with greater confidence to submit my conclusions for your acceptance. " The first and most obvious characteristic of the disease is its preference for particular localities. It is eminently a district disease ; and the conditions which determine its local settlement are demonstrable physical pecu liarities. "After carefully reviewing the subject, I do not know that I need qualify, except to express more confidently the account I formerly gave you of those peculiarities, as con sisting in the conjunction of dampness with organic de composition. " It is in respect of these conditions—especially among dense urban populations—that the level of occupied ground, relatively to the nearest water surface becomes of primary importance. The low level, in itself or rather in respect of the watery dampness it implies, is not enough to localise the pestilence. To be afloat at sea might be the safest lodging. " The sub-district of St. Peter's, Hammersmith, aver ages only four feet above high-water level ; that of St. Olave's, Southwark, two feet higher; yet among the for mer and worst placed of these two populations, the cholera mortality was only 18 per 10,000, while among the latter and better placed it rose to 196, multiplying nearly 11 times the minor phenomena of a lower level; so also within your own jurisdiction. Side by side, along the river, lie four of your sub-districts—three at the elevation of 21 feet, one at the elevation of 24 feet. The cholera mortality, if simply proportioned to level, should have been nearly the same for these four sub-districts, and somewhat less in the last one than in the first three. But contrary was the fact . —for, in two of these sub-districts the cholera mortality for equal numbers of population was 4i times as great as in the other two. " It appears, then, that in certain low-lying levels there must exist some second condition to complicate the pro blem—some condition of extreme frequency in such dis tricts, though not essentially present there. " That condition impends whenever there dwells at such levels a certain density of population. It mainly varies with the degree in which that dense population lives in the atmosphere of its own excrements and refuse. " In this respect I cannot refrain from saying that the giant error of London in its present system of drainage. Probably, in considerable parts of the metropolitan area, house drainage is extensively absent ; probably, in consi derable parts, the sewers, from the nature of their con struction, are very doubtful advantages to the districts they traverse; but the evil before all others to which I attach importance in relation to the present subject is that habitual empoisoninent of the soil and air which is in separable from our tidal drainage. From this influence, I doubt not a large proportion of the metropolis has de rived its liability to cholera. A moment's reflection is sufficient to show the immense distribution of putrefac tive dampness which belongs to this vicious system. There is implied in it that the entire excrementation of the metropolis (with the exception of such as, not less poi sonously, lies pent beneath houses) shall sooner or later be mingled in the stream of the river, to be rolled backward and forward among the population ; that at low water, fcr many hours, this material shall be trickling over broad belts of spongy bank, which then dry their contaminated mud in the sunshine, exhaling fceter and poison ; that at high water, for many hours, it shall be retained* or driven back within all low-level sewers and house-drains, soaking far and wide into the soil, or forming putrid se dime n t s along miles of underground brickwork, as on a deeper pavement. Sewers, which under better circumstances should be benefactions and appliances for health in: their several districts, are thus rendered inevit a bl e sources o f evil. During aAarge proportion of their time they are oc cupied in retaining or re-distributing th a t w hi c h it i s thei r office to remove. They furnish chambers for an immense faxal evaporation ; at every breeze which strikes against their open mouths, at every tide which encroaches on their inward space, their gases are breathed into the upper air, wherever outlets exist, into houses, footpaths, and carriage way._ To you, gentlemen, as Commissioners of Sewers for the city of London, these remarks may seem superfluous ; the rather so, as the worst evils of tidal drainage are not largely exemplified within your jurisdiction. But it seems to me of extreme moment at the present time, when very costly improvements of the metropolitan drainage are about to undergo Parliamentary discussion, that the public should be well aware how indispensable such improve ments are for the general health of London, and how im portant in fact they are to thousands who at first sight might think themselves little interested in their comple tion. " To some individual householder, dwelling at a high level, all concern in the subject may seem to terminate with the defluxion of his own sewage. So that his own pipes remain clear, little cares he for the ultimate outfall of his nuisance. Perhaps, if he knew better, he would care more. His gift returns to him with increase. Down in the valley whither his refuse runs, converge innumera able kindred contributions. From city and suburb, from an area of 100 square miles, covered by 250,000 houses, their . unprecedented throng of metropolitan life, creme pour nt, e u t o u r that ing single garbage, channeland refuse,ever y conceivable and beast, street and slum, shamble and factory market and From th e polluted bosom of the river steam up incessantly,hpositaL m though unseen, the vapours of a' retributive poison ; densbeastukasn land sometimes d w a d nd mo s s t t iuk d?structive, no doubt, along , se s t; tm e h r e s ti o lu f e lowests rolled by wind, n sometimes blend e d low tbuthe so spreading clden over miles o f l mist, and threat ening even that curls oyer distant fields ; for, not alone in R o th er hi the or Newington—not alone along the Effra or the Fleet —are traced the evils of this greaerniasm. The deepest shadows of the cloud lie here, but its o u t skirts darken th e di s t ance. A fever hardly to be accounted for, an infantile sickness of undue malignity, a doctor's injunction for chang e of air, may at times suggest t o the dweller in our healthiest su burbs that, while dra inin g his refuse to the Th ames, h e receives for roquittal some partial workings of the gigantic poison which he has contributed to maintain. " The subject of these rem oter effect s I refrain from pur suing, as foreign to m y present purpose. That onwhich I wish to insist is the character of the river in its relation to the marginal sub-districts, which it habitually dampens and occasionally floods with putrescent soakage, and in its relations to the sewers of low gradient, which it converts (often with their adjoining soil) into the similitude and hurtfulness of cesspools. I wish emphatically to point out that the several parts of London have suffered, and are likely again to suffer from cholera in proportion as either this naalarious influence is exerted on them, or other kin dred miasms are furnished by their soil ; and it is my be lief, from such evidence as is before me, that the general liability of London to suffer the epidemic visitation will cease whenever an efficient and inoderous system of drain age, conveying all refuse of the metropolis beyond range of its atmosphere, shall be substituted for our present elaborate disguise of an 'unremovcd. nuisance. I deem it right to state this explicitly, not only bec use it is my duty to give you in simple truth the conclusions to which I ani led by careful reflection on the facts, but likewise because, for the credit of sanitary medicine, and for your justification in the awful presence of a recurring pestilence within your jurisdiction, it ought to be thoroughly known how much of the cause is common to the entire metropo lis, and has not admitted of removal by measures of par tial improvement. And the circumstances will, perhaps, excuse me if I repeat to your hon. Court, represented as you are, both in the Metropolitan Commission of Sewers and in Parliament, where this question must shortly be discussed, that the universal ieform of our metropolitan drainage, at whatever imaginary pecuniary cost, is an urgent claim and necessity, unless this great city is again, disease -within as two centuries ago, to live under the constant alarm of increasing epidemic destruction. among your four ferritebyaonlf-side excess Revert' mg, however the to the more especial relations of suryb..,dyisoturiwotisl,l tworem esmubfreerretdhaitn, marked , bank-side cholera mortality having been 4i structive, because thos times as great as of t the other two, The fact is in notwo suffering sub-districts (though of lower level than the other, were marginal to the if I am informed that in large distiireoloz•etldiefosroutwtho the river, this retention of sewage is p of every' tide-13 hours out of every 21. - s t i ll i d e r d o II valley of the Fleet, and were, therefore, exposed more than aty other part of the province to the class of evils . I have described. For a considerable part of this locality may be regarded as but recently * a creek of the Thames, its shelv ing banks, singularly foul from ancient misuse, though now built over and paved, undergo in their lower levels very considerable soakage ; while the vast sewers which lie in the mid channel of the former river are more li