The Express.
London, England, 1853-09-21 00:00:00

THE EXPRESS, WEDNESDAY EVENING,

another declares, " In all cameo! collapse investigated, it is
found there had been neglected diarrbora." Even in the
cues in which death takes place with the greatest rapidity,
the suddenness is apparent only, not real; for the fatal
collapse is the final but gradual result of diarrbees neglected
for several hours, and sometimes entire days. It must,
then, bo repeated, that in any district in which cholera is
epidemic, life may depend on obtainiag prompt and proper
relief for painless and apparently trifling looseness of the
bowe.s.

TIN measure of precaution nest in importance relates to
the proper regulation of the diet. Great moderation, both
of food and drink, is absolutely essential to saf•oty during
the whole duration of the epidemic period ; an act of indis-
cretion has been often followed by a severe attack ; intem-
perance at such a time is fraught with the most extreme
danger. During the epidemic of 1819, sudden and fatal
attacks of the disease followed immediately on the iudul-
gence of habits of drinking after t►e rectipt of weekly
wages. The intervals between the meals should not be
long ; cholera being uniformly footed to prevail wit► ex-
traordinary intensity among the classes that observe the
protracted fasts coulmon in Eastern and some Eutop•an
countries.

The utmost practicable care should be taken against fa-
tigue, which is a very powerful predisposing cause of the
disease. Employers and persona engaged iu laborious oc-
cupations should endeavour as far as possible o to ar-
range the amount and time of work as to avoid physical
exhaustion.

Warm clothing is of great importance. During the pre-
sent epidemic in Homburg, it has been found that incau-
tious exposure to cold and damp has brought ou an attack
as rapidly as improper food or excess. This precaution
against damp is rendered doubly important by the pecu-
liarity of the present season. Long-continued and exces-
sive rains have in many places surcharged the ground with
moisture, especially undrained and low-lying dis-
tricts, placing in many instances the land eon-
tiguous to towns, and beyond the usual range of
town drainage, almost in the condition of marshes.
Tho exhalations arising from a surface thus satu-
rated often with water, holding decomposing matter in
solution, spread to the towns and affect the inhabitants,
however well drained the immediate sites of the towns may
be. The General Ward were so apprehensive that disease
would be extensively produced by this unusual and don•
gcrous state of a large portion of the country (an apprehen-
sion which was subsequently realised by the breaking out
of disease, allied in character to cholera, in sixty towns),
that in their notification, issued in December, 1852, they
repreeinted to local authorities that this calamity afforded
a special occasion for administering extraordinary assistance
to the poor, to enable them to keep large fires in their rooms,
to protect themselves from cold and dump by warm clothing,
to sustain their strength by a solid and nutritive diet, and to
counteract the predisposition to disease induced under these
peculiar circumstances, by suitable tonics and other reme-
dies, under medical direction. This representation was
made when there was a threatening of the return of cho-
lera ; it is now amongst us, and the General Board would
remind the affluent, that the opportune supply to their
poorer neighbours and dependants of wholesome food,
warm clothing, and bedding, and even such remedies (to
be always in readiness) as their medical attendant may re-
commend for looseness of bowels, is charity in the truest
sense, and may be the means of saving many lives.
It is also much to be desired, and the General
Board would strongly recommend, that the higher
classes should co-operate with the clergy who
have done so much to promote the object of the legislature
under the Public Health Act, in making frequent ♦nits
among the poor, and impressing upon them the importance
of following the instructions here laid down, with reference
to which there is a perfect accordance between the College
of Physicians and the General Board of Health.
In conclusion, after the large experience of this disease
which has been obtained since the General Board of Health
issued their first notilicatioa (1849), they can now repeat
with greater confidence what they then urged, that, formid-
able as this malady isle its intense form and developed stage,
there is no disease against which it is in our power to take
such effectual precaution, both as collective communities
and private individuals, by attention to it in its first or pre-
monitory stage, and by the removal of thou agencies which
are known to propagate the spread of all epidemic diseases,
or where that may be impracticable by removal from them.
Though, therefore, the issues of events are not in our
hands, there is ground for hope, and even confidence, in
the sustained and resolute employment of the means of
protection w►ich experience and science have now placed
within our reach.

By order of the General Board of Health,

(Signed) CHARLES MACAULAY, Secretary.

NEWCASTLE.

(From the Board of Ilegth.)
BErnsIBER. 19.
DEATHS IN NEWCASTLE.
Cholera
Diarrhoea

Total lOO
DEATHS IN G kTESLIEAD.

Cholera
Diarrhosa

T0ta1....
Two of the most overcrowded churchyards were
closed on Saturday, on the official requisition of Mr.
Grainger, and three others will be closed under the
Provincial Interments Act of last session, by Dr.
Sutherland, the officer charged by the Home-office,
under the act, to inspect and report on burial-
grounds. Oue of the most overcrowded of the many
overcrowded lodging-houses having been certified
by Mr. Grainger and Dr. Hector Gavin, who has
been sent to Newcastle by the General Board to
assist Mr. Grainger, to be unfit for human habitation,
has been closed, and its inmates removed to the
House of Refuge. It is to be earnestly
hoped that the same course will be taken with other
houses of the same character when the tents which
were yesterday despatched have been made available.
An aunt of the mayor of the town has fallen a vic-
tim to the epidemic, which, among other indications
of its unprecedented virulence, attacks the upper and
middle as well as the lower classes.

Mr. Grainger has to-day arrived in London for
consultation with the General Board of Health, leav-
ing Dr. Hector Gavin in charge of the arrangements
at Newcastle, with Dr. Waller Lewis, both of whom
had very great experience under the General Board
in the outbreak of 1848 and 1849.
The regulations and directions of the Board, issued
by authority of the order in council, under the
Nuisances Removal and Diseases Prevention Act,
1848, have been signed, and will be found in a
notification on the epidemic in the London Gazette.

We have heard of no welt-authenticated case of
Asiatic cholera in Manchester but that reported in these
columns on Monday; but reports are rife of other cases
having been encountered by medical men in their
private practice, and one was mentioned yesterday
as having taken place in Manchester and another in
Salford. A meeting is to be held to-morrow morn-,
ing at the Town-hall, Manchester, of tbo leading
professional men of the city to consider what steps
should be taken under present circumstances,
and it is probable that they will call the attention
of the authorities to the subject and make some sug-
gestions. They are acting at present in connexion
with an independent body called the Sanitary Asso-
ciation, supported by private and voluntary means,
and this body arc contemplating the circulation of
handbills from house to house describing the
premonitory symptoms of the disease, and
cautioning those seized with them not to
neglect early medical advice. Meantime the
Sanitary Committee of the Town Council, and a
similar committee appointed by the board of guar-
dians, are actively engaged in the best way their
judgments point out. Iho former body have had an
unusual number of complaints made to them from
private individuals of bad drains and similar
nuisances in cottage property, and the inspectors aro
engaged in reporting upon them and serving notices,
under the special powers placed in the hands of tho
corporation by local and other acts, for the removal
of such causes of complaint. They have already
succeeded in compelling the abatement of nuisances
from chemical works in Red Bank, Beewick, Union-
bridge, and other densely populated neighbourhoods.
In one closely populated part of the town was a
manure manufactory, which was an intolerable
nuisance, and had to bo wholly removed.
So far as the poor are concerned, it will
be learnt with pleasure from tho statements
of the medical officers of the union there is
a very small amount of sickness among the poor.
In the district where fever prevailed most largely
in Ibl7, and where diarrhoea and cholera were most