The Sun.
London, England, 1853-11-25 00:00:00

PHILANTHROPY AT HOME AND ABROAD.

" Sir,—l regret to be in a condition to confirm the cor-
rectness of your correspondent, Dr. Epps, whose commu-
nication on ' The Prevalence of Eruptions,' was given in
the Lancet of Nov. 4, page 852 ; for although seldom called
upon to perform vaccination, the prevalence of eruptive
diseases in children, during `the whole past period of the
present year,' has constantly forced itself upon my notice
and attention, whilst unusually severe diarrhcca, obstinate
(and, in two instances, fatal) dysentery, I have seen the
prevailing (epidemic) diseases of adults. The acute exan-
themata, scarlatina, and measles, have been more frequent.
in my practice than at any period during my previous
eight years' experience in this neighbourhood.
" In several cases of rubeola (measles) the congestion
and subsequent inflammation of the lungs have been of an
unusually severe character. In a few cases of scarlatina
maligna that have come, incidentally and otherwise, under
mylnotice, the parotid, submaxillary, sublingual, and entire
chain of cervical glands, have been inflamed, and exces-
sively increased in size.

" -Eight children, of various ages, have been treated for
acute and chronic pemphigus. In two of these cases, the
bullm were of unusual size, and discharged, in rapid suc-
cession, a most irritating fluid, which excoriated the sur-
rounding parts. Four cases of purpura, have been under
treatment. All my young patients had been well and.
sufficiently nourished.
" I consider, sir, that children are the truest (barometri-
cal ?) indices of the sanitary condition of a crowded neigh-
bourhood. The acute exanthemata, more especially, the
stock diseases of all such localities in the present shamefully
neglected condition of the earth's surface and sub-surface,
find in them the earliest, the most interesting, and the
most suffering victims.
" When children of a larger growth shall be fully
awakened to the conviction that in many localities disease
is `manufactured by wholesale,' to be treated by ' retail ;'
when individuals or bodies of persons who, blessed with
the means to do good and the leisure to execute, will, in-
stead of crusading for the evangelisation of transmarine,
heathen, attempt (and by the only sensible and immedi-
ately practicable means) to Christianise our own ; when
they will take as much care of the breed of the human as
they do of the higher order of domestic animals ; when
men, women, and children who, in thousands of instances,
are worse lodged, worse fed, and worse treated than the
horses of the rich in their stables, or the beasts of the
Zoological Gardens in their dons, are, for the first time,
anxiously and efficiently cared for; when the spurious,
the rotten philanthropy above hinted at, instead of pa-
thetically lamenting the moral depravity of the millions
whom it has never seen ' • will set itself seriously to work
to improve the temporal condition of our own unhappy.
too frequently degraded and brutalised poor ; when it shall
study poor human nature in detail instead of in the mass ;
go into the so-called houses and neighbourhoods in which
so many of our fellow-creatures vegetate, like fungi, not
live like men ; it will be the agent in producing enormous,
incalculably beneficial results—results that would be felt
in the minutest and most intricate ramifications of the
great human family.
.‘ The annihilation of easily-recognised sources of discom-
fort and disease, with their invariable concomitants,
would by degrees produce great moral and physical re-
sults. The patriot, the moralist, and the divine would
ultimately discover and appreciate the invaluable truth,
that however sincere and anxious the ministers of religion
may be to elucidate, explain, and enforce the great truths
of Christianity, the promises (to the poor, more especially)
of a happier, indefinite, non-tangible future, would
have a thousandfold more influence on their lives
and conduct than under the existing order of things ; be-
cause the finger of sophistry, scorn,
and derision could not
then point with the self-satisfaction and malignity of a
fiend to the tangible, terrible realities of the present.
W."
(Signed) G. A.
That is from a terrible pamphlet published in 1846,
by the Messrs. Longmans—a
pamphlet crowded
Burial
with terrible revelations, and entitled "
Ground Incendiarism." Assuredly fevv people require
to be told, at this time, who " G. A. MT.-" can possibly
be. We rather fancy that the ghouls Dave been
pretty well scared from their an
m pastimes in
the London graveyards during these ten years last
G. A. IN "
-„
past by that same indefatigable
"
o
frequently, indeed, that the
majority of the ob-
servant have long since come to recognise the value
at large by that ablest
of the services done to society

of our Sanitary Reformers.
If it be asked whither his index-finger of Reform.
is pointed—we need only reply in one word to the
" Cemetery"—meaning one not intramural, but

extramural.
Our esteemed provincial contemporary, the Bed-
ford Times, contained, by the way, very recently,
some benevolent and meritorious lines on this sub-
ect, lines which we cannot think undeserving quo-
tation. They are simply signed " Dorcas," and run
as follows, in one portion relating, first, to the cho-
lera, and then to—
THE CEMETERY.

• had crossed the sea and reaped
A spectre grim,
Some years ago---a baneful Pestilence,*
Then was a vigorous effort made to close
A goodly harvest for rapact ious death ;
The burial-grounds within the city's walls,
Where poisonous, gaseous exhalations rise,
And deal their deadliest influence round
By one+ desirous for his country's weal,
mteiamnes,
Who with his single voice aloud proclaimed
The monster evil to his fellow-men ;
AndAed imcoasra lfacrouasralgcedivid,talents,nal
could cope
With burial fees, and vested •
rights,
and
all
The varied host in Prejudice's camp,
Broke through the barrier with
Unveiled, and laid these hateful his single arm,
The public mind at length hat secrets
bare
: From lethargy, and that inherentslowly woke
Of old association, which ol love
Hath held it like a child inolealls t •
And stepped forth boldly, .ninf;ust,n2;.;
Three overloaded graveyardersyul,erge then closed:
But " men in power," with tim'rous, feeble will,
Left incomplete the work—the measure failed
Till once again the Choleraic scourge
Comes creeping on ; and by experience now
Mankind have wiser grown, and do their best
To stop, with sanitary means, the foe.
For ever will the graveyards of the town
Be closed, and no rude sexton's hand shall dare
Disturb a lov'd one's dust ; henceforth the dead
Within the cemetery's hallowed ground
'Will be interred, beyond the city's walls.
Oh what a quiet, peaceful spot is this !
Its verdant bloom, its graceful shrubs and flowers,
It's airy, wide expanse, whence vapours flee,
Make it an oft frequented, calm retreat,
(A. melancholy tho' a dear resort)
For those whose lost ones lie in stillness there
Beneath the tombstones which affection rears,
Where springs luxuriant grass, and branches stretch
Like sheltering arms o'er their decaying urns.
* The cholera in 1832.

f George Alfred Walker: the great champion 01 sanitary reform.
Enough for once—though the " facts and scram"
relating to this all-absorbing subject might be 141.
most interminably multiplied.