The Sun.
London, England, 1849-01-04 00:00:00

ST. THOMAS'S HOSPITAL.

A converaazione was held at this hospital last evening,
at which an address was delivered by Mr. Grainger on
the sanitary question, especially as it is connected with
epidemic cholera. Mr. Grainger stated that it had been
satisfactorily determined by the researches of the Me-
tropolitan Sanitary Commission (in whose labours he has
taken an active share), that the cholera closely follows
the habitat of fever, and that the districts which, before
the arrival of the cholera, had been the seats of fever
were those in which the cholera seized the greater pro-
portion of its victims. As in fever, so also in cholera,
a medical man could at once put his finger upon the
districts which would become the seat of cholera, by
selecting those districts in which pestilential ditches,
bad sewerage, and ill-constructed and over-crowded
houses most abounded. There could be no doubt what-
ever that the introduction of sanitary measures effectu-
ally checked the progress of typhus and continued fever;
and so little contagious was fever of this kind, in
his opinion, and that of almost all the intelligent coun-
try practitioners who saw and treated it in a pure at-
mo4phere. that it was to be expected in the course of
human progress and civilization that typhus and conti-
nued fever would ere long be eradicated. The cholera
appeared to be capricious in its progress, but iu reality
obeyed the known laws of an epidemic, and not of a cone
tagious disease. It not only followed the same habitat
as fever, but it attacked the same classes of the comma
nity, and even persons of the same age, the greater por-
tion or cholera patients being, as in fever cases, between
20 and 40 years of age. In St. Petersburgh, out of
23,000 persons attacked with cholera, 17,000 were be-

Men 18 and 40. The district in the city of Eamburgh
which stacrA mo,t from !hol,•k.n, in ISI2

(IoIVCI ii. 1.!1,.

that event it Laid been t

the 'city drains and ditches, but at the rebuild-
ing of the city subsequent to the fjre this district
was\ thoroughly drained, and the sewers had since
been most plentifully supplied with water. The result
was, that although this district in 1832 had furnished the
chief proportion of cases within the city, not one in ten
of the recent cholera cases had occurred in that quarter.
Here it was clear that nine-tenths of the cholera in
Hamburgh had been eradicated by sanitary improve-
ments. Having at some length, and by. a great va-
riety of instances, supported his position that the cholera
obeyed the known laws of epidemic disease, Mr. Grain-
ger adverted to the ravages of the cholera in Scotland,
and showed that there were special reasons why it
should rage with greater severity in Coatbridge and Glas-
gow than in other places, in consequence of the pesti-
lential ditches, noisome smells, and over• crowding of the
houses in those towns. In Glasgow there had been re-
turned 120 to 140 cases per day, and probably many more
had not been reported. The hear:e was moving through
the streets of Glasgow as through the city of the plague,
and a great number of the higher ranks had fallen vic
tim!: to the disease. Mr. Grainger then alluded to the
diarrhea, twitchings in the legs, and other premonitory
symptoms of cholera, which he said usually attacked
the whole of the population where the cholera was rife,
and which he had discovered had extensively prevailed
in the district of Whitechapel when the cholera was at
its height. This was the curable state of the disease.
After some observations on the treatment and pathology
of cholera, Mr. Grainger congratulated his audience on
the growing public interest taken in sanitary improve-
ment, as evinced by the fact that the inhabitants of 90
towns had already applied for the provisions of the
Public Health Bill to be extended to them, and con-
cluded his very able address amid loud applause.
NAVAL INTELLIGENCE.

- - ---
Captain Buckle arrived to-day and took up his com-
mission to the Centaur steam-frigate, which is preparing
for the pendant of Commodore Fanshawe, C. 8., in the
new steam-basin.

The Echo steam-tug proceeded to Cowes this morn-
ing, with a flit•bottomed boat in tow, to embark the
troops in the Appoline, and also to tow that vessel back
to Spithead, where she is to embark 100 convict pri-
soners for Bermuda. She was anchored at Spithead
this afternoon.

Siry seamen riggers, in charge of two warrant offi-
cers, left this dockyard this morning for Woolwich, by
the London, Brighton, and South Coast Railway, to
bring round the Arrogant, 46 gun frigate, to be corn-
rais,.ioned at this port. Mr. Macdonald, the Assistant-
Master Attendant of this dockyard, did not accompany
the party.

Tile Excellent gunnery-ship, Captain Chads, C. 8., is
again and has been for some time overmanned. She will
send a draft to the Centaur, and another to the
Arrogant, in a few days, which will cause a few vacan-
cies. It is bad policy that the Admiralty do not either
increase the Excellent's accommodation, or establish gun-
nery ships at the other ports. Men of the valuable cha-
racter of seamen gunners (all " A. 13.'s") are not always
to be picked up, and an emergency might arise which
might fearfully develop the want of more schools for
seamen of the kind in question.
A draft of the 97th Regiment, under Lieutenant Rey-
nolds, embarked this day at Cowes, in the Apolline
freight-ship, as a convict-guard to Gibraltar.
Wind E.N.E., fresh breezes and dark hazy weather.
PLYMOUTH,JAN. 2.—The Apollo troop-ship was com-
missioned yesterday, by Lieutenant Stiddeford.
Workmen have been put on the Sanspareil, to convert
her into a block ship; she is to be lengthened forward
13 feet, and aft 7 feet below, and 5 feet aloft.
The troop-ship Java, from London for Ireland, and
the brig Marintiner, of and for Valparaiso from Ant-
werp, were off the Start yesterday morning. Wind E.S.E.,
stiff breeze.