a bl e th an any within your jurisdiction to suffer injurious interference from the action of the tide. At every such interference, and at every current of air setting up the sewers, all gases generated in these large chambers would diffuse themselves not only in the lower levels, but likewise widely east and west up those important slopes which depend on the valley for their drainage. I can easily understa n d th a t th e radi oe,l care of this district may be p oss ibl e on l y as a par t o f those metropolitan improvements to which I have ad verted ; but I do think it of supreme importance, in re ference to any such visitation as we dread, that during the next 12 months there should be taken every precaution which technical knowledge can suggest for restricting, even by palliative and temporary expedients, those mischievous effects which I have endeavoured to illustrate. "In describing to you the local affinities of cholera, I have intimated th a t, i n it s pre f erence f or our low metro politan levels it selects these soils specifically in respect of their being damp with organic putrefaction. A moment's consideration will suffice to show that, if this be true, the higher levels of the metropolis will be exempt from the disease only in proportion as they exempt themselves from the local conditions which invite it ; only in proportion as they avail themselves of those natural advantages which their situation enables them to command. Let a district Ibe defective in house-drainage, so that its soil is excavated by cesspools and sodden by their soakage; let its sewers I be ill-constructed and foul, so that offensive gases are ven tilated into the immediate breathing air of the inhabit, tants ; let its pavement be absent or imperfect, scattered with refuse and puddled with water, you will easily con ceive that, under these circumstances, all distinctions of level are merged in the strong identity of filth, and what ever diseases belong to putrefactive dampness of soil will strike here as readily as on the low-lying mud banks of the river. " So, likewise, in still narrower limits, the predisposition of a house to cholera may be stated in the same terms as define the liability of a district—viz., that the humid gases of organic decomposition, in proportion as they are breathed into one house in a district more than into other houses there, will engender the greater liability of the house, as compared with its neighbour, to suffer an invasion of cholera. And thus it often happens, during epidemic pre valence of the disease, that sporadic cases are determined in localities which might generally claim to be free from infection • for, what avails it to be on the highest ground qnd the best soil, with every adjoining facility of sewers and acavenage, if, owing to individual carelessness and filth, the condition of dampness and putridity are retained within a house, and its basement flooded with rotting liquids or piled with accumulated refuse? " I might give you many instances in illustration of these points—showing you how, under the operation of specific sanitary faults, the cholera mortality of districts acquires an artificial exaltation ; but few comparisons will suffice. At the period of the epidemic of 1849, your best-conditioned sub-district was the north-west of the City of London Union ; and (among those at the same level) your worst was the sub-district of Cripplegate, which, at that time, was in a very unsatisfactory state, abounding with open cesspools and their consequences. In the former of these sub-districts the cholera mor tality per 10,000 was 19, in the latter 47 ; and it is easy to show that additional sanitary errors soon develops a larger satality. Not far from your boundary, at the same level with these two sub-districts, in the Hackney road division of Bethnal-green, it rose to 110 ; this large mortality being principally confined to a very small por tion of the district, wherein (the local registrar reports) sewers were almost entirely abient, houses were contami nated with the filth of years, streets were remaining for days uncleansed from accumulating dirt, and all waste waters (including animal secretions) were uniformly thrown into the public way. "Such are the conditions under which, at any imagin able height in the metropolis, cholera may decimate a po pulation ; such, in their worst form, were the conditions which at Merthyr-Tydvil, several hundred feet above the water-level, carried the cholera mortality to more than double the high metropolitan district last mentioned. Taught by this case the power of human mismanagement to futilize the favours of nature; taught that perverse in genuity can construct poison-beds for the propagation of cholera, high above the natural tract of its mysterious ferment, one gladly turns from the horrible instructive ness of such a lesson, to gather the kindred evidence of contrast ; and happily there is abundant evidence to show how much may De effected, even in the most tainted dis tricts, towards earning a circumscribed exemption from the disease by the judicious application of sanitary care. " In the remarks which I have made on the local distri bution of cholera, you will have observed that I dvtell par ticularly on one class of sanitary evils, as concerned in its production—on that class, namely, which consists in the retention and soakage of organic refuse, on that class which has its appointed antidote in a system of inodorous drain age, of uninterrupted pavement, of complete and punctual scavenage. On this I particularly insist, because I believe that here is the very atmosphere without which cholera would cease. " Sanitary evils abound ; and, if I were speaking of other diseases, I might have more to say of other causes. lam unwilling, even for a moment, to seem indifferent to those remaining fertile sources of suffering that surround the poor of our metropolitan population ; to their overcrowded condition, to their scantiness of ventil a ti on , t o th e i r insuf ficient or disgusting water supply, to their frequent per sonal dirt, to their habitually defective diet. These several influences have their own characteristic sequels and retri bution, on which I have often addressed y o u, and which I am little likely to underrate, believing as I do that the aggregate of their effects in the lapse of years is infinitely more fatal than any periodical epidemic visitation. Like wise I cannot doubt that, under certain circumstances, and in respect of particular cases„ they may assist the ope ration of the choleraic poison. Nor will I pretend so ex actly to limit the affinities of that which evolves this poi son, as to deny that rooms fetid with animal exhalations may (like cesspool-sodden cellars) be ready to answer the stimulus of its infection. And, at any rate, I think it highly important to recognise that all sanitary defects which embarrass the excretive purification of the human body, whether by breathing or otherwise, do naturally tend in the same direction as the causes of cholera, and are liable, if only by indirect means, to become accessory in its destructive work. " But, deeply impressed as I am with the importance of these considerations, I esteem it of still higher conse q u ence , if measures are ever to be taken for an effective prevention of the disease, that the principle of its specific causation should be steadfastly kept in view. What may be the exact chemistry of this process I do not pretend to say, urging only that, in all human probability, the poison arises in specific changes impressed, by some migratory agent, upon certain refuse, elements of life. Perhaps no where, and certainly not before your hon. Court, can it be desirable, in the present immaturity of pathological know ledge, to argue as to the first origin or absolute nature of that wandering influence which determines in particular localities the generation of epidemic malaria. Simply, since it leads to all-important practical conclusions, let this dis tinction be recognised. That which seems to have come to us from the East is not itself a poison, so much as it is a test and touchstone of poison. Whatever in its nature it may be, this, at least, we know of its operation. Past • millions of scattered population it moves innocuous. Through the unpolluted atmosphere of cleanly districts it migrates silently, without a blow; that which it can kin dle into poison lies not there. To the foul, damp breath of low-lying cities, it comes like a spark to powder. Here is contained that which it can swiftly make destructive— soaked into soil, stagnant in water, griming the pavement, tainting the air—the slow rottenness of unremoved excre ment, to which the first contact of this foreign ferment brings the occasion of changing into new and more deadly combinations. "These are matters which it is hateful to hear, and, be lieve me, to speak about. But the thing is worse than the statement ; and I would suggest to you this easy test of its reality. Take at random any consecutive hundred en tries of cholera—deaths in the Registra• General's metro politan returns, where local conditions are described; and let any man decide for himself whether what I have sketched in general terms convey more than the essential features of these several records. In 1849, such an atmo sphere as these influences engender existed, continuously and intensely, on the low-lying south side of the river, and to some distance inland from Greenwich to Wandsworth ; it existed also continuously, but in far less intensity, and with