The Sun.
London, England, 1865-08-26 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, SATURDAY EVENING, AUGUST 26, 1865.

.This Day.

The

►idemics.

discipline so well suited for barbarians, a "central
despotism."
It may be out of human power to stop the march of
cholera absolutely ; but the experience of three epidemics

" Cholera is continuing its devastating march along the
shores of the Mediterranean, and its advent into ourcountry
is heralded by an unusual pestilence amongst horned cattle."
So say the newspapers. Now is this mere figure of speech ?
Is there a, "march ?" Are 'there "heralds ?" And, if so,
what ale they? Are they creatures of the imagination,
forces, influences, emanations, too subtle for chemical ana-
lysis ? or are they matters obedient to the laws of gravity,
chemistry, and life ? What is it that " marches ?" what
are its favourite hostels ? How can we bar the way ? Such
are questions anxiously pondered in many scientific circles
just now.
Now, it is perfectly easy to conceive of diseases brought
about by a concurrence of immaterial conditions—such as
heat, electricity, moisture, and the like ; and still more,
that these conditions may foster or suppress the march of
diseases of more palpable origin ; just as a heavy snowfall
or a hot simoom would arrest the march of an army. Still,
common experience seems to point to this, that the
cholera and fever do depend for their intensity on some-
thing material ; that their march is much like that of
locusts; that they have favourite halting and breeding
places ; and that whilst we may be helpless against
electrical conditions (we don't despair, by the way, of
combating even these some day), we can put a stop to
the march of more palpable enemies—we may bar them
out ; or, if they come in spite of us, may starve them
out and stop their propagation.
We think most of our readers will agree with us that the
readiest way for cholera to march into a place is for some
person ill of the complaint to move into it; or for clothes or
other matters contaminated with the discharges from his
body to come there. Then if all possible precaution be
taken that the discharges from the sick man find their way
into no drinking water ; that they are not allowed to fester
on an undrained surface where they can be wafted about
by the wind in the shape of wet mist or dry dust ; but that
they are honestly decomposed or buried out of harm's way,
then with 'the death or recovery of the sick man the
" march" may cease. A clean plate would be no fit place
of entertainment for cholera.
Now, up to this time, cholera has been almost entirely
confined to the Mediterranean seaboard Alexandria,
Smyrna, Constantinople, Malta, Ancona. Anyhow, if it
come to us, it must come through a seaport. Then, in the
name of common prudence, let us look at the condition of
our seaports, and see whether they are places in which
cholera would be starved out, or would increase and mul-
tiply. Would the enemy die out with the first case, or
woullit spread in the seaport and be ready for a march
inland ? Portsmouth, Plymouth, Southampton, Dover,
Harwich, Hull, Sunderland—how would the enemy thrive
in any of them ? He loves a low site—mud banks fes-
tering in the sun ; sewage under the houses in filthy cess-
pools ; sewage in the pumps which in every back yard of
a country town alternate with the cesspools ; sewage in
the harbour at low water ; dried sewage waftedinto mouths
and noses, and blowing on the meat in the butchers' shops
—sewage, in fact, everywhere. If the cholera should
reach our outports, will it not have every encouragement
to halt and refresh itself, and continue its march inland ?
Then, supposing it should march to the poor dis-
tricts of one of our groat towns, will it find fit quarters
there ? What shall we say of the parish of St.
George the Martyr, in one of the worst parts of the
Borough ? where an independent member of the Vestry,
a medical man, Mr. Rendle, upbraids the Vestry with the
hundreds of wretched, filthy houses, with the neglect
of the authorities in enforcing proper water supply and
removal of refuse ; where fever has been allowed to revel
undisturbed ; where the only excuse offered is, that the
people are so filthy that they won't and don't care to be
clean ; and where Mr. Rendle openly taunts the local dig-
nitaries with corrupt connivance at the evil, and threatens
them that public indignation will demand they shall be
stripped of their misused authority, and subjected to tha