The Press.
London, England, 1858-09-18 00:00:00

ftlttragolitan.

CHOLERAIC AND DIARRHCEA DISEASES, SO notoriously
prevalent in England in the autumn, especially
during the "plum season," are thus referred to by
Mr. Simon in his valuable preface to Dr. Greenhow's
report :—Cholera, dysentery, and diarrhoea, during
the nine years from 1848 to 1850. carried off to the
regions of Orcus as many as 2:37,429 persons. No
annual average, however, can be struck, because the
number of deaths from these diseases is not what
mathematicians would call " a constant quantity."
Thus in 1849 and 1854 there were 116,240 deaths,
while in 1850 and 1855 only 29,425 deaths occurred
from choleraic diseases. These diseases prevail
epidemically in certain years, and hence the annual
inequality of fatal cases. It is no consolation to be
told by Mr. Simon that diarrhceal diseases are
decidedly increasing in this country. Their propor
tion from 1847 to 1855 was five times as great as
from 1838 to 1842. The epidemic attacks of these
alvine diseases are sometimes of appalling seventy.
" Probably," says Mr. Simon, " since the days of
the great plague death has never so seared our
English population as in the cholera epidemic of
Newcastle iu 1833, and in the Golden square,
Regenestreet, outbreak in 1854." Nothing in
medicine is more certain than the general meaning
of high diarrliteal death rates. The mucous mem•
brane of the alvine or intestinal canal is the exciting
surface to which nature directs all the accidental
putridities which enter our bodies. Whether inhaled,
or eaten, or drunk, or absorbed into the blood from
the surfaces of foul ulcers, or directly injected into
the bloedvessels by the physiological experimenter,
there it is that they settle and act. As wine "gets
into the head," so these malefic agents "gets into
the bowels." There, of course, they tend to produce
diarrhoea, either simple or specific, as when the
ferments of cholera or typhoid fever are in operaiion.
" And it is a practical certainty," says Mr. Simon,
that "in the districts which suffer the high diarrhceal
death-rates, the population either breathes or drinks
a large amount of putrefying animal refuse." A
certain quantity of diarrhea', no doubt, depends on
other causes than putrefactive pollution of the
system, such as plithisis (which often proves finally
fatal by a purgative process), errors of diet, and
habitually improper food. But these various causes
operate evenly throughout England, and their
aggregate results are so inconsiderable as not to
affect the above general conclusion. The quality of
the water for drinking has produced the most fatal
and disastrous effects in the metropolis, it being
estimated that two thirds of the cholera deaths in
those parts of London which have most severely
suffered from that disease were caused by river
water polluted by town drainage, sewage water from
the Thames—water abundantly charged (as proved
by microscopic observation) with matter in course
of putrefactive change. And it is certain that the
choleraic pison is invited by filth and impurity ; or,
in other words, that it requires a foul medium for
diffusing its contagion, supposing the disease to he
contagious, as some contend. The great preventives
to cholera would accordingly be pure water, pure air,
good ventilation, good drainage, wholesome and
nutritious food, and general cleanliness both of the
dwelling and the person. Cholera loves dirt and
filth, arid, like vice, shuns punty as a thing uncon-
genial and odious to its very nature.—Phtliisis and
pulmonary diseases, aceorling to the (same report,
cause very nearly one-fourth of the annual mortality
of England. Every 100,000 of the population
on the average, 552 victims annually to this deadly
class of disease. This death rate is far from
uniform ; the district death-rate varies from 210 to
999. Infants are peculii.ily susceptible of pulmonary
disease. 23,000 children, under five years of age,
annually die of inflammations of the respiratory
organs, besides 4,000 deaths from pure plahisis.
These 27,060 deaths are so unequally distributed as
to range from 213 in the healthiest to 2,897 in the
unhealthiest district of England.
THE STATE OF THE THAMES has been reported on
by the select committee. The minutes of evidence
have been printed in the form of a bulky blue-hook.
The witnesses included Mr. GoblswoerhyGurney, Mr.
.T. Downey, Mr. W. Cory, jun., Mr. R. Miller, Mr. 'F.
Holmes, Dr. L. Thompson, Mr. W. Scholey, Mr.
Alexander Gordon (an eminent engineer connected
ith the Board of Trade), Mr..l. Walker, Mr. G. I'.
Bidder, Mr. Bennett Lewes, Mr. J. F. Bateman, Mr.
W. Haywood, Mr. Bazaigette, Mr. W. Woodcock,