The Press.
London, England, 1854-08-26 00:00:00

THE CHOLERA.

THE number of deaths from all causes returned for
the week ended last Saturday was I,B33—nearly the
same as that of the previous week. In the ten cor-
responding weeks of the years 1844.53 the average
number, if raised in proportion to increase of popu-
lation, was 1,224. The present return exhibits an
excess of 609 above the estimated amount. Cholera
was fatal last week to 720 persons, of whom 214 were
children under 15 years of age, 426 were 13 years
and under 60, and 88 were 60 years old and upwards.
The deaths from diarrinea last week were 192. The
tabulated returns show that cholera has prevailed with
great irregularity over London, and that in several sub-
districts the ravages of the epidemic are inconsider-
able. Imperfect drainage, proximity to the dirtiest
parts of the Thames, bad water, and poverty, are
still, as they were in 1849, the chief circumstances
that make cholera fatal. It is on the banks of the
polluted Thames, in the lower parts of the London
basin, that the people die in large numbers ; for on
ground less than an average ten feet above Trinity
high-water• mark 1,212 of the deaths from cholera
have happened out of 595,111) people; while on the
next terrace, of 10 feet and under 40 feet of elevation,
493 in 648,619 have died ; and on the higher grounds,
above St. James's-square and the Strand, only 213
have died of cholera out of 1,070,372 inhabitants.
The mortality at the three elevations, commencing
at the lowest, has been at the rate of 204, and 70,
and 20, to every 100,000 inhabitants. The people
on the low grounds have suffered ten times as much
as the people living on the grounds of a moderate
elevation.
A PROFOUND feeling of gloom pervailed in the con-
gregation of St. John's Church, Notting-hill, on
Sunday last, in consequence of the announcement
that the cholera had taken off the Rev. Edwin
Proctor Denniss, 8.C.L., the incumbent minister of
the district. Notting-hill does not appear to have
been visited with many severe cases of cholera, but
notwithstanding its reputed healthfulness it is very
liable to severe attacks, being situated immediately
above the filthy Kensington potteries, so frequently
made the subject of complaint in sanitary reports.
IN consequence of the spread of cholera, Cardinal
Wiseman has granted permission to his flock to eat
flesh meat on Friday and other days of abstinence.
CAPTAIN R. F. ROWLEY died almost suddenly at
Woodlands on the morning of the 18th, from an
attack of cholera. The gallant officer was the fourth
son of the late Admiral Sir Charles Rowley, Bart.,
G.C.8., G.C.H., and was a well-known and warm
supporter of the different professional charities.

THE Gazette des 114itaux of the 19th publishes a re-
markable cure of cholera by mistake. Dr. Roger (de l'Ore),
having been called on to visit a patient in the worst stage
of cholera, prescribed, but with scarcely the slightest hope
that it would be efficacious, an emetic of 14 gramme of
ipecacutuffia, to be taken in three doses (prises), at inter-
vals of half-an-hour. The person who was charged to ad-
minister the ipecacuanha, seeing the word prises, and
finding that the medicine was a powder, imagined that it
was a kind of snuff, and that the liree prises meant three
pinches. He consequently made the patient sniff up the
drug. The ipecacuanba thus administered, instead of
making the patient vomit, caused him to sneeze with such
force, and for so long a time, that a violent reaction took
place. Heat returned to the surface, all the symptoms of
cholera ceased, and when the physician paid his next visit
he found the patient cured.

THE REPORT OF THE REGISTRAR-GENERAL StateS the
total number of deaths in England and Wales for the
year 1852 at 407,138 deaths, being of males 207,042,
and of females 200,096. This mortality is from a
gross population of 17,027,609 persons. Hence it
appears that about 1 in 44 of the population expires
every year, and that, while in 1852 there were 14,082
more males born than females, their deaths only ex-
ceeded those of the females by 6,046. By far the
most fatal quarter for both sexes is that between the
end of December and the beginning of April, and the
healthiest is that between the Ist of October and the
31st of December. The largest amount of deaths
was in the north-western division, where there were
71,117 out of a population of 2,400,827, being about
1 in 35 ; and the smallest in the northern division,
where there were 22,235 out of a population of 969,126.
In the south-eastern, the south-midland, and the
eastern divisions the deaths average about 1 in 50.
In the London division they are about 1 in 43. From
the whole report we find that there were, in 1852,
317,564 persons married, or 158,782 marriages,
623,990 births, and 407,138 deaths.

Or 100,000 children born in Liverpool, only 44,797 live
to the age of 20, while in Surrey that age is attained by
70,885 out of the same number of children born : the pro-
bable lifetime is about six years in out unhealthiest towns,
rt 2 years in Surrey and other comparatively healthy parts.
GRAB, right-hand man of the Prussian King's company,
Ist Foot Guards, died at Potsdam last week. He was the
tallest soldier in Europe, taller almost than any of King
Frederick William I.'s gigantic " blue children." He stood
7ft. lin., and his coffin was Bft. 7in. long.

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