comparatively little extension inland, along the northern side of the river from Poplar to Chelsea; and it existed very intensely in several independent centres, scattered about those healthier levels of the metropolis, which, by their better position, ought to have been ex empted from such a reproach. The cholera struck in the same proportion as this atmosphere prevailed ; and herein, I repeat, lies that local condition, except for which the migratory ferment (whatever it may be) might pass harm lessly through the midst of us. " For, towards the chemical constitution of local atmo spheres, it seems that the several principles of epidemic diseases stand in the same sort of fixed respective relations, as to the several principles of infective fevers towards certain elements in the blood of individual persons. What the infective ferment is for the man the epidemic ferment appears for the locality. We know that in a given group of human beings smallpox chooses one victim, scar latina another, measles a third, by reason of some material quality in each person respectively, which his blood pos sesses, and which his neighbour's does not possess. By virtue of this quality—not the less chemical because che mists have no name for it—that specific exterior agency, which we call infection, has the power of affecting each such person—has the power of producing in him a succes sion of characteristic chemical changes which tend to an eventual close by exhausting this material which feeds them. Strictly analogous to this, in its principle of choice and in its method of operation, appears the epidemic ac tion—not on persons, indeed, but gn places. The specific migrating power ha, the faculty o infecting districts in a manner detrimental to life only when their atmosphere is fraught with certain products susceptible under its influ ence of undergoing poisonous transformation. These pro ducts, it is true, are but imperfectly known to us. Under the vague name of putrefaction we include all those thous andfold possibilities of new combination to which organic matters are exposed in their gradual declension from life. The birth of one such combination rather than another is the postulate for a particular epidemic poison. ainftt"ciWtnefaehe ; ferment t et i h wo e nh r ef t trh h o e emrtshime which induces this particular change in ce r t a i n e l ements of our atmosphere may ever be some accid en t o f l ocal origin, or must always be the creep ing t impulse,ratmosphe r h e e s r e e ls n e v w t h h e e r r e e similarly begiven by this agency or by th a t—b y h eat, by magnetism, by to planetsthe purposeo r meteors —such fr whichl q h u a e v s e t i n o e n : the are honourwidely ef irrelevantaddress ing you. The one great pathological fact which I have sought to bring into prominence for your knowledge and application is this :—That the epidemic prevalence of cholera does not arise in some now cloud of venom, floating, above reach and control, high over successive lands, and raining down upon them, without difference, its prepared distillation of death ; but that, so far as scientific analysis rise tn e x to pl o e t d h e e t r n i t ll n s 0 ; n e t h e a r t can decide, it depends on one occasional phase of an influ ence which is always about us, on one change of materials are the dense exhala infect, in varying itwhiltlhos thesewhich, materials, their other o perilously tpi which o i i nc v n eh e e e exhala tions ef breath anim o a f l epidemic uncleanness, pro portion, the entire area of our metropolis ;. and from I t v h h e n n w at it u n r e e ss of th t e he d c re a n se d , fn it l m in u fi s ie t t r i e e T liabil ities remain whetheroptional the with the requisite to a degrading calamity, or will employ to remove from before their in dolently acquiesce in their continued and increasing skill, science, and energy thresholds these filthy sources,of misfortune. " 2. If, gentlemen, I have detained you long in stating conclusions as to the habits of the disease and as to the sig nificance of its local partialities, it has been in order to * New Bridge-street was built over the Fleet in 1765. The present site of Farringdon-street had been arched in 30 years earlier for the purposes of the Fleet-market. render quite obvious to you the intention of those precau tionary measures which itlis now my duty to recommend. , " First, I would allude to inflvences of an exterior and public kind; and, here, all that I have to advocate ' might be included in a single stipulation that cleanliness in the widest sense of the word, should be enforced to the full extent of your authority. " Over the pollutions of the river and over its malarious banks, exposed by the ebbing tide, you have no power. " Whether, for the relief of your low-lying districts, subject to imminent risk from causes I have described, there can be found any temporary protection to save their atmosphere from contamination is a question which you will resolve upon other judgment than mine. " Along the river bank there is one especial source of nuisance, which has repeatedly been under your notice, and which is likely to become of serious local import under the presence of epidemic disease. I refer to the docks, and chiefly to that of Whitefriars. I mention it particularly, not only because the accumulations of putrid matter there have often been alarmingly great, but likewise because at the head of this dock, during the former invasion of cho lera, there was remarkable prevalence of the disease ; and I can well remember how often the offensive condition of the dock was accused, not unjustly, of contributing to the mortality of the neighbourhood. The fetid materials, floated into these several recesses of the river, and left stranded there by the receding tide, have at times been so copious as to produce very objectionable effects on the at mosphere which surrounds them; a,id I would beg leave strongly to urge that such sources of nuisance should be thoroughly and permanently removed. " Further, from what I have said as to the conditions of our vulnerability by cholera, you will be prepared to think it of great importance that, during the next six months, you should be certified on the state of your sewers, in every part of the city, as to their greatest possible clea n li ness an d least possible offensiveness o ventilation. Fifty miles of sewer, reticulated through the city, sufficiently attest your active desire to provide for the complete any continuous carrying away of all excremental matters ; and you will excuse me, I hope, in consideration of the anxieties of my office. if I seem superflously cautious in reminding you that the test of successful sewers lies in an inodorour fulfillment of their duty, and that every complaint of offensive emana tions indicates, in proportion to its extent, a failure of that sanitary object for which the construction was designed. " There is one Precaution, always of great value to the health of towns, and especially useful against any malari ous infection, which happily I find it needless to recom mend. The paving of all public ways within the city, in cluding every court and alley, is already so complete as to constitute a very favourable point in our sanitary defences. In order that this excellent arrangement may give its full fruit, it will be requisite—though this again I need hardly press on your consideration—that the duties of scavengers and dustmen be thoroughly and punctually performed. " Again, r would parti cu l ar ly a d v i se th a t great v i g i lance be exercised in all markets, slaughtering-places, and other establishments under your jurisdiction, to prevent the re tention of refuse matters, animal or vegetable. I would urge the strictest enforcement of all regulations which you have made for the cleanliness of such places, and for the removal of their putrefiable refuse. "Likewise, I have to suggest that, after the month of May, at latest, no disturbance of earth to any considerable depth should be allowed to take place, either in your works or in those of gas and water companies, except under cir cumstances of urgent necessity. In the lower levels of the city, particularly, I conceive this prohibition to be a mat ter of paramount importance, because the soil, never of un exceptionable cleanliness in towns, is here especially apt to be of offensive quality. "On the subject of water in its general relations to the city, I have only again to express my deep regret that it lies out of your present power to compel a continuous sup ply, and that your means are restricted to choosing what may best compensate for the absence of this sanitary boon. It must be your aim to mitigate, as far as may be, the evils that belong to an ill-regulated inte rm itt en t system in its adaptation to the houses of the poor—evils which imply, as I have often told you, not only much domestic dirt, but likewise a frequent suspension of all efficiency in the drain age of innumerable houses. With a view to the best alter native for a continuous supply, I would recommend that at least a daily filling of all cisternage takes place, and es pressly that Sunday form no exception to the advantages of this rule. If a choice of evils must be made, I trust it is no heathen's part to urge that the Christian Sabbath suffers more desecration in the filth and preventable un wholesomeness of many thousand households than in the honest industry.of a dozen turncock. I likewise submit that it would be highly advantageous to the labouring,poor most of whose domestic cleansing is