The Sun.
London, England, 1853-11-01 00:00:00

METROPOLIS.

From returns made to the Commissioners of Metro-
politan Police by the Superintendents of the F, K, L, M,
P, and R divisions of police, and transmitted yesterday
to the General Board of Health, it appears that between
the 18th and 28th instant, there have occurred in those
districts 20 cases of cholera, of which 8 have resulted
fatally. In one instance the patient died in thirteen and
a half hours, and in another after only eight hours' ill-
ness. Five of these fatal cases had previously been
reported as being under treatment.
The report of the Board gives a detailed account of the
cases of cholera which have occurred at Brentford, but
which vary little from the accounts already published in
regard to other parts of the metropolis. The predispos-
ing causes were neglect of proper sanitary precautions.
Taken altogether, there are few places which stand more
in need of sanitary improvement than Brentford, and
which would be more benefited by the adoption of the
Public Health Act.

A few days ago some particulars were made known by a
local committee of the existing state of dwellings at Black-
heath, in a locality naturally very healthy. Another com-
mittee, formed of a number of the guardians of the poor and
the inhabitants of the parish, on making a house-to-house
examination with the Rev. H. H. iSwinoy, perpetual
curate of Mortlake, gave the following examplification
of the condition of much house property in another sub-
urban district in a site also naturally very healthy. It
would appear that there is an almost universal negli-
gence about keeping down accumulation of sewage. Not
less than sixty priviet Were' found nearly full; in some
cases the soil was actually up to the boards, and oozing
through the sides. As many as twenty cesspools were
found full to overflowing ; large pools of stagnant filth,
consisting of soap-suds, drainage from the cottages, and
even from pigsties, being left exposed, and throwing off
most noxious gases, to be inhaled by the neighbouring
inhabitants. In very many cases the drains which exist
are either actually open or very ineffectually, if at all,
trapped. In some instances pigsties are in use in close
yards, near dwelling-houses, with most imperfect circu-
lation of air. Everywhere ash heaps are allowed to re-
ceive decaying vegetable and animal matter, without
apparently any idea that the air is thoroughly poisoned
by the process of their fermentation. As hitherto, there
has been no escape for sewarage ; nowhere does there
exist any system of cleansing or flushing drains, and no-
where is it customary to use disenfecting precautions
where manure or other accumulations are being re-
moved. In many cases it has been found that the in-
habitants cannot drink the water from the pumps or
wells in their neighbourhood. Sometimes it is offensive
to the smell and taste, sometimes turbid. This may in
several instances be accounted for by the proximity of
the cesspool, or from the ground near the well being ab-
solutely saturated with the drainge from manure heaps,
&c. The soil in this neighbourhood, being generally
gravel or sand, admits of the rapid percolation of any
fluid matter.

AMENDMENTS OF THE LAW OF LUNACY.—TWO acts of
Parliament come into operation this day, which, with a
third in operation on Saturday, will make some impor-
tant alteration in the law of lunacy. They were brought
forward by Lord St. Lonards, and received the Royal
assent shortly before the prorogation. The first is en-
titled "An Act for the Regulation of Proceedings under
Commissions of Lunacy, and the Consolidation and
Amendment of the Acts respecting Lunatics, so found
by Inquisition, and their Estates." This act, which
contains 153 provisions, took effect on Saturday.
The second statute is "To Amend an Act passed in
the Ninth Year of the Reign of her Majesty for
the Regulation of the Care and Treatment of Lunatics,"
which comes into force to-day, containing 40 clauses ; as
also the third act, "To Consolidate and Amend the Laws
for the Provision and Regulation of Lunatic Asylums
for Counties and Boroughs, and for the Maintenance and
Care of Pauper Lunatics in England." This act contains
136 clauses. By the first act the delays and expenses of
proceedings under commissions de lunatic° inquirendo
will be dimished, and the per tentage on the incomes of
lunatics will be gradually and equitably charged. The
fees on commissions, which are to be issued under a
general commission, will be greatly reduced. Unless
indispensably necessary, the Masters in Lunacy may in-
quire into the alleged insanity of a party without the
intervention of a jury. Under the second act Bethlem
Hospital is to be registered, and subjected to regulations
like other hospitals ; and all workhouses where there are
lunatics are to be visited. All persons ill-treating luna-
tics are to be punished, and patients are to be frequently
visited. The third act has reference to lunatic asylums.
Accommodation is to be afforded to pauper lunatics, and
the Secretary of State can require counties to prepare
such places. By this act wandering lunatics may be ap-
prehended and taken care of ; and lunatics not under
proper care, or,`, cruelly used, arc to have an asylum.
Further, it is enacted that every pauper lunatic not in
an asylum, registered hospital, or licensed house, is to
be visited once a quarter, and lists of such lunatics are
to be sent to the Commissioners in Lunacy. These acts
of Parliament may be regarded as a codification of the
law of lunacy. They relate to a number of persons in
licensed houses, asylums, and hospitals.
THE WALBUS.—A scientific gentleman here (Wick)
has favoured us with the following extract from a letter,
received by him from a friend in Peterhead :—" I have
little news here to give you of strange matter, excepting
the arrival, per the Commerce, Henry, from Spitzbergen,
of a young stranger, in the shape of a walrus, or sca-
horse, all alive and healthy. They brought two away,
a male and female, both young—the male was killed
somehow. It was the practice to give them a bath daily,
by putting them overboard with a ropo round them, and
it was thought the male had struck himself against the
ship while under water, as he came up dead. The other
is to be sent to one of the Zoological Gardens in London
or Edinburgh. The pleasure I had in looking at this
curious, ugly, but very likeable creature was mixed
with regret that you were not present to see it too. I
bad seen many pictures of them, but never felt before
bow inadequate any picture is to give any one a correct
idea of (not the form) but the manners and customs of
an animal they never saw. It is in vain for me to try
to describe it ; but the first thing that struck me was the
illustration it affords of the sliding of one species of ani-
mal into another dissimilar ; for no two animals can be
more unlike than a fish and a cow, yet this one is like
each, and it is difficult to say which it is most like. I had
a notion that the walrus was a ferocious brute, but this
creature is gentle and affectionate, answers to the name
of Toby, and knows the voice of the captain and mate,
whom alone it will obey and follow like a dog. On
the voyage home it fed on the fat of pork chiefly ; now
it gets fish, limpets, and mussels, which it sucks in with
great gusto. It gives a short loud grunt, something be-
tween the snort of a horse and the grunt of a pig, in
reply to the captain when he speaks to it. On my visit
to it, I put soy face to see its expression, and it turned
rsuild to me with as much seeming intelligence as a
collie dog, to see what I had to give it or say to it, and
when it got its mouth close to my leg, it seemed con-
tented.—Johli o' Groat Journal.