The Sun.
London, England, 1853-10-31 00:00:00

METROPOLIS.

It appears, from returns made by the superintendents
of the D, K, M, N, and V divisions of police to the
commissioners, and by them transmitted to the General
Board of Health, there have been eleven cases of cholera
within those districts on the 26th and 27th inst., of
which five have resulted fatally. In two instances, the
patient died 14 hours after attack, and in a third in 12
hours from the. time of seizure.
BLACKUENTII.---A very severe case of cholera is re-
ported as having occurred at Blackheath. The patient,
a child, was, at the time of the report of the surgeon, in
a state of collapse, and dying. The house is " one of
eight, in a small place misnamed a square, all without
water and drainage, and all with overflowing closets."
" In my opinion (adds the medical attendant) all are un-
fit for human habitation, and all ought to be closed to
prevent further cases of cholera." A fatal case occurred
in the house directly opposite in 1849, and diseases of a
low type, fever, &c., have prevailed ever since that pe-
riod. The same surgeon, in reporting the above-men-
tioned case in 1849, at that time stated his conviction
that these houses were " unfit for human habitation.''
Mr. Hall, from the Poor-law Board, and Dr. Milroy,
from the General Board of Health, had an interview on
Thursday with the board of guardians of Wandsworth.
The union embraces the parishes of Battersea, Wands-
worth, Putney, Clapham, Tooting, and Streatham dis-
tricts, varying much in respect of natural advantages, as
well as in other local circumstances intimately affecting
health. The full extent of the onerous and very respon-
sible additional duties imposed on the parochial medical
officers, by the regulations and directions which the Ge-
neral Board of Health has issued under the present
Order in Council, would not appear to have been quite
appreciated by these gentlemen or by the board of guar-
dians. After the explanations given by Mr. Hall and
Dr. Milroy, the board at once recognised the importance
of the suggestion that the duties of sanitary inspection
and general hygienic superintendence of the union be
committed to their medical officers by passing a formal
resolution to this effect. Hitherto resident medical gen-
tlemen have been exposed to considerable obloquy,
and the risk of injury to their professional pro-
spects, when called upon occasionally to certify to the
existence of nuisances on the premises of the inhabitants,
or to make complaint of the unwholesomeness of many
dwellings, the property, it may be, of an influential
parishioner. But these inconveniences are, of course,
at once got rid of when it is understood that these gen-
lemen have no option left them in the discharge of

duties officially imposed upon them, and which are no
longer merely voluntary or permissive, but imperative
or compulsory. Independently of being constituted the
sanitary inspectors of their respective parishes or dis-
tricts, the medical officers are required to act as health
officers at the same time, by maintaining a vigilant sur-
veillance over the health of the poorer classes, so as to
detect at once and bring under immediate treatment all
cases of epidemic disease from their first development.
Should any considerable increase of sickness take place,
so that they cannot efficiently undertake the additional
duties required of them, they are without delay to apply
to the board of guardians for such assistance as may be
necessary. The machinery, when once properly esta-
blished in conformity with the regulations and directions
of the General Board of Health, is capable of ready ex•