reserved for the last k day of the week, that on that day a second delivery of wa ter should take place at some hour of the afternoon, " I wish it were in my power to tell your hon. court that the supply of water in the city of London had become, in quality, all that I think it might be rendered. Such as it is, however, there depend other very important issues on its being delivered in ample abundance for all the purposes of ' cleanliness ; and lam glad to have learned from the eminent engineer of the New River Company th a t h e h as it i n ex pectation very shortly .to be able to furnish the city a largely increased and practically inexhaustible supply. " The subject of water in its district relations ought hardly to be passed without a word of caution as to the use of pumps within the city. I need hardly inform you that every spring of water represents the drainage of a certain surface or thickness of soil, and that such as are the qua lities of this gathering ground, such must be the qualities of the water. You will, perhaps, remember that in my account of one celebrated city pump, which sucks from be neath a churchyard, I showed you 90 grains of solid mat ter in every gallon of its water. In virtue of that wonder ' ful action which earth exerts on organic matter, the former contents of a coffin, here re-appearing in a spring, had un dergone so complete a change as to be insusceptible of fur ther putrefaction ' • the grateful cool ness , so muc h a d m i re d in the produce of that popular pump, chiefly depending on a proportion of nitre which has arisen in the che mical transformation of human remains, and which, being dissolved in the water, gives it, I believe, some refrigerant taste and slightly diuretic action. Undoubtedly this water is an objectionable beverage in respect of its several saline ingredients; but my present object in ad verting to them is rather to illustrate an anterior danger which they imply. Their presence indicates a comparative completion of the putrefactive process, effected by the uniform filtration of organic solutions through a porous soil. Let that soil have frequent fissures in its substance ; or let its thickness be scanty in proportion to the organic matters to be acted on, and the water imperfectly filtered, would run off foul andputrescent. Now, this risk, more or less, belongs to all pumps within the city of London. They draw from a ground excavated in all directions by sewers, drains, cesspools, gas-pipes, and burial-pits. The immense amount of organic matter which infiltrates the soil does, undoubtedly, for the greater part, suffer oxydation and pass into chemical repose; but in any particular case it is the merest chance whether the glass of water raised to the mouth shall be fraught only with saline results of de.;om position—in itself an objectionable issue--or shall contain organic refuse in the active and infectious stage of its earlier transformations. Some recent cutting of a trench, or breakage of a drain, in the neighbourhood, may have converted a draught, which before was chronicly uuwhole come, into one immediately perilous to life. These facts ought to be known to all persons having custody of pumps within urban districts, and it ou g ht a l so to be known that the infiltrative spoiling of springs may occur to the distance of many hundred yards.* „ .. " In final reference to the quality of water, whether sup plied by our tradinc , companies, or derived from springs within the city, Cthink it expedient to mention that, against its lesser impurities, great protection is given by filtration through animal charcoal, as in various filters and purifiers which are before the public. These protective means do not lie within reach of the poorer classes ; but, whatever their accessibility to individuals, no such per sonal arrangements can render it less important that water, the first necessary of life be supplied for universal use in the utmost procurable purity. "Beyond the above points, which are of general applica tion within the city, all your remaining precautions will relate to the condition of private houses ; and of these, oc• cupied by the poorer classes, there exist in the city some thousands over which it will be requisite, by repeated in spection, to maintain an efficient sanitary watch. From circumstances to which I have already referred, it appears that your defences against cholera will very mainly consist in removing causes of disease from withi n i n di v id ua l houses, audit is only by an organised system of inspection for detecting and removing every unclean condition, that this object can be attained, For your encouragement in this task I may venture to express my belief that, through ought a considerable portion of the city, the local affinities for cholera are not too strong to be greatly modified and obviated by such a system. " With respect to - this important work of sanitary in spection, what I now propose is no new proceeding within the city. More or les, since the date of my appointment— but I hope with gradual increase of completeness and effi ciency—weekly visitations on a considerable scale have been made, under my direction, by your four inspectors of nuisances. Acting under your authority, and guided by what information I could obtain on the existence of endemic disease in your several districts,* I have furnished the in spectors every week with a variable list of the houses, ranging probably from 50 to 150 at a time, for their visita tion and inquiry. The information which I have directed them to seek has referred of course to the various details of sanitary condition, to questions of lodgment, ventilation, cleanliness, drainage, water supply, dust removal, paving of yard and cellars, existence of nuisances, and the like; and I have constructed tabular forms for their use which admit of this information being recorded and reviewed in the readiest manner week by week; before each meeting of your Court I have had the habit of going through every particular of these somewhat considerable details. I have sorted out of them those very numerous cases in which your lawful powers could be usefully exerted; when I have deemed, it- necessary, I have myself made vi s it s o f verification or inquiry ; and have finally laid before you, in the form which is familiar to your weekly meetings, such recommendations as the week's survey has shown ne cessary, for enforcing works of local improvement under the powers of your acts of Parliament. I find that within the last 12 months there have been made 3,147 visitations of this nature, the results of which are recorded in your office ; and, founded on the result of these inspections, there have been issued 983 orders for the abatement of causes of disease. .. " I am very far from considering that these arrange. ments have been perfect. Circumstances beyond my con trol have prevented me from constructing as complete an organization. as I could wish ; and the fact that your in spectors are very largely employed in other duties has perhaps ocicaSionally given some hurry and imperfection to their share of the work. Still, such as it is, this system has been the ,means of. considerable advantage; and I am glad to be able to claim for your hon. Court the distinction of being first in the metropolis to have established an ar rangement for the systematic sanitary visitation of the dwellings of the poor. In relation to this subject, I beg to inform your hon. Court that your inspectors have dis charged the duties which you authorized me to impose on them with much zeal, intelligence, and industry. "During the last, few weeks it has become obvious to your hon. Court that the duties of this department of your service have grown to such dimensions as to necessitate some increase of your staff, and acting on this opinion, mainly with a view to render more complete your sanitary supervision of the city, you have just appointed two additional inspectors of nuisances. In making this ap pointment you have determined not to restrict any two or three inspectors exclusively to the business of house inspection, but to allot the joint duties, sanitary and surveying, equally among their number, parting the area of the city into six instead of four inspectors' districts, so that each inspector shall give a certain proportion of time to the duties which he has to fulfil under the surveyor's direction, and another certain proportion to those in which he will be engaged under the direction of the Officer of Health. It is only some experi- * I am indebted to my colleague, Dr. R. D. Thompson, for a fact strikingly illustrative of this—viz., at Liverpool. In three wells which ho examined, distant severally 760, 800, and 1,050 yards from the Mersey, ho found the water brack ish from marina soaknce, containing 400 or 500 grains of solid matter per gallon, and totally unfit for consumption, ence of this arrangement that can decide whether it will be the most effectual for your purpose ; but in the mean time, I have studied so to dispose the industry of your in creased staff, under the arrangement you have ordered, as to obtain the most systematic and efficient discharge of those duties which you have desired me to superintend. " Reckoning that each inspector, if he fulfilled no other duty, could report on the condition of about 50 houses per diem, I presume that henceforth, in each of your five more important districts, from 100 to 120 houses can •be visited weekly by the inspector, without encroaching on the time required for his other duties. "The general