The Prussian ship Jupiter, with timber for the dock-
yard, came in this morning from Dantzic.
The merchant brig Jane an i Margaret, Captain Gor-
don, arrived this morning from Oporto, with wine for
London. On the 23th of December, in lat. 48 4 N.,
long. 6 30 W., she fell in with the long-boat of the brig
Emily, and took out the brig's crew,, ton in number, in-
cluding the master. The Emily, Captain Hindson, of
London, foundered on the 25th December, in lat. 46 N.
long. 8 W., on her passage from Newcastle to Messina
with coals. Captain Hindson and his people have been
placed under the charge of the agent for the Shipwrecked
Mariners' Society, by whom they will be gratuitously
forwarded to London.

Wind E.. blowing strong.
WooLwicn, JAN. 3.—The Admiralty flag was
hoisted half-mast high on the flag-staff in Woolwich
Dockyard to-day, in consequence of the intelligence of
the death of the Earl of Auckland, G.C.8., First Lord
of the Admiralty. The decease of his Lordship is uni-
versally regretted by all ranks in the navy, and by all
classes in the doekyard. The flags of the Fisgard and
the other vessels in commission have all been lowered to
half their usual height in respect to the memory of the
deceased head of the Admiralty.
The Doterel, Holyhead steam-packet, Master• Co-
mmander John Grey, was paid off at this port to-day.
The Monkey steam-vessel, Master-Commander Wm.
Bryant, got her steam up to-day, and proceeded to
Blackwell, to bring to Woolwich 60 riggers, sent up by
railway from Portsmouth to navigate the Arrogant
steam-frigate to the latter port.
The Arrogant steam-frigate, 46 guns, will proceed
down the river on trial on Friday morning, and will re-
main at Greenhithe during the night. She will proceed
to sea on Saturday, and if found to answer, will go to
Portsmouth direct, where she is to be commissioned by
Captain Fitzroy.
The Basilisk steam-vessel is to have a preliminary
trial to-morrow, and will leave at 7 o'clock A.m, for that
purpose, preparatory to her being tried with the Niger
steam-vessel.

The Janus steam-vessel, now fitted with the engines
formerly in the Sydenham steam• vessel, is ready to be
taken out of the basin, and when found perfect on trial is
expected to be commissioned for service on the Medi-
terranean station.

The Firebrand steam-vessel is in the East Dock, and
it will take some time to complete the extensive (repairs
she is now undergoing.
The Sampson steam-vessel is in an adjoining dock to
have her defects made good.
The Vesuvius steam-vessel is in King William IV.
dock, having considerable repairs to be effected before
she will be again ready for sea.
The Ilecla steam-vessel is now nearly ready for sea,
and will be taken out of the basin in a few days.
The Black Eagle steam-vessel,; Master Commander S.
B. Cook, has had her funnel taken out, and sho now re-
mains in the inner basin, under the factory crane, to have
her requisite repairs effected.
The Hermes, Prometheus, Gleaner, Jasper, Torch,
and Ariel steam vessels are in the inner basin; and
the Myrmidon, Flamer, Advice, and Charon, in the
outer basin, awaiting their turns to be made ready
for sea.

The Black Prince, 72 guns, it in the basin, no work-
men being employed upon her, as was intended, to con-
vert her into a convict ship, as it v:as found on receiving
estimates for the work required that it would cost a con-
siderable sum—it is said about 12,000/.—to render the
vessel ready for the reception of the convicts. Mr.
Voules, the superintendent of convicts, was subsequently
engaged in ascertaining if an eligible situation could be
obtained for the erection of a convict prison on shore,
which might be erected at a much less expense than the
cost of two convict ships, one for the Dockyard and ano-
ther for the Royal Arsenal, and a spot has been named,
but not decided upon, on property belonging to Mr.
Roupel, to the east of Mr. Roff's wharf, which would an-.
swer the purpose very well. In the event of its being de-
cided that a land-prison should be erected instead of a
hulk-prison, so liable to the decay of the timbers; owing
to being alternately wet and dry twice a day on the rise
and fall of the tide, it is intended to have a small steamer
fer conveying the convicts to the Dockyard and the
Royal Arsenal night and morning, and it will alsd save
a great amount of time now lost in going out in boats to
coal-vessels and other works in which the convicts are
employed on the river. A land-prison would also prove
preferable to the hulks, as the refractory convicts would
be better classified in confinement, now that it appears
that they will be employed to a greater number than
they have been on Government works, the laborious
employment being performed much cheaper by the con-
victs, when under proper inspection, than by labourers,
besides making the convicts a profit instead of a burden
to the country—an object of importance when economy
is so requisite in the public establishments, and savings
expected to be made in every department.