The Sun.
London, England, 1831-11-09 00:00:00

CHOLERA MORBUS.

(From the ifetevirg, of Tuesday.)
In consequence of the alartn respecting this disease at Sith,
lertAini, we deem it necessary here to ibake a few general ottset.'
vations. 1.-!any medical men are of opinion that die Asiatic"
and the English cfi'.l'erfis are mere modifications of die sai4re'
complaint. It is quite ittOslttle to decide this question, afff/
if it were possible, it would not be l'itrtieb importance, because
any such decision would probably furnish fa additional know-
ledge as to how the sick were to be treated. however,
t' be tolerably certain, that the Indian cholera hi !Miss
anrib't lie the swine as the Indian cholera at Sunderland. Me..
et'et,i &sesi et! a difference in virulence the further
the (I:3rStqhaV drio few/ ifs origittel Move, and this virulence
decreasing at eyed d4i lb& from the state of the cholera at
Sunderland, even supposing all the iaiai cafes to have bcvn In-
dian cholera, which may admit of some Ile abt!,_ titier6 pis not
as yet appear to be reason to expect that it will sfiread fir airy
*Thag,like what we may term a continental extent. The tau
tin:title:7We ere; In a most praiseworthy manner, procuring
the cleansing of *A fittings inhabited by the lower orders ; but
something elsebesidet tiC'siiihrtSt may be necessary to avert the
attack of the disease. Cleanlifigi4*Abt keep disease from a
hungry stomach and a famishing frame, Ott *e acre awaited by
those who daily visit the dwellings of the lower tlfd&s hi new.
castle, that there are hundreds, to use the lowest estliitate of
distress, Who title upon nothing but potatoes, or tea, pr cctiN,
rtak and sugar, and with little bread, and sometri,:rt
none. So far tre'rrt beirig surprised that the cholera would at. I
tack such objects as these', -ffe*Ofider that intieh of that disease
has not already visited them. Tifcle litte iieen inter in New_
castle for many weeks, but that so great d nitintito of inantari
beings should have so long endured one of the worst Of gl elisz
Tread want of food, and should not have had more frequetilii
an-164A theiir, Ore description of violent cholera morbus, has '
been matter of astotitifirgeht tb the faculty themselves. Besides
cleanliness, it behoves the ;Yif.)&101; if they would prevent
the disease, or reduce the attacks If-0 &Aid Make its appear-
ance, to see that every poor person who eitiiik 4fibrd to infidel]
himself with wholesome, nutritive food, is cotillion* fed.
We leave to the authorities themselves to arrange how this
is
best to be done, but the attention of all who can afford to aid in
the good work. is hereby called to it, not only as a charitable
object, but as a Christian dtity --2-not as matter of favour or gra-
tuity, but as they regard the welfate tine safety of Newcastle.
In addition, we would entreat our readers to titre* from their
minds as_much as possible every feeling of alarfa. they will
find in another part of our Paper some accounts from ?flee,
from Hamburg, and from Warsaw, which will satisfy- them
that MOM exaggeration has existed respecting the cholera; and
we beg they may trot allow themselves to be led away by any
tales of terror they may read or hear about contagion or infec-
tion, for they may rest assured that cholera is much more evi.
dently propagated by filth, neglect, starvation, and bad food,
than by any theoretical or mysteriously unaccountable inede of
communication whatever. Let care the most ample, prem..
tions the most vigilant, be employed, but let us not suffer our-
selves to be paralysed by ideas of a dangerous fatalism, that
would persuade us we could not avoid what the good effects of
precautions elsewhere have shewn us may be at least conside-
rably mitigated—let us not be hindered from bestowing kindly
attendance on such of bur friends or connexions as may happen
to be visited by the calamity, by pernicious fears, which, if we
should be assailed, would leave ourselves miserably deserted, a:,
we had selfishly deserted others.