plan on which I would propose that this force should be disposed, is the following :—First, as here tofore, the weekly list would contain all places needing in vestigation, on the ground of such deaths and illness as are usually associated with preventible causes, in order that any sanitary defects may at once be remedied ; se condly, in each week there would fall due a certain num ber of sanitary works (relating to house drainage, water supply, and the like), for which you would have pre viously issued orders, requiring them to be completed with in a stated time ; and on the satisfactory execution of these it will be the inspector's duty to examine and certify ; thirdly, in each district I would have a certain rota of visitation, according to the badness of the spot and its known liability to fall into filthy and unwholesome condi tions, requiring one set of houses to be seen weekly, another set fortnightly, another monthly, another quar terly,- and so on—a rota varying from time to time with the changing circumstances of each locality; and out of this rota. each week would supply a stated number of cases for inquiry, to which I should occasionally acid certain of those establishments in which offensive occupations are pursued. Thus, in the large number of weekly visits which I suppose the inspector to make, there would be a certain proportion of that more elaborate kind which in volves an examination of the entire house ; another pro portion, made for the sole purpose of seeing that previous orders have been executed; another proportion, repeated at fixed intervals, simply to ascertain that houses once cleansed and repaired are not relapsing into filth, nor their works becoming inefficient. " By utilising ' on some such plan as this, th e i ncrease d staff which you have appointed for the purpose, and by giving to its execution my continual superintendence, I trust to be able, from time to time, to certify you that the city becomes better and better capable of resisting epidemic invasion. From such statement as I have set before you on the local affinities of disease—not of cholera only, but of typhus and its kindred, you will be prepared to expect in creased sanitary advantages from this more systematic sup pression of the causes of death ; and I believe you will not be disappointed. Whether the anticipated pestilence rage in the metropolis next summer or not, you will be com batting, day by day, the influence of other malignant dis eases. Whenever it may be in my power to tell you gene rally of the city,• that the dwellings of the poor are no longer crowded and stifling, nor their walls mouldy, nor their yards and cellars unpaved and sodden, nor their water supply defective, nor their drainage stinking, nor their atmosphere hurt by the neighbouring nuisance,— then, gentlemen, whether cholera test your success or not, surely you will have contributed much to conquer more habitual enemies. For, whatever there may be specific and exceptional in the, production of cholera, at least it touches no healthy spot. The local conditions which wel come its occasional presence, are in its absence, hour by hour, the workers of other death ; and, in rendering a lo cality secure against the one, you will also have made it less vulnerable by the others. "As a last suggestion on this part of my subject, there are two steps which I would recommend to your hon. Court as likely to assist the labours of your officers and to bring a large quantity of important information before you. First (according to a plan adopted here in the last epidemic) that printed notices should be posted in every back street, court, and alley of the city, and should be renewed once a month, advising the careful m a intenance of cleanliness in all houses, and - inviting all persons who are aggrieved by any nuisance, or by neglect of scavengers and dustmen, or by any defect of water supply, forthwith to make com plaint at your office, or to the inspector of the district, whose name and addressC might be subjoined ; secondly, that a circular letter be written to all persons in parochial authority, also to the clergy, to heads of visiting societies, and the like, begging them to communicate with your officers on every occasion when any uncleanliness or nuisance may come within their knowledge. "3. Finally, gentlemen, in the probable anticipation that next year cholera will prevail in London with at least its former severity, it may be claimed of my office that I should say something with respect to personal precautions for avoidance of the disease. While most willing to place at your disposal any useful results of my practical experi ence in the matter, I cannot but feel the great difficulty of making general suggestions in a form really capable of par ticular application. " From the eminently local prevalence of the poison, it may be inferred that, for all whose circumstances admit of option in the matter, the first and most important precau tion would consist in avoiding those localities where the epidemic is active. Our knowledge of the subject enables us confidently to say that if in one spot the chance of being attacked by cholera is as 1 to 100, in another it becomes 1 to 50, in a third 1 to 5, in a fourth almost an equal chance whether to be attacked or not. Nothing is gained towards security by the mere act of leaving our metropolitan area, if one resorts to some other place where the system of drain age is equally vicious, or where—as at our nearest bathing place—the beach is made almost as offensive by sewerage as here the river banks. From earlier statements in my report will be obvious to you that the eligible sites of resi dence are those which stand high and dry, with clean, effectual drainage of their soils and houses conveying all organic refuse beyond range of the local atmosphere. " I will not pass this part of the subject without ad mitting that the course here suggested might involve a considerable desertion of particular localities and a tran sient injury to their commerce. This unavoidable result of proclaiming the conditions of the disease I must regret in regard of its personal bearings. But the facts of the case are all-important for the public ; and sanitory im provement will, perhaps, move more quickly in this country when it is known that the pecuniary prosperity of places may suffer from their reputation for endemic disease. "In case of cholera prevailing with severity in spots containing a dense poor population great assistance would be given to medical and sanitary measures if a number of empty, unlet houses, healthily situated, were at the dis posal of the authorities, into which, under proper regula tions, they might induce certain of the poorest families to migrate for a time, as to places of refuge, till the diseases should have subsided about their original dwellings. " For persons, whose circumstances or duties retain them unavoidably in the midst of those suffering districts where the poison is most active, the best counsel I can offer, even if at first hearing it seem vague, is, that they should be vigilant as to preserving the greatest possible soundness and vigour of general health ; keeping the body, so far as may be, undisturbed by extremes of cold, unde pressed by long confinement, unfluttered by violent pas sions, unexhausted by physical or mental fatigue, untried by any excess or any privation ; taking for diet a suffi ciency of fit and nutritive food, rather in generous measure than otherwise, but far from the confines of intemperance ; and giving meanwhile a prompt attention and cure to whatever accidental ailments may arise. " Such, in general language, are our best fortifications against the poison. It may be well, however, to add, that in our metropolitan climate—perhaps everywhere else—the human frame tends to require some periodical aid from medicine. It may be the excitement and labour of London ; it may be its atmosphere ; it may be native peculiarity; but thus the fact stands, that there are few persons who do not at intervals require the re-establishing effects of what is called tonic treatment. Probably three fourths of the prescriptions we write are aimed at this mere tendency to depression in the human body, as mani fested in one form or another. Now, as a man, going on some distant voyage of eiploration, submits his chronom eter to a last intelligent scrutiny before he exposes it to the ordeal of other climates, so, iu this matter of frequent ing infected districts, men will do prudently, before they pass into perils which may test their powers of resistance, to see that they carry about with them no enfeeblement or disrepair, which a short submission to medical discipline could effectually remove. For with epidemic poisons generally, and in a marked degree with Asiatic cholera, it seems that all states of langour, depression, and debility enhance the risk of infection. "Beyond these general cautions there is yet one which requires very particular mention. "In respect of the commencement and predisposition of the disease, it is now well known, first, that in this country it habitually begins with diarrhoea of a painless and appa rently trivial character; secondly, that diarrhoea, however produced, is, of all known personal conditions, the one most likely to invite an attack of cholera at times when that disease is epidemic ; thirdly, that during the preva lence of cholera, side by side with it in a district there is always a vast amount of epidemic diarrhoea, apparently constituting slighter degrees or earlier stages of the same disease; that this condition is just as amenable to treat ment as the confirmed collapse of cholera is utterly the opposite ; and, since we can never say how incurable a few hours may render this insidious symptom, that its imme diate arrest is a consideration of vital importance. "Precautions against causing diarrhea to one's-self by errors of diet will vary somewhat with different individ uals. Every person of ordinary discretion knows the habits of his own body, and can be tolerably confident, within certain limits of food, that he gives himself no occasion of sickness. He remembers articles of diet which his neigh bour, perhaps, may innocently indulge in, but which to himself are the occasion of inward disorder—of purging or vomiting, ' bilious attack' or nettle-rash, headache, night mare, or some other inconvenience. This knowledge fixes the limit which it primarily behoves him to regard, taking such food only it to his body as experience has shown best to agree with it, and adhering to this course without panic as to particular accustomed articles, and without abrupt discontinuance of o ld h arm l ess h a bit s . " Apart from personal peculiarities, the chief dangers of diet appear to lie as follows ---1. In those excesses of meat and drink which (especially under circumstances of fatigue) occasion sickness to the stomach, or an increased labour of digestion. 