The Sun.
London, England, 1848-09-21 00:00:00

THE IRON TRADE.

The last three weeks of delightfully seasonable
weather have dispelled all anxiety as to the result of
the harvest, and afforded an opportunity to secure a
good and pletiful supply of provisions for the winter
season. The iron trade has partaken of the conse-
quent improvement in the general tone of feeling, and
a marked impression is prevalent that no necessity
can exist for much longer submitting to the present
unremunerative prices ; although the scarcity of
money, arising from an unwillingness on the part of
capitalists to entertain anything like speculative pro-
jects, still cramps the operations of every trade. We
are glad to learn that the steady home demand for
manufacturing purposes continues unabated, and that
within the last fortnight it has been deemed ad-
visable, in one instance, to declare an advance
of ten shillings per ton upon nail-rods, by a
house of the first standing, in order to prevent
too great an accumulation of orders; since the nail
ironmongers of the district, after having been induced
to abandon an attempt at reducing the wages of their
men, are now rather freely endeavouring to supply
themselves with rods. It appears, also, that very con-
siderable orders have lately arrived from various parts
of the Continent, where the novelty of military car-
nage and devastation seems to be losing its charms
under a practical comparison between the results of
civil convulsion and commercial industry, and it is
likely that in a short time our business transactions
there, which have been suspended during these dis-
turbances, will be again resumed to their full pre-
vious extent. In the pig trade prices are also well
supported, and a brisk demand prevails. Several
small lots have been taken at rather higher rates, and
a great amount of business might have been done had
the makers beck willing to sell. In the Scotch and
Welch markets also a decided improvement has taken
place, and the demand is so much more lively that
some of the furnaces that were standing have been
again put into blast. It is, however, to be hoped
that this example will not be incautiously followed to
any extent, as the prospects and gradual progress of
amendment may be easily blighted by over-produc-
tion. A cheering trait also may be noticed in the
number of advertisements for large contracts of iron of
different denominations that have lately begun to make
their appearance in the newspapers; and we are
happy to observe that many of the new branches
of railway, where operations for a time have
been suspended, are again exhibiting indications of
renewed progression. Upon the whole we think
that the trade is now gradually assuming a healthy
position ; and rational grounds exist for the uni-
versal opinion that an advance of 105. at least
may without hazard be proposed at the coming
quarter-day. In this ease the workmen will doubt-
less partake of the benefit ; and notwithstanding the
colliers and miners on Saturday last gave notice for
3d. and 6d. a day advance—with the prospect re-
ferred to so near at hand—their own good sense and
feeling towards their employers. just emerging from
so severe an ordeal, must point out to them the pro-
priety of deferring a premature application. Indeed,
e do not learn that the notice was the result of
any unanimous expression of feeling among the men
themselves, or that it. was universally given—but
it seems to have arisen in most instances from anony-
mous handbills, industriously circulated by some
ill-designing persons, calling upon them to take such
a step. A fruitful source of complaint, however,
exists among the thick-coal colliers, in the fact that
different rates of wages are now given in different
localities of the South Staffordshire district, and this
has not generally been the case.—Birminghant
Gazette.

CHOLERA.,
In reading over the account of the efficacy of the
Arabian prescription of opium, assafcetida, and black
pepper made into a pill, for the cure of cholera morbus,
in yesterday's paper, I was struck with the re-
markable instructions far its a dwinistration.
The account states that " The best mode of
administering the pill is not by swallowing it whole,
lest it be rejected in that state, but by chewing it
and swallowing it with the moisture of the mouth,
and a very little brandy and water to wash it down."
Now, as assafautida is a drug most offensive to the
smell' and taste, and as opium Is exceedingly bitter,
and as everybody knows that sickness may be pro-
duced, sympathetically, even in health, and there-
fore more readily in disease, by vision, as the witness-
ing of anything filthy ; by smelling, as occasionally
happens in passing the open gratings communicating
with the common sewers in the streets ; and by hear-
ing, as when brought within sound of a person vomit-
ing—l think the method recommended is the very
worst that could be adopted, and that the chewing
of these substances, offensive both to the smell and
disagreeable to the taste, will, in such a disease as
cholera, be productive of sickness in 999 cases out of
1,000. The remedy itself, although old, I consider
to be a good one, inasmuch as it recommends the ad-
ministration of large doses of opium—the assafcetida
and black pepper being the auxiliaries, and the opium
being the sheet anchor. Opium is the peculiar gift of
Providence to mankind. It assuages pain, quiets rest-
lessness, allays irritability, promotes perspiration, and,
consequently circulation in, and warmth in the skin_
a thing so desirable in this disease. It paralyses the
excessive peristaltic action of the bowels, and conse
quently diminishes the frequency of the dejec-
tion', and also arrests the constant vomiting.
The manner, therefore, in which I should recom-
mend this remedy to be given would be this—make
up the ingredients, consisting of two grains of opium,
two grains of assafastida, and two grains of the
pepper, into three pills, instead of into one, and let
them be taken at one gulp by means of a small
quantity of brandy and water. By this process you
would prevent sickness being produced, as far as
the administration of the remedy goes, either by
exciting the taste, smell, or imagination of the
patients. You would take the stomach, as it were,
by surprise, and, by virtue of the smallness of the
pills, you would have them quickly dissolved in the
secretions, and their effect produced on the nervous
system without the stomach being cognisant of
their presence ; for it is a well known fact that
during irritability of that viscus from any
cause,
all substances, whether solid or liquid, of any quan-
tity, are invariably rejected. The following case
shows. the value of opium in cholera :—During
the period that bowel complaint was prevalent in
the tilonth of July last, a lady, after suffering from
diarr'acea for ten days, was attacked with cholera. 1
say cholera, because, in my opinion, the disease is the
same whether it occurs in London or Grand Cairo_
aris, s from the same causes, and is only modified in
intrmsity by locality or climate. She was in.
strkntly cold, skin blue, no pulse, constant sickness,
rice water evacuations, countenance collapsed,
voice -altered and feeble, and constant cramp. The
collat, aral means used were—raising the temperature
of thes room, heat to the surface of the body, mustard,
ammf.inia, and brandy. But what cured her was—
and 'what would have cured her without the agency
(if telle, other things was—the administration of two
#Olid 8 tains of opium every three quarters of an hour.