The Express.
London, England, 1862-09-05 00:00:00

EPIDEMIC SHALL PDX.

We are looking forward to a winter of sore dis- I
tress, and it is still a question—although it may
very 80011 cease to be one—whether or not the suffer-
ings which are now foreseen as inevitable at that
season must be aggravated by an enormous defi-
ciency in the stock of animal food. Perchance the
malignant disease which is now making havoc in so
many sheep farina in the South of England may
subside spontaneously, and soon vanish as myste-
riously as it came. That is just possible ; but to
rest even a featherweight of our security upon so
filmy a basis would be like trusting to what an old
French proverb calls " the hope of the criminal at
the gallows—that the rope will break." It is well
to be prepared for the very worst, and the rapid
`ffistruetton -of half -the eip England,
and the reduction of a large proportion of
the other half for a long period to a condition little
better than that of carrion, are contingencies not
so remote from all probability as to be unworthy
of a moment's consideration. Already the disease
has spread widely in Wiltshire, Dorsetshire, and
Hampshire, and it shows uo sign of abatement in
its rate of progress. Flockmaaters appear to be
utterly powerless to prevent its invasions, for their
only hope of immunity for their flocks lies in their
careful isolation, and that hope has in some crucial
instances proved signally fallacious. From Mr.
Harding's flock, among which the disease first broke
out, it passed—or seemed to pass—with a leap over
those of his next neighbours, leaving them un-
harmed, to fasten on a flock which lay isolated and
remote. Who can hedge in a cuckoo, or what
guards and barriers can keep out the subtle
infection or contagion of smallpox, a foe
so impalpable in its nature, so übiquitous
and so desultory in its attacks 1 And even were
complete isolation as practicable and as surely pre-
ventive of the dreaded malady as it is manifestly
the reverse, it is certain that flockniasters would not
in all instances rigidly persevere in that self-deny-
ing system. They have not done so. Many of them
have raised the blockade, have driven their flocks to
fairs, and bought and sold there sheep in which
smallpox was already latent or actually developed.
This desperate tempting of fortune, or rather this
infallible method of insuring and multiplying mis-
fortune, will again be resorted to, and on the largest
scale, at the great sheep fair of Weyhill which is
now approaching.
Seeing that the epidemic cannot be absolutely
kept aloof by any contrivances which have yet beeu
devised, owners of sheep in the affected and threat-
ened districts are inviting its presence, in a mitigated
and more manageable form, by means of inoculation.
In taking this course they act upon what is acknow-
ledged to be the best professional advice obtainable
in the kingdom, that of Professor Symonds. The
result has been to some extent decidedly favour-
able ; but that this measure falls far short of the
present and prospective exigencies of the occasion is
apparent from the reported fact that of Mr. Parry's
flock, in which 11300U1410 was promptly bad to inocula-
tion, 66 per cent. have perished by small-
pox. The belief that inoculation is indispensable
under such circumstances as those we are now con-
sidering appears to rest upon a medical theory,
which so singularly sagacious and experienced an
observer as Miss Florence Nightingale has de-
clared to be a traditional fallacy. It is an accepted
article of faith among medical men that smallpox
alone can beget smallpox ; that it cannot
arise spontaneously, or, in other words,
that it can never be the result of morbific
agencies, which, under other circumstances, would
have resulted in other maladies. This doctrine is
declared by Mini Nightingale to be wholly unwar-
ranted by fact. Observation has proved to her
that smallpox is not invariably generated "like
cats and dogs," every germ of the disease being ne-
cessarily the progeny of parent germs of its own
kind. She has seen and smelt smallpox growing
up under her nose, amidst conditions which entirely
precluded the hypothesis of contagion from with-
out, and which, she is convinced, would not have
precluded the possibility of averting the outbreak
of that particular form of disease. Miss Nightin-
gale's remarks are full of encouragement for the
present moment, for they foretoken the discovery
of some new mode of dealing with that horrible
malady, whether it occur in man or in the lower
animals, which shall despoil it of more than half its
terrors, by preventing or crippling its development,
slackening the intensity of its self-diffusive force,
and in all directions abating its deadly efficacy.
Perhaps such a discovery has been made already.
This, indeed, would be glad tidings, and such
tidings have reached us from so remote a quarter
as China. They come, too, just at the right
moment, when the urgent need of immediate action
will stifle the outburst of controversy—vehement,
but vague—which they would have provoked at
other times, and will wake it tolerably certain that
their value will be brought to the test of practical
experience. Dr. D. F. Rennie, surgeon of the
31st Regiment, now in China, is the discoverer of
the new mode of treatment, which has been em-
ployed with extraordinary success by himself in the
British embassy at Pekin, as well as among the
troops at Tientsin and elsewhere, and also by some
of the medical practitioners in Shanghae. Brigadier
General Staveley, C. 8., commanding the troops in
'China, was so impressed by the superior results
'which had been obtained by the new system as com-
pared with the old, that he addressed the following
Memorandum, dated Tien-tsin, 28th February,
1862, to the senior medical officer at that station :

