The Sun.
London, England, 1854-10-06 00:00:00

THE CHOLERA.

The epidemic is still lingering among the poor at the
eastern part of the metropolis, and ' numerous deaths
,are daily recorded in the districts of Whitechapel,
Goodman's-fields, St. Botolph, Aldgate Without, St.
George's-in-the-East, St. Paul's, Shiulwell ; St. John's,
Wapping ; the hamlet of Ratcliff ; All Saints, Poplar ;
St. Matthew, Bethnal-green ; St. Dunstan's, Stepney ;
St. Anne's, Limehouse ; Christ Church, Spita,lfields ;
ISt. Leonard's, Shoreditch ; and ether places, notwith-
standing the additional appointment of mipdical officers
Ifor the relief of the afflicted and destitute sufferers.
There arc a great many dangerous cases at present in
the cholera ward of the London Hospital, and several
deaths have taken place since the last weekly return
of the Registrar-General.
NORWICH.—The mortality from cholera is declining
in Norwich, but a considerable number of persons
have fallen victims to the ravages of the disease. The
following is a return of. the deaths in each parish made
by the surgeons employed by the board of guardians :
—St. Peter per Mountergate, 1 ; St. Stephen, 2 ; St.
Giles, 1 ; St. Benedict, 15 ; St. Gregory, 1 ; workhouse,
6 ; St. Peter Hungate, 1 ; St. Martin-at-Palace, 7 ; St.
Michael-at-Coslany, 5 ; St. Mary-of•Coslany, 10 ; St.
Martin-at-Oat, 15 ; St. Augustine, 9 ' • the infirmary and
asylum, 19 ; St. Clement, 2 ; St. Saviour, 2 ; St.
James, 4 ; hamlet of Pockthorpe, 5 ; hamlet of Laken-
ham, 20. Total, 127.
GLOUCESTER.—The deaths from cholera in this city
during the past week aro scarcely so many as might
have been expected, considering the heat of the weather.
We understand that about eight persons have fallen
victims to the epidemic. The removal of all nuisances
calculated to injure the public health is being en-
forced by the magistrates and other authorities.— Glou
tester Journal.
EDINBURGH.--During the last four days 22 new cases
of cholera have been reported to the inspectors of the
city, St. Cuthbert's, and Canongate parishes. Of those
10 have proved fatal. The disease seems to bo on the
decline in the city, only four cases and oue death having
been reported on Tuesday.—Scotsman.

FUNKRAL IDEAS,—A merchant in a considerable town
in Scotland was lately visited by the newly-made widow
of a workman, residing in an adjoining village, who in-
formed him of the loss of her gudeman, and asked his ad-
vice and assistance regarding the funeral. She was
determined, she said, to give him a decent burial,
though she spent every farthing she had in the at-
tempt. He kindly took the charge of the business,
and engaged, at a moderato rate, a plain hearse
and a couple of mourning coaches, roomy enough to
carry a dozen relatives and friends to the churchyard.
In a day or two she returned, and was profuse in her
thanks at the satisfactory conclusion of the business.
"It was a most respectable funeral," she said :
"a' her neubours wondered boo Sally T3lllBOll could
afford to bury her man in siccan style." This was
the cumulative point of satisfaction ; but in the cup
of human happiness there is always one bitter drop ;
and here it was according to her own native admis-
sion : there was just one thing which vexed her, that
John, poor man, had not been able to witness the style
in which his own funeral had been conducted ; " for
she was sure he wad hao been proud to sce't." This
curious confusion of ideas brings to our recollec-
tion a story told of an old lady in Liddesdale,
who in her will had given particular directions
as to her interment, which was to take place in a
churchyard far away among the hills, and remote from
her then residence. When laid upon her death bed, and
patiently waiting for her expected dissolutiou, a
heavy snowstorm came on, and appeared likely to
continue. Ruminating upon this, she dictated a
codicil, revoking her previous orders as to inter-
ment, and directing it to take place in a cemetery
not very distant from her house ; her reasons for the
change being, that the funeral party with so long a dis-
tance to travel in such stormy weather would he sure to
catch cold ; there would be a great deal of grumbling in
consequence, and she was sure she would never hear the
end o't.—Dunkfries Courier.
CHRISTENING Slurs (Vol. X., p. have always
considered this to be more a Pagan than a Christian
ceremony, a relic of the ancient libation rather than a
" caricature of the sacrament of baptism." In modern
Greece, when a ship is launched, tho bow is decorated
with flowers, and the captain takes a jar of wine, which
he raises to his lips, and then pours out upon the deck.
It is more than probable that many nautical customs,
superstitions (the broom at the mast-head when the ves-
sel is for sale, shaving when crossing the line, whistling
for wind, Bz.c.), and even technical terms, might be de-
rived from a very remote antiquity. Even if we descend
to a comparatively modern period, we may find that
sailors have preserved among them the technical terms
of their profession, though numberless terms of other
trades and professions have become obsolete within the
last two centuries. Scarcely the half of the technical
terms of various trades and professions that may be
found in that most curious ontniunt gatherum, Randle
Holine's " Academy of Armory," would be understood
by their respective craftsmen at the present day,.wher,e, as
every nautical torus in the much earlier production, A
Ship of Fooles," would be understood by the modern
seaman.—Notes and Queries.