The Sun.
London, England, 1853-09-13 00:00:00

Anybody would imagine that the precautions we

have been urged to take against Pestilence were
exceedingly disagreeable in themselves, and that
we were to be highly taxed in matters of every-day
convenience for this special insurance against dis-
ease. But, even.if there were not such a visitation
to be apprehended as that of cholera, would there
be any harm in making our streets sweet and habit-
able ? Is it not a conclusion suggested by- every
principle of decency and propriety that we should
find a better repository for the remains of the dead
than those crowded " yards " with which we
have surrounded our places of worship ? Do
we require to be threatened with the horrors of
a plague before we can be induced to supply our-
selves with pure water, and to turn this water to
its natural uses ? Should not all these things be
done from instinct, if not by reason ? The functions
of a " Board of Health " are really almost a stigma
upon our national civilisation. It is quite deplo-
rable to think that in this 19th century we should
require a special body of magistrates and officers to
enforce the observance of the commonest and most
necessary duties. Yet we see at Tynemouth that
the Local Board of Health has only just now re-
ceived permission from the authorities to begin
whitewashing and cleansing.
We are fortunately escaping from the most sickly
season of the year, and the colds of winter, which
arc raroly vory backward in this climate, will soon
succeed to the short sunshine of autumn. In fact
we have already passed the period at which, four
years ago, the epidemic attained its greatest
height. But experience has plainly taught us,
that the cholera is not a visitation recurring only at
intervals of 20 years, and never see again till after
the lapse of another such period. It has already lost
the character which deprived it of some of its terrors,
and we now see that it can localise itself as well in
Europe as in India. Since 1848, indeed, it has never
actually disappeared from the coasts of the Baltic,
and we believe that, if statistics could be obtained,
its operations would be detected in the northern
capitals from that time to the present. It raged
violently, though partially, in Prussia in 1850,
and was devastating Russia throughout the whole
of last year. Our own experience of the visitation
was mercifully confined to a few months, but other
countries have never entirely escaped it, and in
places where it finds its natural aliments of filth
and wretchedness, it may, perhaps, settle itself as
permanently as the plague in Cairo.
Exactly, however, in proportion as we have less
cause for alarm should we be more active in our
precautions. Our immunities, indeed, represent
so many advantages of position against a formid-
able enemy, and we shall be wanting in duty if we
omit to turn these to the best account. It cannot
be said that the work is arduous. We are called
upon to do nothing beyond what ought to be done
without any such call. To fortify ourselves
against a dangerous epidemic, we are merely re-
quired to put in execution the simplest rules of
social economy—rules, be it observed, which are
just as imperatively suggested by the ordinary con-
tingencies of life. It is not only pestilence which
waits upon their infraction. Perhaps the cholera,
indeed, is less to be dreaded than those ordinary
diseases which do their work ceaselessly and in
secret. A new danger alarms us into temporary
wisdom, and we set our houses in order accordingly.
When it has passed we relapse into apathy and un-
cleanliness, forgetting that fever is always at our
sides, and that the precautions we neglect are
preservatives against sickness in more shapes than
one.

DEATH PROM HYDROPHOBIA. —An old soldier, named
Quittau, of Malzerille, department of the Meurthe, had
a dog to which he was much attached, because it had
several times saved his life. About eight days ago he
fancied that the poor animal appeared likely to be
stricken with hydrophobia, and he resolved to drown it.
Having taken it to a river, he removed the muzzle, and
it bit him in the leg. He paid no attention to the in-
jury, but in a few days after was attacked with hydro-
phobia, and, after much dreadful suffering, died.—
Galignani.
THE TEMPERANCE LEAGUE DEMONSTRATION.—The
London Temperance League held its third annual ga-
thering yesterday, at the Surrey Zoological Gardens.
A very large number of persons were assembled, and the
children of the " Band of Hope " marched to the gar-
dens, headed by a military band, and under the leader-
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" Song of Welcom e;::afte; which there was a brief ad-
dress from Mr. Gough. The company then dispersed to
amuse themselves with the usual recreations of the gar-
dens, but collected again at four o'clock, when the
"Bands of Hope" sang some airs, and a few boy and
girl musicians and singers displayed some very preco-
cious acquirements, both in vocal and instrumental
music. Mr. Gough then delivered a very long and ani-
mated address, embracing all the topies and arguments
connected with total abstinence. The ordinary attrac-
tions of the concert, fireworks, and storming of Chusan,
were then enjoyed heartily by a very crowded, but as
respectable and well ordered an assemblage, as could be
met with anywhere.