The senior medical officer will be good enough to make a
full report of the result of the treatment for smallpox, dis-
tioguishing the cases which hare been treated according to
Dr. Reonie's system, from those treated by the usual
practice.

As the Brigadier-General Commending proposes that
this report be laid before his Royal Highness the General
Commanding in Chief, sod sa he considers Dr. Rennie 's
theory, if correct, is • subject of the greatest importance,
not only to the British army but to the world at large, every
medical officer capable of giving information on the subject
is called upon to do so in the fullest possible manner.

It was further directed by the brigadier-general
that Dr. Rennie should be called on to include in
his report on smallpox a notice of the principles
guiding his practice in dysentery, its success having
been very simiret.t in serious cases where the
ordinary mode oqf treatment bad altogether failed.
Dr. Rennie repotted accordingly, and the document
being now in the possession of his Royal Highness
the Commander-in-Chief, is doubtless available for
the guidance of medical practitioners in this coun-
try, civil as well as military. A reprint of the
whole of its expository portion is also contained in
the numbers of the North China Herald, for June 7,
14, 21, and 28, now lying before us. Dr. Ronnie's
views of the origin of smallpox are completely in har-
mony with those of Miss Nightingale. We may state
broadly that he regards it as a sympton. rather than
a substantive disease. The pustular eruption which
characterises it is the terminal stage of a disorder
which might, under different conditions, have ter-
minated in purulent effusions in the interior of the
body, instead of on its surface. The purulent
matter might have been deposited in the substance
of the lungs, and then the disease would have re-
ceived the name either of consumption or pneu-
moMa, according to the rapidity of its course. Had
the same matter found a receptacle in the liver, it
would there have produced acute inflammation fol-
lowed by abscess. Thrown out on the surface of
the intestines in a pustular form it would have

constituted one of the forms of dysentery, or it
might have been extruded in a diffuse form on the
skin, and then it would have been called phleg-
monous erysipelas. Guided by these conclusions,
Dr. Rennie makes it a rule in dealing with the
various forms of tropical disease that come
under his hands, whatever may be the symp-
toms present at the moment, always to test
the condition of the blood, and ascertain whether the
diseased action depends upon the presence in it of
purulent or other matter. If the test give an affir-
mative result he proceeds to extract the morbid
matter from the blood, which he effects by re-
peated outward friction with the same medicament
which served him in the first instance as a test.
This is either croton oil or tartar emetic ointment,
both of which have long been employed externally in
medicine, as counterirritants for the relief of local
symptoms, such as inflammation of the lungs or
air tubes. In such cases they have been invariably
applied over the immediate seat of the disease, and
the effects they produce (generally purulent erup-
tions) are specially referred to the peculiar irri-
tating properties they are supposed to possess.
I Dr. Rennie is, however, convinced that they pro-
duce no specific effect whatever, and that the sup-
purative action which ensues from their use is a
local determination to the skin of pre-existing dis-
ease in the blood. It is principally by moans et
I frictions with croton oil or tartar emetic ointment,
! systematically applied, that Dr. Rennie declares he
has prevented a large amount of serious disease,
' and cured a good deal that had become serious. It
is above all by this method that he has achieved
that extraordinary success in the treatment of
smallpox and of other diseases, held by him to
be pnmarily identical with it, which has been ofli-
cially certified by the superior military authorities
in China. It will be seen from the terms of
Brigadier-General Staveley's memorandum that
I the question which be deems it his duty to reserve
for the decision of the authorities at home concerns
only the soundness of Dr. Rennie's theory. Upon
that question the general very properly abstains
from pronouncing any opinion, though his bias
in favour of the theory can hardly be mistaken ;
but as to the eminently happy results of the doc-
tor's practice, that is evidently, in the general's
opinion, a matter upon which no shadow of doubt
is admissible.