2. In taking food, solid or fluid, which is mid way in some process of chemical transition—half-fer mented beer and wino, water containing organic matters, meat, and game, and venison no longer fresh, and not com pletely cooked, fish and shellfish in any state but the most perfect freshness, fruit or vegetables long gathered or badly kept, and the like. 8. In a profusion of cold sour drink. 4 In partaking largely of those articles of diet which habitually, or by reason of imperfect cooking, pass un changed through the intestinal canal. 5. In the indiscreet use of purgative medicines, or in taking any article of diet which is likely to produce the same effect. _ _ " In short, if care be taken under all these heads to avoid occasions of intestinal disturbance : if the diet, while ge nerous, be simple 'and strictly temperate ; if regular hours be given to sleep, to meals, to industry, to recreation; if a fair proportion of outdoor exercise be taken ; if damp and extremes of temperature be guarded against, and all prac ticable pains be given to avoid the sources of bodily and mental depression,—danger will be reduced to its mini mum ; and whatever effects the epidemic may happen to produce can be readily recognised and boldly encountered. Should these effects arise in their customary form of diar rhoea, it is of absolute urgent necessity that immediate medical treatment should be resorted to ; and so impor tant for the safety of life is the recognition of this symp tom in the earliest stage of its occurrence, that no un wonted.action of the bowels should pass unobserved. " The public constantly ask to be informed of some drug, or combination of dings, to which under these circum stances they may have immediate recourse. But after very careful consideration of this subject, after hearing arguments on both sides, and reading those prescriptions which have been recommended for adoption, I venture to express my opinion, that the safest course for the public, in regard of this threatened disease, will be to follow the same principle as guides them in their ordinary seizures of illness, and to obtain as quickly as possible the aid of £heir customary medical advisers. There is an invincible apti tude in the public to misapply all precautionary medicines within their reach ; often superstitiously to treat them as charms, under the protection of which they may neglect temperance of diet and all other solicitude for health ; often ignorantly to employ them in cases for which their use is forbidden ; often, at the instigation of panic, to abuse them by preposterous and hurtful excess. Nervous and uneducated persons, instead of employing their astrin gent dose simply to stop any undue action from the bowels, would be apt, as the danger neared them, to make it an habitual dram, in order to anticipate any such action ; and the frequent after-necessity for pu rga ti ve me di c i ne, t h us created, would constitute the very danger they desire to avoid. Recognising, therefore, at its full value the im portance of immediately treating, in every case, the first phenomena of epidemic diarrhea, I must yet doubt whe ther the conditions of medical science and general educa cation are such as to justify the promulgation of general formulae so liable to extensive abuse. I speak, of course, with particular reference to the metropolis. In remote rural districts, it may often be desirable that discreet and intelligent persons—the clergy, for instance —should ob tain from their medical neighbours some stringent prepa ration, to which, in the very rare event of real emergency, temporary recourse might be had ; but, for so hazard ous a condition of disease, I must repeat, as a general rule, that no nostrum, even in the best-intentioned hands of ignorance, can supply the place of medical discrimina tion. " During the acute prevalence of the epidemic in any particular loc a lity, it b ecomes , of great importance to bring the uneducated classes of society, as far as possible, under systematic medical care ; in the absence of which they are likely to neglect all premonitions of the disease, and thus to incur much unnecessary danger. To fulfill this objects, as regards the poor, ex p ress prov i s i on h as b ee n made by the law; and it might be well for other classes, under similar exposure to attack, to consider how far they could arrange for their households a similar plan of protec tion. Under any order in C ounc il, which brings into action the extraordinary powers of the Nuisances Prevention Law, the General Board of Health acquires authority to enjoin on boards of guardians throughout the country that they pro vide for ' persons afflicted by or threatened with' the dis ease such medical aid as may be required ; and the actual working of this has been, that on all occasions of epide mic cholera prevailing in particular localities, the General Board of Health has called on the local boards of guardians to establish systematic house-to-house visitation for disco vering and treating among the poor all premonitory symp toms of the disease. "In the too probable event of its becoming necessary next year to establish this system of medical organisation in parts of the metropolis, I have no reason to doubt that a requisition to that effect will be addressed to the guar dians of the city poor; and, in this anticipation, I think it desirable to bring, in conclusion, one more point under notice of your hon. Court. During the former invasion the guardians within the city of London resisted the re quirements of the General Board of Health, and the first fourteen weeks of the epidemic consequently passed with out the establishment of any visitational system for arrest ing its progress. In the fifteenth week, however, the cor poration of the city undertook the unperformed duty not legally devolving on them, and requested me to make arrangements for the purpose of its execution. With the assistance of the several medical officers of the city unions, I immediately organised the requisite staff, and from that moment to the close of the epidemic there continued under my superintendence a systematic visitation of the poor, with beneficial, though tardy and imperfect results. " Recalling these incidents to the recollection of your hon. Court, I would beg to observe that no similar endea vour can fully succeed, except as a system—well considered beforehand, and adjusted to the various circumstances which may require its application. Uncertainties of responsibility and conflicts of jurisdiction woAld inevitably occasion a large sacrifice of life ; and, therefore, before the time when the cholera is likely to become epidemic, it should be, definitively settled who is to undertake this organisation. YOur Committee can have no jurisdiction in the matter ; and the interference of the corporation would be only at its own option. The legal responsibility rests solely with the boards of guardians; and it seems to me indispensable that, before the time for action arrives, the corporation should determine its intentions, in order that the boards of guardians, if again called upon to organ ise arrangements of the kind in question, may know dis tinctly, either that the corporation has relieved them of their teak, or that there rests on them the undivided obli . - gation of providing for th e cr i s i s . " 111, Gentlemen, in concluding this report, I will not attempt to disguise from yon that it has been written under feelings of considerable apprehension, and, I am fully con scious that, in thus expressing myself, I am liable to the imputation of raising unnecessary alarm. "If the possible mischief to be wrought by epidemic cholera lay in some fixed inflexible fate, whatever opinion or knowledge I might hold on the subject of its return, silence would be better than speech, and I could gladly re frain from vexing the public ear by gloomy forebodings of an inevitable future. "But from this supposition the case differs diametrically; and the people of England are not like timid cattle, capable only when blindfold of confronti ng d anger . It belongs to their race, it belongs to their dignity of manhood, to take deliberate