The Express.
London, England, 1849-08-29 00:00:00

HEALTH OF LONDON DURING TUB Vißßii.

(Faux sew ReottehaA4Mfahtee REPOse.)
In the week ending Saturday, August 23, the
deaths in London were '2,457; of whieh 1,276 were by
aware. 233 by Martha*. The deaths from all causes in
each of the last seven weeks were 1,070, 1,369, 1,741, 1,931.
1.967, 1,949, 2,229, 2,457. the deaths from cholera 152, 339,
679, 793, 926, 313,12 x, and 1:276. Although the number
of deaths last week is seater than any number yet re-
corded, it is oratifying to learn that active measures are now
in actual operation, or commencing, in every district, to
combat the great epidemic width has already destroyed
7,47 d lives in London. The mortality stands in favourable
coat:eat to that which has been felt en other cities—when
the visitetism has recalled the ravages of the middle ages.
Bat if the
of sanitary state and arrangements are supe-
rior to these of the other dvilised countries of Europe—it is
quite curtain, that while the preen* epidemic has excited
some talk and tenor, the efforts which have hitherto been
employed to combat it look feel,* and insignificant, when
esatrusted ith the vast means and
est agency which are
'nosi to bear by the adieu uother fieuls fa the prone-
tion in life and property.
Ter wits which puts of oar institutions work I
sakes the deieeM of the rest mere evident. On August 9th
last a man was murdered in Berasondsay, and beton
his
death, reported by the swam will appear in these returns, i
one, and it is probable both de persons charged with the
murder will be in cutody. fitews-shipe the electric tele—
graph, the heads of the police, and progsional agents, spe-
cially chosen, wen all employed to arrest the destroyers of
this iite; the edam* of the newspapers were filled with the
details of the desth. On the same day (August 9th) a stock-
broker tiled at No. rs, Albion-terrace, Wandsworth-road;
a widow lady, and an old domestic servant at No. 6 ; in the
five preceding days in the same tenses the daughter of a
gran, a child of 6 years of age, had died at No. 1; the
widow of a coach proprietor, and a commercial clerk, at
Mo. 2; a gentleman's widow at No. 3; a surgeon's daughter
at No. 4 ; • spiaster of 41 at Nu. 5; the wits of • dissenting
minister, his mother, a widow lady, and a saran' as No. 6;
a young woman of 21 at No. 10; a gentleman at No. 12,
where the stockbroker died; a comatercial clerk and a young
wow en of 19 at No. 13, when a young women also died
on July 23th ; a gentleman's wife at No. IL who bad
sun her daughter the there the day before. The nineteen
pante s died of cholera many of the inhabitants of the ter-
race were dispersed, and the deaths of mural have been re-
gistered elsewhere. "It appears," says the registrar, Mr.
Frost, " theta" No. 13, inhabited by Mr. Biddle, where the
Bret death occurred, and where two deaths were afterwards
registered, the refuse of the house had been allowed to seta-
=date in one of the vaults (which is a very large one) for
about two years, sad when removed last week the stench was
adman iatelerable, there being about two fast of wet soil filled
with maggots. The drains also had bunt, overflowed into
the tank, and impregnated the water with which the houses
were supplied. On the back ground, in the distance, was an
open ditch, into which nearly the whole ot the soil of Clap-
ham runs." As turpentine to thaw, so Is the exhalation
of such co.lan, tanks, and sewers to cholera; it diffused itself
rapidly, attacked many, and nineteen inhabitants, after sums
boars of suffering, sickness, and spasms, expired.
The effects of decomposing refass and water on health
ware well known—their fatal subsidies to cholera had been
heard of every day—)et no steps had been taken for their
removal from Albion-terrace in July—no medical pain had
Interfered to disturb the contents of Mr. Biddle's
cella—
and now the nineteen masters, servants, parents, children,
rest its their graves, it appears to be taken for granted that
blast.) attaches to nobouy—to nothing—to the householders
themselves—to the guardians of the district—to the institu-
boas of the country Such mean intangible instruments of
death can be invested with no dramatic interest ; but fixing
oar eyes on the victims, it is well worth considering whether
substantially it is not as much a part of the sound policy of
the country that lives like those en Albion-terrace should be
saved, as that the murderers of the man in Bermondsey
should be hanged.
The nvelatious of the state of their districts in the regis-
trars' netts of this and last week prove that it will be no
easy task—l .ey, not to stay the plague of cholera, for it will
subside—bat to remove the evils which make cholera and all
epidemics fatal. The vast task of the physical amelioration
of the population demands the energies of the best men in
her Majesty's dominions. W hen, In the country from which
Asiatic clivlara came, our armies seemed for a moment
wonted, and the empire threatened, the great Captain of
the Age is reported to have addressed to another the me-,
saleable worth If you do not ge, I must." That enemy
was distant. 'We have oie very near, in our street, of
which cholera, a servile minister, has destroyed already
7,470 lives in London, sad thousands more in the rest of the
kingdom. Who will go out against this enemy? Is it
too powerful, or too feeble, f,r the arm of the greatest I
Will no glory crown its conquest? Is the country mann-
sable to its latitude ? Wilt not all the national strength
and resources pat forth to imam the hygyenic con-
dition of the people, and to rid England of the causes of
the fatili.y of c.idemin ? This may yet be done by the
gcvernmeut, aided by the force of Guts, and of ealightened