The Sun.
London, England, 1847-06-19 00:00:00

PREVALENCE OF FEVER.

An epidemic is springing up in cities and towns, under
peculiar circumstances, which demands the serious at-
tention of the Government, the Legislature, and the
public ; a striking illustration of which is afforded by
the character and the extent of the fever which is pre-
vailing at the present moment in the metropolis. Dur-
ring the months of April and May the admissions into
the London Fever Hospital were treble the number of
admissions in the three preceding months of March,
February, and January. The number is steadily in-
creasing. Wards which had been shut up for several
years are now open, and are already full. There is at
the present moment scarcely a vacant bed in the house,
and some days ago patients were brought to the doors
of the hospital, but could not be admitted for want of
room, and soon upwards of twenty were on the list,
waiting their turn for the next vacant beds.
Out of the total number admitted during the last
two months about one-third are Irish. Of these, by
far the greater number have either recently arrived
in London, or belong to families that have received
relations or acquaintances just arrived from Ireland.
Many of these poor people were actually in a state
of fever on their arrival, but still more were in such
a weakened and exhausted condition, that they fell into
fever in a few days after their abode in the wretched
houses and the poisonous localities in which they lodged.
Every case of this kind acts as a ferment thrown into a
mass of materials just ready to take on the protNss of
fermentation. If the season should prove warm, and
the air close and stagnant, that process must go on and
extend in all those fever districts. The character of
the prevailing fever is also peculiar, and exhibits one of
the symptoms hitherto thought to be distinctive of the
plague, namely, a remarkable tendency to glandular in-
flammation. In plagues these glandular inflammations
chiefly attack the glands of the groin, constituting
bubo; in the fever at present rapidly spreading over
every part of London, they attack the glands of the
neck and face, particularly the parotid gland; but be-
yond this difference in its seat, there is no appreciable
difference in the nature of this affection in plague and
typhus.—Chronicle.

DOMESTIC EXTRAVAGANCE.—The wanton and
wicked extravagance that has taken place, and is taking
plaee, by servants in many noblemen and gentlemens'
residences, and even in many middle class families, calls
for an immediate correction. The waste of bread, meat,
potatoes, &c., in many families is truly shocking, and
which if heads of those families were fully aware of,
would produce astonishment to them. A correspondent
writing to us upon this subject says he has seen such
wanton and wicked waste of bread, meat, potatoes, &c., by
the domestics of a gentleman's family near to where he
resides, that it has positively shocked him. An
immediate correction ought to take place by the prin-
cipals of all families; not a niggardly correction, but a
necessary one of wastefulness.
DEATH OF MR. PAPWORTH.—The death of Mr.
John Buonarotti Papworth, late Vice-President of the
Royal Institute of British Architects, occurred on Wed-
nesday last, at his residence, Park-end, St. Neots,
whither he had retired from London, after more than
fifty years professional practice. Amongst the clients
to whom he owed an extremely varied practice he num-
bered several of the late branches of the Royal Family,
especially the Princess Charlotte, and also the present
Ning of Wurtemberg, from whom he, having desigaed
the palace and English part at Kaunstadt, received the
appointment of architect to his Majesty.
Mr. Daniell, the African traveller, has reached this
country, after escaping all the vicissitudes of a compara-
tively unknown country in South-Western Africa. He
has had several attacks of fever, and escaped death
under various guises. He has, however, reaped a rich
ethnological collection, which be intends immediately to
lay before the Ethnological Society. He has minutely
studied the distinctions whioh the various tribes of
negroes of the south present, compared with the un-
civilised men of the north of Western Africa. The
Portuguese possessions, especially the penal settlements
—a new and rich field of inquiry—have engaged his
marked attention. The slave trade is rapidly gaining
ground in Angola, and the adjacent countries, to the
great detriment of our legitimate commerce ; and, not-
withstanding the reputed vigilance of our cruisers, a
vast number of slaves have been transmitted to the
Brazils, the exports of a few months exceeding the
ordinary amount of past years. A vessel has been
equipped in the port of Soanda, the chief Portuguese
settlement in South Africa, and had successfully escaped
with a full cargo of slaves. One of the members of the
Portuguese Court was implicated in this affair, and has
been dismissed from his post by th© Government.