cognisance of their foes, and not lightly to cede the victory. A people that has fought the greatest battles, not of arms alone, but of genius and skilful toil, is little likely to be scared at the necessity of meeting lame danger by appropriate devices of science. A people that has in augurated railways, that has scanned the Menai Strait, and reared the Crystal Palace, can hardly fear the enter prise of draining poison from its infected towns. A people that has freed its foreign slaves at twenty millions' ran som will never let its home population perish, for cheap ness sake, in the ignominous, ferment of their filth. " Therefore; gentlemen, advisedly, I state the danger as it seems to me. England has again become subject to a plague, the. recurrence of which, or the duration or the malignity, no human being can predict. " But if I state the danger, so likewise, to the best of my belief, Ist to the remedy and defence. Colossal statistics concur with circumstantial inquiry to refer this disease, in common with many others that scourge our population, distinctly and infallibly to the working of local causes—of causes susceptible of removal—of causes which it devolves on our Legislature to remove. " Toe exemption we seek is worth a heavy purchase. My thoughts turn involuntarily to the epidemics of former centuries, to their frequent returns and iminmse fatality. I reflect on the Plague, and how it influenced the average death-rate of London ; how in 1593 it doubled it, it 1603 tripled it, in 1625 quadrupled it; and how (after a less considerable visitation in 1636) it actually multiplied the mortality sevenfold in the tremendous epidemic of 1665. The ravages of that pestilence are but appreciated in the lid that we esteem the Great Fire of London a cheap equivalent for their arrest, looking to that eventful con flagration of the metropoli s w ith gratitude rather than horror, because of the mightier evils that were extin guished with its flames. "To so frightful a development as this, cholera, by many degrees, has not attain e d ; b u t, i gnoran t as we are of its laws and resources, we dare not surmise, at any re newed invasion, what increment of severity it may have won. In the simple fact, that our country has again be ef me subject to pestilential epidemics, there lies an amount of threat only to be measured by those who are conver sant, by history or experience, with the possible develop ment of such disease. " Therefore, gentlemen, having the deapest assurance that these unexplored possibilities of evil may be fore closed by appropriate means, I should ill deserve your con fidence if I shrank from setting before you, however un gracious the task, my deliberat estimate of the peril. " It belongs to my local office to tell you of local cures; and this I have sought to do. I have suggested that, by active supeiintendence of all houses within your jurisdic tion, there may be suppressed ir. detail, those several causes of the disease which arise in individual neglect ; that, by elaborate care as to the cleanliness of pavements, markets, docks, and sewers, something may be done to wards the mitigation of more general causes ; that, by a well-organised system of medical visitation, very much may be effected towards encountering attacks of the disease while still amenable to treatment. That these, with si milar precautions, are therefore t o b e reco mmended. " And not for a moment would I seem to depreciate such measures, palliative only, and partial though they be. By their judicious application, from Aldgate to the Temple, life may possibly be saved to same hundreds ; to children that are fondly loved, to parents that are the stay of numbers. " But against the full significance of any epidemic, I am bound to tell you that these are but poor substitutes for protection. To render them effectual—even in their narrow sphere of operation—there must be g. eat vigilance and great expenditure ; a weary vigilance and a dispropor tionate expenditure, because chiefly given to defeat in de tail what should have been prevented in principle. And, be done what may in this palliative spirit, the sources of the disease are substantially unstayed ; for the faults, to which its metropolitan prevalence is due, consist not simply in a number of individual mismanagement; but include a common and radical misconstruction as their chief. " No city, so far as science may be trusted, can deserve immunity from epidemic disease except by making ab solute cleanliness the first law of its existence ; such clean liness, I mean, as consists in the perfect adaptation of drainage, water supply, scavenage, and ventilation to the purposes they should respectively fulfil; such cleanliness as consists in carrying away by these means, inoffensively, all refuse materials of life—gaseous or fluid—from the per son, the house, the factory, or the thoroughfare, as soon as possible after their formation, and with as near an ap proach as their several natures allow, to one continuous current of removal. "To realise for London this conception of how a city should cleanse itself, may involve, no doubt, the perfection of numberless details. Yet, most of all, it would presup pose a comprehensive organisation of plan and method ; not alone for that intramural unity of system which is needful for all the works, not least for those of drainage and water supply, but equally to harmonise these works with other extramural arrangements for utilising to the country the boundless wealth of metropolitan refuse—for distributing to the uses of agriculture what is then rescued from the cha - acter of filth--for requiting to the fields, in gifts for vegetation, what they have rendered to the town, in food for man " How far the construction of London has proceeded on the recognition of such objects, or how far the advantages of such a plan have been; realised, it could only be a mockery to ask. Our metropolis, by successive accretions, has covered mile after mile of land. Each new addition has been made with scarcely more reference to the legiti mate necessities of life than if it had clustered there by crystalisation. With no scientific forecast to plan the whole, with little but chance and cheapness to shape the parts, our desultory architecture has eclipsed the con ditions of health. Draining uphill or downhill, as the case might be, and running their aqueducts at random from chalk quarries, or river mud, or pending sewage in their cellars and digging beside it for water, blocking up the inlets of freshness, and, equally, the outlets of nui sance, constructing sewers to struggle with th© Thames, now to pollute its ebb, now to be obstructed by its flow, the builders of many generations have accumulated sani tary errors in so intricate a system that their apprehen sion and their cure seem equally remote. " Therefore, by reason of causes ramified through the whole metropolis, and deep-rooted in its soil, which bind all parts together in one common endurance of their effects —therefore, cannot epidemic disease be thoroughly con quered by any exertions, or by any amelioration, short of the complete and comprehensive cure. Against the danger we dread no shelter is to be found in petty reforms and patchwork legislation. Not to inspectorships of nuisance, but to the large mind of State policy, one must look for a real emancipation from this threatening plague. "A child's intelieat can appreciate the wild absurdity of seeking at P.'lll what here runs to waste beneath our pavements—of ripening only epidemic disease wi h what might augment the food of the people—of waiting like our ancestors to expiate the neglected divinity of water in some bitter purgation by fire. " But it needs the grasp of political rautership s apt Tao * This information has been mainly derived from two sources ; first, from the weekly-death returns of the nine city registrars, which the Registrar-General most kindly allows me to have transcribed as soon as they arrive at his office ; secondly, from weekly returns, which the medical officers of the three city unions have had the great kindness and liberality to supply for my assistance, as to the existence of fever and kindred disorders in the several localities under their charge. informed by science, to convert to practical BPPlica li T i these obvious elements of knowledge ; to recognise 3 g re.. f. i national object irrelevant to the interests of party; t o an universal requirement from the sphere of professi° l l! jealousies, and to found in immutable principles the ear ' tary legislation of a people. , I have the honour to remain, gentlemen, " Your obedient humble 'servant, JO HN 'AMON? SHIPPING INTELLIGENCE. QUARANTINE NOTICE. LISBON, Nov. 28.—Havre de Grace is declAred of cholera from the Ist inst. CUSTOM HOUSE, DEC. 5. - , • ENTERED INWARDS.—The Christian, f ro m Christian ia : Elizabeth, Konigsberg ; Peter, Besserup ; Vigilaat ; Symmetry, Ostend ; Taymouth Castle, Calcutta ; Charl Africa ; Coronet, Quebec ; with the usual Continental steamers. ENTERED OUTWARDS FOR LOADING.—The Letitia, for Malta; Fortune, Korsoer ; F ag le, Antwerp; ce f t: Leer ; Rover, Dunkirk ; An gene t o Leer ; -" land Bay, &c. ; Cavengoric, Bombay ani Elsinore. r CLEARED OUTWARDS WITH CARGO.