THE SUNDAY SCHOOL CONVENTION.

Yesterday the convention was again resumed at
the Union, in the Old Bailey.

At the morning conference Mr. Swarm. NOM= pre-
sided ; and on taking the chair be expressed the warm sym-
pathy he felt in the objects of the convention. He knew of
no mode of improving the condition of the people that could
be compared to those agencies which sought to gain the
young. He thought that even day schools would be com-
paratively worthless if the religious element was excluded ;
but he insisted on the necessity of keeping as clear as purl.
bhp of mere sectarian teaching. (Hear, hear.)• At the
present time the children who attended Sunday
schools belonged to a grade between the higher
middle-classes and the lowest ranks of life.
It appeared to him that the children whom the Sunday
schools did not reach stood not less in need of them, and
some effort should be made to bring them within the influ-
ence of the system. With regard to the upper classes, he
would propose that the children of three or four families
should be collected at the house of one of them, where there
happened to be a person qualified to instruct them in reli-
gious matters. Such meetings would, in fact, be virtually
Sunday schools. (Hear, hear.)
The Rev. Gioaca Abtox, of ;sliegton, then read a pwer
on the subject, recommending the establishment of Sunday
Bible classes, presided over by some Christian of experi-
ence. The experiment had been tried in his pariah and had
been found highly successful.
After a short discussion,
_ _ .

Mr. At.Lorr said that there were three modal of meeting
the difficulty to which his paper had referred. Some might
strive to get more children of a higher class into their
schools. By all means let them do so. The plan suggested
by the chairman seemed to him admirably adapted for rural
districts ; and that which he (tbe rev. geotlernan) had pro-
posed would be found suited to large towns and cities.
Mr. F. CUTHBERTSON, of the Sunday and Ragged School
Unions, next read a paper urging the foundation of ragged
Sunday schools io those distncta in London and other Isrge
towns which seemed at present to defy all the ordinary
modes of evangelisation.

Tho Rev. brACKENZIa WILLIAMS, of Demerara, a negro,
took part. On rising to address the meeting be was en.
thusisstieally cheered.
. . . . . _

A deputation from the International Temperance and
Prohibition Convention was then introduced. It consisted
of Baron de Lyndon, Chamberlain of the King of Holland;
the Hon. Judge Marshall, ex-chief justice of Nova Scotia ;
the Rev. Canon Jenkins, of Dowlais ; the Rev. Charles
Garrett, of Preston ; Mr. Edward Whitwell, of Kendal;
Mr. Joseph Thorpe, of Halifax; and the Rev. Professor
Kirk, of Edinburgh.

Oa;son JENILINI7ined a loos address to this convention.
earosstly beseeching them to abstain from those deceitful
liquor—intoxicating drinks ; sod to give the temperaoce
movement in all its breaches the important aid of their sup-
port. (Cheers.)
Mr. WATSON moved that the memorial be received, and
entered in the minutes of the convention.

The Rev. WM. Hamlin seconded the motion, though he
wee not prepared to accept all the statements of the mem-
morial. (Hear, hear.)
Mr. WATSON observed that he had carefully abstained
from saying a word on that subject.
The CHAIHNAN said the paper most go out ree its own
merits, to be pondered over by all who read the report of the
convention. He could say how warmly his heart responded
to the address, and he must say he thought that Sabbath
school teachers had too long kept aloof from the temperance
movement. (Hear, hear.)
Mr. COLLIN'S protested against the memorial, the object
of which was wholly foreign to the object of this convention.
(Cheers and "No.")
The Casiamss hoped that Mr.7Colline would note rese his
objection, for while the motion would not commit this con-
vention to anything, it would be discourteous to exclude
the memorial from the report of their proceedings.
Mr. N'. Coven thought that the printing ought to be left
to the committee.

