The Sun.
London, England, 1865-10-17 00:00:00

and in 1848-9 respectively, taking cognisance of
antecedents and concurrents which then ruled, and
which may be rationally accepted in the sense of
precedents for future guidance—it will be perceived
that there has been far less warranty for general
apprehension this autumn than might have been in-
ferred from the note of alarm that has gone forth.
On the two occasions referred to there were, as Dr
Letheby remarks, three facts which came prominently
before us. First, there was an unusual outbreak of
the disease in India, where it showed itself in an
epidemic form ; and this lasted for a year or two be-
fore its appearance in Europe. Secondly, the course
of the disease was always from India in a north-
westerly direction ; through Russia, and by the
Baltic, into one or more of our eastern ports. And
lastly, at the time of its appearance amongst us there
was a large amount of zymotic disease, especially
diarrhoea and dysentery. On the present occasion
there have been none of these significant forewarn-
ings of an approaching epidemic. During the last
four years India has been less than usually infected
with cholera ; for although the disease has neve
been entirely absent from the Indian peninsula since
its first appearance in the delta of the Ganges in
1817, and has on many occasions since then com-
mitted great ravages, not only amongst our troops
but amongst our native population, yet, since the
year 1861, it has not assumed an epidemic character.
Though anterior to the present year India may be
regarded as the sole incubation spot of the malig-
nant cholera—this so markedly that certain patho-
logists had almost come to entertain the belief that
the concurrent circumstances favourable to its out-
break could not exist elsewhere—that opinion will
now have to be treated with great reserve ; probably
to be discarded. The testimony of Dr, Letheby,
though consistent with the upholding of that opinion
in its integrity, since he assumes the germs of cholera
to have been carried to the holy Mohammedan cities
by pilgrims from India—is opposed to other state-
ments that we have seen propounded. In the esti-
mation of many pathologists, who have studied the
present cholera outbreak, its orign may be localised
on the present occasion to Arabia ; having first
shown itself amongst the Mohammedan devo-
tees assembled to celebrate the festival of sacrifice,
otherwise called the " Kourban Bairam." If this
Arabian origin of cholera be well established, the
fact will be of pathological interest, as demonstra-
ting a larger field of genesis than exists for either
the yellow fever or the plague—diseases with which,
although dissimilar in symptoms to both, cholera
is often studied in connection. True yellow fever
has only been known to take its origin within a-
comparatively limited area of the Atlantic region
of America. The Pacific coast, even between the
same parallels of latitude, not only does not origin-
ate the vomito, but something is present in the
Pacific region that checks the disease like magic, if
a yellow-fever patient be transferred to it. Again,
in respect to plague, the generalisation holds good
—universally, we believe—that it never breaks out
except in some part of the Ottoman empire, and
that from some portion or another of that empire it
is never absent. Whatever may be the cause of
these localisations, they are important to bear in
memory, as comprising the conditions which may
hereafter evolve laws. Relative to the chances of
immunity from cholera as affecting these isles,
though a favourable augury might have been in-
ferred, from consideration of the fact that the epi-
demic has not been pursuing its wonted course this
season, yet a surer ground for confidence existed in
a fact pointed out by Dr. Letheby. He states that
during the summer and autumn past, the part of
London under his cognisance, and we believe Great
Britain and Ireland generally, have been more
absolved than usual from those zymotic diseases
which hitherto have heralded in the Asiatic scourge,
and which present to it a general mild resemblance.
Whilst the average number of diarrhcea cases for
the period covered by Dr. Letheby's report is sixty-
three—the last year's number, indeed, being seventy-
six—it has this year risen to only forty-nine ;of
which forty-three were among children of less than
five years old. From these figures it will be seen
that the choleraic train of diseases has been less
than usually fatal. Records of sickness returns
from the medical officers of City unions present
concurrent testimony ; seeing that, according to
them, though the average number of diarrhcea cases
attended among the poor of the city during the
summer quarter of the last seven years is four hun-
dred and seventeen, they have this year only risen
to three hundred and seventy-three. All this testi-
mony, accepted in connection with the seasonable
change of weather that has set in, may remove the
last traces of apprehension as to any visitation of
cholera during the year 1865 at least ; and, at the
rate at which metropolitan drainage progresses, the
year 1866 will find London better prepared than
now to receive the Asiatic scourge if needs must
come ; of which, however, we see no imminent pre-
monitions.