—The Jeff,, Naples ; Hoppet, Gothenbur g ; Panama, Rio S ei n e _; Sjanke, Leer ; Corbie re , Cape Coast Castle ; es s Mozart, Odessa ; Lelia, S t. Thomas and Nassau ,i l • .ton" • Nicoline, Copenhagen ; L uesJ , C a di z , Su.. ; Indians: bay; Fecamp, Havre ; _ Regalia, Grenada. Li vERPOOL, DEC. 5. Wind, S.S.E., light. he nth cf The Orlando, hence, arrived at Havannah on t • November. The Minna put into Cuxhaven on the Ist inst.isboe T The screw -steamer L ns it an i a , h ence , a rrived at on the 29th ult. The Prince of Wales, from Singapore, arrived off th 6 Cape of Good Hope on the 17th of October. The Elizabeth, he nce , arr i ve d a t T ener iffe on the stir ult. and saied for Melbourne othe 11th. The Parke l r, hence, arrived at Demerara on the rth of November. The Limera, White, sailed from Mayaguez, Poro on Aug. 15, from Queenstown and Liverpool, ands since been heard of. She had a cargo o f s ugar on a Aar The Ploughboy sailed from Laguna, July 17t D ot spoken Aug. 30, in lat. 36 N., l ong . 71 W., and 1 10 been heard of since. bs cl4 The Eleanor Thompson, f or G ua y ra , h as just pu t f r o with bow damaged, having been in contaot with the the Duke (s), from Dublin,. early yesterday merningt 4 Skerries. perm . Arrived—The Gefle, from Calcutta ; Occident, buco ; Lexington, SCJohn's, New. Brunswick ; - 1 ?7.,,t0; Alexandria ; Rosanna, L eg h orn ; A mer i c a (s), „ Nuevo Albano, Smyrna. • VESSELS SPOKEN WITH . 3044 The Liberia (ship), st eer i ng wes t, lat.'42 N.) 1 1 14 The Sabina, from Port Philip, N o y. 17, 12 W. vr, The Juliet (barque), Nov. 19, lat. 41 N., long:,, The Regina (brig), Nov. 24, l a t. 47 N., l on g- The Celerity (schooner), for the Brazils, satee,"/" . 1,10tv The Hendrik Jan., from London to Sydney, 1 N., long. 21 W. The John Ratter, from L on d on t o B om b a y, ° cif° lat. 5 N. long. 24 W. The General Hewitt (whaler), the sama day. , Lifer The Ann Lawson, of Whit e h aven , from IslaY pool, Oct. 23, lat. 4 N„ long. A 10' The Laidmans, from Liverpool to Rangoon, N° l '' 5 N., long. 19 W. COUNTRY MARKETS. CRELMSFORD--Dla. 2. 11 1 " A larger supply of both wh ea t an d b ar l e y than w° had for some time past, much of it out of conclition . t merchants did not purchase freely, and a very g r , e3 , e lod 1 ness prevailed. Wheat w as 2 s p er qr . c h eaper for " od. l qualities, and for inferior s am pl es , if sa l es we re pres ,per, reduction of 3s w as d eman d e d. B ar l eys were 2s Ole Beans and peas the turn lower. Oats'as last week- 04 Prices to-day wer e as follow :—Wheat, white, old 625 to 80s Od, new 62s t o 80 s ; re d, o ld 57s t o P 725,, new, 60s 72s • barley, 31s to 37s ; c h eva lier, 33s to 42s • P P 0 0$0 23s ' to 31s; malt, 61s to 65 s • chevalier, 668 to 725, 06; 22s to 28s ; peas, partrid ge , 41 s to 46s ; white, 48$ t o boiling .55s to 61s ; dun, new, 42s to 45s ; beans, ti c o s , to 44s ; Harrow ticks, 40s t o 46 s ; M azagan , 405:0 COLCHESTER —DEo. 3. l it Only a small supply of wh ea t, b u t qu it e aufewever' the demand, and prices must be noted 2s per gr•,, 0 0/' Barley moved off slo w ly a t i s t o 2 s per qr. 1,01"" Beans and peas are rather in favour of the buyer. Prices td-day were as follow :—Wheat, white,7 6 s t° , 6 o ' red, 68s to 74s- barley, 38s to 42s ; oa t s , 26 s to ; 3 , „ . . 2s ; i Mazagan, 40s to 42s ; middle an d s ma ll, 48 s to ' white, .to 60s ; grey, 46s to 50s. - e 3 Official Statement of the Q uan titi es o f C orn , r ° ceri fl in the port of London, f rom th e following ports'loo' the 28th November to th e 3d D ecem b er, b o th ule_,< 4, p ; 4.1 i 415 A s - 131 1 - 61 Colchester Harwich Leigh Maldo n 173- 152 257 247 - 59 11 '/ 61 41 1,. BIRKCALDY—DEc. 3. There were larger supplies of barley and oats. i f slow at a redu c ti on o f i s to 2s per qr. A small suP,Prices wheat, all new, b u t f ew parcels in good condition . comparatively, were much the same as last week. Wheat. Barley. Oats. p ` an d First Second Third s4s Od I 25s Od • 19s Od I d . Oatmeal, per bag of 2801bs i m p er i a l, 39 s Od t o 408 COAL MAR' '.-DSO. 5. Prices of Coal per ton at the close of the market :-.° d. Wallscnd, akem 0 Buddle W. Hartley 9 6 A 4 8 0 Davison's West Hartley 25 6 Northumberland ........ ' 3 O i Holywell. 27 0 South Hartlepool . . ...... West Hartley 26 0 Watuey'sAnthracite... , Wylam 27 Oi Ships at market, 6 I Sold 6. SEABORNE MAILS. . et i (N signifies that the mail s are sent from the Genera l th by the night—and M by the morning —dispatch.] ------------ T e° Day when made up From what st Jo di COUNTRIES. in General P os t- Port 01*/ Office, London.. Dispatched. ~... ,.., 0 --- ---"—— •,„b° America(byßrit.pack)N Every Friday .... Liverpool ... u • America (by United Sts. • 0 6. i packet) N i Dec. 13.......... Li verpoo l .. , IN America (by U. States ds' packet) .. - N ••• • • • .... Southamptov g , Australia (via South- 1 D ee. 1 9 ampton) . M Jan. 4...... • • .... Southampton et. . D Ditto (via Marseilles) N•Jan. 8.. .. Dover ..... Ditto (via Cape of Good u pi Hope) ...... • ... N Dec. 4 .. • Liverpool .•• r „ , Africa (West Coast)..N 13d o f th e mont h .. Plymouth .. go, 1,,, ,, Alexandria.... .• .... N 8,9, 24, & 30 of m. D over , . •• •. ~,,e,. P; Alexandria.. .. .... ..M'4th & 20th of mon. Southampton i; eo , I Bahamas . .... M!l7th of the month tiouthamPtep "sill 6 . Belgium .... ...... .. NI Daily ............ Dover .... •• 1, Brazil ~ .........: —lll9th of the month.. Southanipla ri 6, l ; Buenos Ayres ........ 31 1 9th of the month.. Southampton N e e, a Cape of Good Hope ..N 14th of the month Plymouth • ';;'e,.. e: Cape of Good Hope .. Nii4th of the month. Southampton -y;, i , 9' Cape de Verds ......N 9th of the m on th .. Plymouth . Ceylon (see India) , se , 5' Ceylon ..............N 14th of th e mon th Plymouth • Channel Isles ...... .. N Mon ~We d . , &Fr i d . S outhamp ton Oll I. Chi1i.............. .. Al 2d & 17th of mon th S eu th am ptorr De s China (see India) 1" Constantinople ......N 7,8,17,21,&27 ofm. Dover .. •• %• ;;6: 11 0 : 1 1 1/ Constantinople ........ 4th & 20th of mon. Southampton'' To Cont. of Europe M & N Twice daily ...... Dover ...• • • 000 Egypt (see India) . N 1 it France ........ M& N Twice daily.-- Dover .. •• •• . • Gibraltar • • .... 34 4, 7,17, 20, 27 ofm. Southampton . Greece (see India) se• 1 9 0 9 Greytown • . .... M 2nd & 17th of mon. Southampton 0. Hamburgh ..........N Tuesday & Friday London ..•.•• J o l og Havannah .....• • ... ta 2nd of the month SouthamPte" 000. 16 Holland ....... ..... M Wednesday & Sat. London ..... D o, Honduras .......... bl, 17th of the month. Southampton 1 6 ton 1 India (viaSouthampt.)3l 4th & 20th of mon. Southampton Dec : l 6 India (via Marseilles)M Bth&94th of month Dover .. • • " peei;3l l I vec lonian Isles (see India) 7, 17, & 27 of mon Dover •• ..'' TO ,6 Ireland ........M & N Twice daily ...... Holyhead •• pe s.f 6 Li5b0n..............M 7,9, 17, & 28 of m. Southampton INC. 1 ..& Madeira .....• ...... 34 9th of the month Southampton. ‘ , BO . r Madeira ..........N 23d of month .... Plymouth • v .. Malta (see India) • en. jv Malta .... .. . ..N 7,17,19,28, 30 ofm. Dover ....•• , 2 6 Mauritius (see India) 3 101. 1 Mauritius ..........N 14th of the month Plymouth et . e t. , 0 Mexico .... .. ..M 2nd of the month., Southampto n pee,', 6 Naples . .... .. • ... .. N l 6 th 16th26thof mon. Dover.. • • .., ce...',4 New Granada ......34 2d & 17th of month SouthamPt mineyi New Zea1and.......... By private ship .. Various pert' ;6 Papal States ........N 6 thlsol2 B thonnon. Dover ...•. • i ; ec• i 6 Peninsula .... ..... .M 7thl7th2Bthofmon, Southan2Pl!„ Dec 06 Peru • . Port Natal ..........N 14th of the month Sicily ..............N sthlstll2sthofmon, Dover .• ••'• 1 Tuscany .........• „N 6thlsth2sthofmon. Dover .• ••I nee. 16 Venezuela .. .. .. .. 31 2d& 17th of month Seut hamPlu e l • Plymouth •• ' e s. 1 1 ! Van Diemen's Lan d (see vtoti l - nec.l6 Australia) .. West Indies .... ...iii 2d& k7th 01 month Southes s au os A ils cfil * When any of these dates tall o' a Sunday, the goode, dispatched on the following day. with the exception ° t atCh Southampton), and the Malta, both of which will be day preceding. BIRTHS. OF A SON. „ we ! olr lc On the Ist i ns t., th e w if e o f Lieutenant'"'" Commandant Royal Military Asylure. of: " v.-- On the 3d in s t., a t Milf or d H ave n, the mix.'" Patrick Lambert, Esq. OF A DAUGHTER. W e st friCAl On the 29th of October last, at Fourah - bay , tbo the lady of the Bishop of Sierra Leone. ..d e _perk , On the 3d i ns t., a t 57, O x f or d-terrace,w wife of C. F. Caillard, Esq., barrister-at-lew• MARRIED. asg . v t ; On the Ist inst., Robert Onebye, chaplain 11.E.1.C.5., to Anne Emmeline, eldesi.)ooo. of the Rev. S. T. Gully, rector of Berrynerb°rui c o nor l V Sampson Revell, Esq., to Grace Eugenie, On the 3d inst., at St. Stephen's-by-SenaAoghtkr t onlf nado gbte Andrew Smith, E sq ., surgeon. R.N., a d gr: of the late Peter Van Lennop, Es + N. SinYrn DIED. On the 25th o f O c tob er , in George 4 c f r in ' 'a PP lig se the re s id ence o f h er mo th er , Antonia SfßlllWOoodni child of th e l a t e X a i er -G en eral Step hen Arr C. 8., K.H., age d l g .. b of On the 30th ult , a t S u nnybank, near A- ; awe , OP eldest surviving da . ughter of the lateJahn. Grandholm, in the coun ty of Aberdeen. Tl i grj LONDON : Printed end P u blished A t stay office— a No. 112, Strand, Printer, at 4 ""' Strand, in the Precinct of the liEddlowx, Tuesday. Pep:pubs:A- k ntlel Cross 4 ectll e-stree oliry R on ~c l lesex se *u t Henr b e an her Diem y '', 4r nfard" o n , E street. . r e • Lloyd utistice of tl MX Direct() ... 11 arbour c o , Qtge, N Allte °We rt mYnathla ace' Ow /,aAley Lice] gap Ll~aPeter w 7 no e n ri o k e „ ne nY—lvie tr:ytYr Tyd; k ets 8 4 ,2. earns( Offices of Te the Dire, tihd~t t o :,nleT, coa c h i b zt and 4 ' 441 till, ' ' .