Mr. WATSON thought that be could pledge the committee
to the printing the memorial if the motion was agreed to.
(Hear, bear.)
The motion was then carried unanimously.

The meeting then adjourned to the Sessions Home, where
• collation was again Lid for them by Mr. Earee, of Hackney-
road.

_
In the afternoon Mr. THOMAS CHAMBIRIA, the Common
Serjeant, presided.
Mr. J. H. COOPER, of Birmingham, read a paper on the
" Internal arrangements and collateral agencies, of the
Sunday schools." In the course of his remarks, Mr. Cooper
protested against the practice of connecting instru-
mental hands of music with Sunday schools ; and he also
expressed disapproval of the system which hail latterly
sprung up of taking the children on annual excursions into
the country. (Hear, hear.)
The conference was then closed.

In the evening an segregate meeting- of teachers and
friends of Sunday schools was held in Exeter hall, Mr.
CaaaL►.e CoILPIII, M.P., in the chair.

Tan DINTRICIIS IN GLABOOW. —A public meeting,
convened by the Lord Provost, was held on Tuesday at
Glasgow, for the purpore of considering and sdoptiog MINIM
for relieving the severe &strew prevailing among thousands
of male sod female workers connected with the cotton-spin-
ning and power-loom weaving trades in Glasgow sod its im-
mediate neighbourhood, through the present state of
American affairs, and the consequent failure of the cotton
supply. The Lord Provost, who presided, stated that up-
wards of 15,000 coonected with these trades were nut of em-
ployment, and that of that number a considerable portion
were females. The meeting was afterwards addressed by
Par Archibald Alison, Bart, sheriff of Lanarkshire, the two
members for the city—Walter Buchanan. Esq., and Robert
DaWish. Esq. • the Bay. Principal Barclay, and Dr.
Buchanan. A large and iodinated committee was ap-
pointed. The Lord Provost stated that on Tuesdsy fore-
noon alone he bad received subscriptions amounting to
3,6001. 4001. was subscribed immediately after the meeting.

DEATH IMAM Till Brill OF AN ADDZIL-011 Wed-
nesday afternoon Dr. Leicester, coroner for Middlesex. re-
ceived information of the death of a girl. mimed Maria
Sewell, the daughter of a laundress, residing in Bedford
Newtown, st. Panne, which was oorasioesd by the bite of
an adder on the previous day. It appeared that the girl's
brother had procured the reptile about a week ago. and -kept
it in a box, and she was proceeding to feed it. as she had been
in the h►bit of doing formate days,whee the adder suddenly
darted out end bit ker on the Wade of the upper lip. She
was immediately seised with extreme pain, and in about 20
minutes began weenies about the heed and neck to such an
extent that not a feature was recogaisable. Medical assist.
saes was poured and antidotes applied, but the whole
system had Loom so violently affected that the poor girl
expired before she could be removed to the North Lades
Hospital.

THE TEMPERANCE CONVENTION.

Yesterday was the third and concluding day of
this convention, held in the Hanover-equate Booms, under
the presidency of Sir WALTER TUVILTAK. It had been
intended that all the papers on the political and legislative
aspects of the temperance question should be dimmed in
the convention ; but the number of papers rendered it
necessary to divide the convention into two sections. Be-
fore its separation,
Mr. Witzago Lawson, M.P., delivered an address-as
president of are of the nations. He defended the Permis-
sive Bill, and replied to objections urged in a pamphlet by
Mr. Livesey, of Preston, an old temperance reformer. The
co-operation of those who used intoxicating drinks should
be accepted in agitating ice a Permissive Bill.
The convention then divided, Mr. LAWSON presiding in the
Ent section. The following papers were read is this section :
" Legislative Action on behalf of the Tempe:eine Move-
ment : an Argument."—.lames &meanie, Newcastle-on-
Tyne.

