The Sun.
London, England, 1839-01-02 00:00:00

ALLEGED INCREASE OF SMALL-PDX.—At the
last meeting of the Royal Medical and Chirurgical So-
ciety, Dr. Gregory, the physician to the Small-pox Hos-
pital, made a statement, of which we give a condensed
notice. He stated that in the middle of November, 1837,
there had been a sudden and marked increase in the num-
ber of patients admitted into the Hospital, and which had
continued up to the present time ; so that from the Ist of
January, 1838, 681 cases had been admitted, and of these
281 had previously been vaccinated. Startled at this in-
crease, he had made inquiries from various sources, and
found that the disease was spreading in the same fearful
manner throughout England, scarcely a town or village
having been free from it since last November, and the in-
crease throughout Europe had also been great ; but on the
Continent the alarm had been taken, and re-vaccination
practised to a great extent. In 1833-4, small-pox was very
prevalent at Copenhagen, and in 21 months 1,000 patients
were admitted into the hospitals, of which 900 had been
vaccinated. These are important facts, bearing on the
prevalence of small-pox, and the present failure of the vac-
cine lymph as a prophylactic measure, and should these
statements be borne out, will show the necessity for the
immediate adoption of sanatory measures to prevent the
spread of so dreadful a disease.
An inquest was held on Friday in Brick-street,
Park-lane, on the body of Elizabeth Gaddell, who was
burned to death under very distressing circumstances. It
appears that deceased, who was between seventy and eighty
years of age, and had been upwards of twenty years in th'e
service of Lady Cockerell, lived with her daughter in
Grantham Mews. On Christmas evening the daughter
went. out, leaving deceased in charge of her two grand-
children, and on returning home about twelve o'clock, was
horrified at finding her mother's body lying within the
fender, her legs being totally consumed by fire, and the
trunk smouldering. Of course the poor woman was quite
dead. How she had come into that dreadful situation can
only be conjectured. It appeared in evidence, that about
eight o'clock deceased had put the children to bed, having
first read and explained to them a chapter in the Bible,
and nothing further was seen or heard of her till the body
was discovered in the manner already noticed. Notwith-
standing her age, she was not infirm, and was a person of
very temperate habits ; nor was she at all subject to fits, or
to sudden attacks of illness. Several persons residing in
the neighbourhood were in a situation to have heard her
cries, had she given any alarm when the accident took place,
but nothing of the kind occurred. It was most miraculous
that the fire had not communicated to the carpet of the
room, in which ease the children would, in all probability,
have fallen victims. The Jury returned a verdict of
An the country a few years ag0.1,14.-sTlie Sacred Ac-
cidental Harmonic Death. It was stated in the room, but not in
evidence, that a son of deceased's had been accidentally
burnedE xEtT%il deathH
Society
met on Friday night at the hall of this establishment, and
paid the best and most appropriate compliment to the season
by performing the Messiah. They mustered strongly, as
usual, making up a baud, vocal and instrumental, of up-
wards of 500 persons. The solo parts of the oratorio were
sustained by Miss Wyndham, Miss Birch, and Mrs. Toul-
min (late Miss Woodham), Graham, Turner, Novelle, and
Atkins, and, for the most part, in a Very creditable man-
ner ; none of the ladies have that power and fulness of
voice requisite to do full justice to the themes in this most
sacred and epic composition, but they make some amends
by sweetness and neat execution—in Miss Wyndham's case
by most delicate expression, Brabotn maintained almost
all his qid pre-eminence in the (*fort ye, my Penple,r,
" Every Valley," and f! Hp that dWelleth.lt Re was eti-
thwiwically erjc,red ip the spirited air "Thon. shalt
break." choruses were finely executed, improving as
they advanced. The hall was thoroughly crowded by a
mot attentive and, seemingly, most gratified audience.