The Sun.
London, England, 1836-11-16 00:00:00

NAPLES.

Extract of a letter of the 24th ult. from Naples, given
by the Augsburg Gazette :—" Our physicians, with some
few exceptions, have not been able to convince themselves
that the disease with which this city is infected has nothing
in common with the Asiatic cholera. Almost all the pa-
tients taken to the hospitals are of an advanced age,
and the remedies which are administered to them by way of
antidotes to the cholera may have hastened the death of
some of them. Doubts are also entertained as to the nature
of the malady which prevails in the Adriatic provinces of
the kingdom. The medical men who have been sent there
from Naples assert, in their reports, that it is a typhus, oc-
casioned chiefly by the extreme filthiness of the towns and
the inhabitants. They give, in fact, a most melancholy
description of these places. As an instance, they state that
in the town of Barletta there is but one sewer for carrying
off all the filth, which consequently has been accumulating
for ages. Heaps of muck are amassed before the houses,
and even within them men, women and children, cows, pigs,
goats, and poultry, herd together night and day. As all in-
tercourse with these provinces has been cut off, we have not
received any recent accounts from them. All the foreigners
have left Naples ; our furnished hotels are empty, and the
numerous class of people who live upon these visitors are
without bread."

A letter of the 28th ult., from Naples, contains the fol-
lowing :—" The cholera in the capital is so much the more
terrible, as the regulations ordered by the authorities have
served only to irritate and terrify the people. To such an
extent has the malady increased that it became necessary
to hold an extraordinary Council of Ministers a few days
ago, at which the King presided. His Majesty insisted
that the cordons and the rigorous measures which had been
prescribed should be withdrawn. His opinion prevailed as
the Council decided that a decree should be published con-
taining the following amongst other provisions :
I. The Supreme Deputation of Health is required to
publish instructions for the people on the measures to be
adopted against the malady, the names and residences of all
the physicians, and other similar information.
11. The hospitals are to be kept ready in every quarter for
the reception of all patients who may of their own accord
desire to be conducted thither.

111. Physicians and surgeons are to be at the orders of
all patients who may wish to be attended at their own
homes.

IV. The police authorities are to report to Ministers,
and the latter to the King, the conduct of such physicians
and surgeons as may neglect their duty, in order that rigo-
rous measures may .be adopted against them.
V. All the cordons established in the kingdom (with the
exception of that which exists around Rudi) are to be
dissolved.

VI. The militrary cordon of the Adriatic is also to be
dissolved.

VII. All prior regulations in opposition to this decree
are to be abrogated.
VIII. A clinical hospital for the cholera is to be estab-
lished under the direction of Professors Stillati, Landru,
Vulpin, and Pastiglione, to deliberate on the most appro-
priate modes of cure. Immediately after the Council, the
King proceeded, in company with Lieutenant-General Sa-
luzzo, and the Home and Police Ministers, to visit the
hospitals, and inspect the beds and medicines. His Ma-
jesty was pleased to traverse the most populous quarters,
and to enter several houses of the sick, in order to make
himself acquainted with their wants, and to encourage the
people by his example. This conduct produced a strong
impression on the populace, who followed the King every-
where with the most enthusiastic acclamations."

A letter of a recent date from Naples has the follow-
ing :—" The alarm that was created among the inha-
bitants by the cholera, begins to subside. Hitherto the
disease had appeared only in the Basso Porto, the
district quarter of Naples, and it was only from yes-
terday that it spread along the marine towards Car-
mine ; in the part of the city inhabited by the upper
classes there has been up to this moment no accident
which can be attributed to the cholera. It having been
rumoured that an apothecary, but little known, had disco.
vered in some old manuscript a remedy against vomiting
•and dysentery, and that out of 40 patients he had cured
37, the people flocked in crowds to his shop, and the
police were obliged to place guards there to maintain
order among the numerous applicants for the sovereign
remedy, the efficiency of which, after all, has yet to be
proved. An unfortunate physician, who had just left a
patient, and who, according to the prescription, was
washing his hands in lime-water near a public fountain,
was cruelly ill-treated by the populace, who accused him of
poisoning the fountain ; it was with great difficulty that the
gendarmes, who, upon hearing his cries, hastened to his
assistance, were able to save his life."

Dr. Viale, of Rome, has sent letters to the principal
journals of Italy denying the truth of the report which had
been spread of his having discovered the existence of an in-
sect in patients afflicted with the cholera. He says—._,,
never dreamt of such an absurdity. The insect in ques-
tion is found at certain periods of the year on the shores of
the Adriatic, and even possibly in other places in the Pe-
ninsula, but it has never been found on the bodies of per-
sons attacked with the cholera."