- The License System : its Radical Defect iodicated, and
the Remedy Saggested."- Samuel Fothergill, Plymouth.
"The Principles, Policy, and Progress of the United
Kingdom Allance."—Bev. J. C. Street, Manchester.
timeinM Secondary Clauses for the Permissive
Edward Vivian, M.A., J. P., Torquay.
" °Wartime and Objectors to the Policy of the Alliance."
—Rev. Dawson Bums, London.
" Answers to Objections to the United Kingdom Alliance
and the Permissive Bill."—liev. John Greener, Manthestar.
After an Interesting discussion, the following resolution
was adopted : " That it has been abundantly demonstrated
before this convention, that the manufacture and common
sale of intoxicating beverages are the occasion of innumer-
able social, moral, and political evils of a most appalling
character, subversive of publics order and antagonistic to
national progress ; and that, therefore, the citizen, the
magistrate, the legislator, and all who exercise authority or
public influence in the state, should nombine to put forth
their most strenuous and persistent efforts to repress and
abolish, either by permissive or other legislation, an inve-
terate agency of evil so great in magnitude, and productive
of burdens and calamities so inevitable and intolerable."
. .

The second division of the section was presided over by
Mr. C. J. DLIBYIIIIIIiv of Chorley.
A paper by the Dean of Carlisle, on " Legislation on the
Liquor Traffic, suggested by the House of Commons in
1F01," was reed by the Rev. Canon Jenkins. The Dean said
that time had exaggerated a hundredfold the reasons fur
legislation which existed in 1834. . .

Jr. P. P. OAIMITTH read a discriminating paper on the
comparative working of prohibitory and license laws, and of
practical free trade in liquor, an different parts of North
America. He had made a tour of careful observe,
tioo, diverging from the ordinary routes of travel,
and mixing with the people. It wee important
to remember that the observance of law was very
different in America from what it was here. There law was
" a course of action that on are at liberty to follow if you
choose." (Laughter.) The temperance cede fluctuated to
an extent scarcely to be understood here. Although the
diaw. rd of law in America was mach more open
than here, exactly the same might be said of the failure of
our license laws as could be said of the failure of tempe-
rance legislation in America. There was free trade in Chic.igo,
where the inhabitants were divided iota two classes, those
who sold drink, and those who drunk, the latter half in-
cluding the former. Any restraining law was better than
no law at all. In the South the laws prohibiting the
sale of liquors to slaves are strictly enforced, on account of
the value of slaves as property. The rum idler is liable to
all consequences of supplying the slaves. In the New
England States drinking was practically abandoned. Liquor
was sold on the sly, and there was great difficulty in getting
it. The drunkenness of Canada furnished a great contrast
to the New England States.
Judge HItIIBILIRIL read a paper on the laws of Holland.
In another form the municipalities had the power sought
to be obtained by the Permissive Bill of the United King-
dom Alliance.

A revolution was peseed secooding the republicatioa of
the report of the committee of the House of Commons in

Mr. DAVID LIMB (Edinburgh) then read a paper 00 tern-
potence agitation in Scotland, and alluded to the autocue of
the Forbes Mackenzie Act, and said that, thanks to Mr.
Gladstone, an increased spirit duty had greatly diminished
the consumption of that which was Scotland's curse.
A paper by Mr. Rona? Boar (Glasgow) stated that
there were in Scotland 104 parishes without licensed house*.
Three other papers were disposed of, and the resolution
already given wee moved sad seconded.
Mr. Tnoman RICHARDSON, 8.A., said that a paper he
had handed in recommended that prohibition voters should
be pledged to support prohibition candidates, and to set
under leadership, that steps should be adopted to secure the
selection of proper leaders, sod that there should be •
candidates' club interns a leader reeilleut in London.
Mr. Warungcrox WiLes supported the resolution, on
' the ground that ameliorative efforts were impeded by the
public-house. He urged that agitation should be mainly
directed to the empowering of the people to prevent the
sale of intoxicating drinks if they pleased, and that too
much time should not be devoted to the discussion of
minor questions. Unity of counsel and action was desirable
amoopt temperance reformers.
The resolution was then carried, and the section was then
re-united for the great business of the couvention. Sir W.
TREVELTAN presiding.
After the proceeding of the sections had been reported
and oonfirme an aocount was given of the presentation of
the address to the Sunday School Convention, which re-
ceived it, and entered it on the minutes. The statement
that the chairman of that convention (Sir Moreton Pete)
supported the deputation, was loudly cheered. Half an
hour was then given to practical suggestions—Mr.
suggested the disfranchisement of the publicansT:h°247.
Waterson, of Manchester. said that municipal candidates
should be selected long before the elections ; Mr. Taylor, of
Bristol, suggested that they should forego private politic in
order to support Permissive Bill candidates. The Rev.
H. Gale objected to the disfranchisement of publioans,
which contemplated their existence which it was intended
to terminate. (Laughter.) After other suggestions votes
of thanks were spoken to. In the course of a speech,
Mr. POP, said it was necessary to state that the con-
vention was not an alliance contention, but a general tem-
perance convention, representing all the temperance and
other societies; and the Alliauce had undertaken the
arrangements only because it was the most complete organi-
sation.