THE CHOLERA MORBUS.
Within the last few days considerable alarm has been excited
in this town, in consequence of it having been ascertained that
the Asiatic cholera has made its appearance in Sunderland. Up
to Saturday last we had reason to believe that only five fatal cases
had occurred. We have this day (Mondays liov. 7) the distress-
ing intelligence of two more deaths having taken glare from this
dreadful disease, and a third being momentarily expected. We
have been favoured with the perusal of a letter from a gentle-
man of great respectability, dated " Bishopwearmouth, Sunday
night, nine o'clock, Nov. 6," from which we make the following
extract:—
"Sunday Evening (Nine o'clock), Nov. 6.—Mrs. Wilson, aged
about 60, in a respectable station, after an Illness of 24 hours, died
:his morning. During the first 16 hours she had no medical
attendance ; was seen by Dr. Brown about two hours before
death. It was decidedly a case of cholera, but from the ad-
vanced stage when first seen by Dr. Brown, he is unwilling
nositively to say that it was Asiatic cholera. She had been
delicate before this attack. Ellington, a man about 50, lately
suffering from intermittent fever, attacked with cholera, and
died to.day in six or eight hours—attended by a surgeon, by
whose account our physicians consider it a care of Asiatic cho.
I era. Ellemore, a man about CO, now ill; seen by Dr. Daun, the
physician from London, and considered by him to have been
Asiatic cholera • apparently sinking (nine o'clock) ; taken ill
about midnight last night.
"An order has come to-day to our Custom-house, saying all
Sunderland ships will have to perform quarantine after leaving
this port."
On this statement we beg to offer one or two remarks. 01:
the case of Mrs. Wilson, the first mentioned, it is presumed little
stress can with propriety be placed, as no medical assistance ap-
pears to have been Called in at all till i 6 hours after she had been
attacked ; then it would seem some mecbeal man, whose name is
not given, visited her, but it was not till 22 hours after her ill-
ness had commenced, and two hours before her death, that Dr.
Brown, an eminent physician, saw her. Then, though it was a
lecided case of cholera, he would not say p,,sltlvely that it was 01
the Asiatic character. In the second case, that of Ellington, a
surgeon, whose name is not mentioned, attended the deceased,
and the physicians from his report pronounce it to be the Asiatic
cholera; the third case is decidedly declared by Dr. Daun to be
Asiatic. It is possible the whole three may have been of the
same description, but it is impossible to read this letter without
being filled with astonishment that in a large and populous
town where an alarm of so destructive >t complaint raging
was spread, a case of that very disease should occur, where
for a great many hours no medical aid whatever is called is ;
and another case where only a single surgeon attended,
though there are several physicians and surgeons on the spot.
We trust that we shall not have occasion again to notice
there or elsewhere such apparent apathy under circumstances
of serious vital importance to the community. We have
made several inquiries with a view to learn, if possible, with
certainty, how the cholera morbus has been introduced Into
Sunderland. Though the information we lave been able to
obtain has not been so exact or satisfactory as we could have
wished, we confess our impression is, that its origin is to be
traced to some vessels arriving in the river Wear from Mans.
burg, which were very improperly suffered to be stationed at
Deptford, ostensibly for the purpose of performing quarantine.
Nothing could be more absurd. From London we learn that all
vessels from Sunderland are to be put tinder' quarantine at the
Nore. The Collector of the Customs here has received instruc-
tions not to allow any of them to enter this port. In some of
the London newspapers we observe it stated that there have
been 9.1 cases of cholera at Newcastle, and 19 deaths. Nothing
can be more opposed to truth. In Newcastle, thank God, we have
as yet not a single case of the Asiatic cholera, though its arrival
at Sunderland within twelve miles of us makes it highly propable
it may reach us, since the coaches are running daily, morning
and afternoon, between Newcastle and Sunderland, Every thing
that cleanliness and ventilation can effect for protection is strictly
enforced.
We cannot conclude without stating that two persons from
Sunderland have just brought intelligence to Newcastle which
increase our alarm. One states that he saw four persons dead
this morning of cholera morbus, and that their bodies were
bl ck : the other, Captain Lonie, of the Jean, says that when he
came away one of his crew was ill of the cholera. Assuming
these statements to be well founded, it is hoped that of the
four cases first mentioned only one is new, the rest being the
three above described : that referred to by Captain Lonie of
course would seem to be an additional case, but we do not know
it to be fatal.