A revolution was adopted, thanking God for the wooers
of the Convention. A psalm having been read and private
prayer engaged in, the president delivered a closing address.

As the proesediege of the commotion were entirely con-
ducted by the gentletoso members of the total abstinence
portion of the community, it was considered right and
proper that the softer sex should put the crowning stone
upon the work, and accordingly a soirie and conversations
were appointed to take place last night ia the Hanover-
square Rooms, to give the ladies au opportunity of
exhibiting the depth of the interest which they
take in the movement. Those who suggested such
an agreeable wind-up to the proceedings of the
convention were not disappointed in their expectation..
A committee of reception, consisting of the principal mem-
bers of the fruited Kingdom Alliauce, welcomed the com-
pany upon their arrival, and that ceremony over, they re-
paired to the refreshment-rooms, where they partook of tea,
coffee, and ices, the latter being most agreeable, considering
that the thermometer was at something like fever best, and
that those who wished to get to the tables had to struggle
through • dense crowd. After tea had been served, the
company repaired to the large hall, and were addressed by
Mr. Lemma, 11. P., Mr. James Houghton, of Dublin, Mr.
Lewis, of Edinburgh, and other gentlemen, who congratu-
lated them upon the susses of the oonvention, encouraged
them to look forward with hope to its having yet
a fuller and • richer harvest of good fruit, and
exhorted them to use their iedividoal efforts in
forwarding a muse so deeply interesting to
themselves, their families, and society at large. Mr. Haugh-
ton especially reminded the ladies how much the success
of the movement depended upon their sex, the mothers of
the rising generation. He also reminded them how deeply
they were interested in that success by telling them of the
number of ladies he had seen reduced to the lowest state of
destitution by the intemperance of their husbands and sons,
and of the families be bad seen hopelessly ruined by the
female head of it giving way to the same vice.
At the conclusion of these speeches, the company formed
itself into friendly groups for conversation, and soon after
dispersed, evidently gratified with all that had taken place.

OXPORDSHIRS AGRICULTURAL ASSOCIATION.

The annual exhibition of stock in connexion with
the Oxfordshire Agricultural Association was held at Ban-
bury on Wednesday, when prizes were awarded for cattle,
hams, sheep, pigs, and implements. The priecipal
were given by the Earl of Macclesfield, the Duke of VI!
borough, Viscount Dillon, J. H. Langston, Eaq., M.P., and
Colonel North, M.P.
The show of stock was not large, but was exceedingly
good ; and although the weather was as unfavourable as it
could be, the attendance was considerable.
In addition to these prises numerous others were gives to
servants in husbandry, for long and faithful services, and
also to shepherds for rearing lambs, by the Orford Agricul-
tural Society ; and by the Banbury Agricultural Aomori*.
Lion, for shepherds, labourers, and servants riving widener
of good sad faithful servitude.
In the evening the usual dinner took place at the Red
Lion Hotel, Colonel Norm, M.P., in the chair. Among
the guests present were the Hoe. J. W. Healey, M.P.,
Colonel Faze, ILP., Sir Henry llashwood, the Rev. W. C.
Risley, H. Ward, Esq., Mayer of Oxford, Col. Cartwright,
H. Cowper, Esq., Mayer of Banbury, kg.