The Sun.
London, England, 1848-10-11 00:00:00

THE CHOLERA IN 1832.

The following narrative of the preparations made iu
1852 in the city of Landon to meet tho cholera will bo
read with interest:—

" In 1831 his 'Majesty's Ministers, with due reear I to
the safety of the nation, thought proper to esil upon
every corporation, and every parochial establishment in
the country, to prepare their several localities, as far as
human precautions could avail, for the apprehended vi-
sitation of this awful calamity. The Corporation of
London instantly responded to the call; within a week
a board of health was appointed, consisting of a member
of each ward. The Government reposed in the board
the fullest confidence, and conferred upon the Corpora-
tion extensive powers for levying a rate upon every
parish to defray the charges of the undertaking. Under
the directions of the court the board drew to their as-
sistance medical men of the first character and eminence
in the metropolis. The Lord Mayor gave up a spacious
mansion for an hospital. Similar establishments, with
accommodation for 500 patients, were prepared in dif-
ferent parts of the City; warm clothing and necessary
food were distributed to those whose distressed condition
predisposed them to attack. The New River Company,
at the request of the Corporation, gave the use of its water
service to assist in cleansing the districts inhabited
by the poor; and hand-bills, written under the advice of
the medical officers of the board, were printed and cir-
culated in every house in the City, tending to dispel
needless alarm, and at the same time giving plain and
homely advice as to the best precautions for averting the
evil, and the best means of dealing with it, should it
unfortunately reach their doors. Druggists in every
ward in the City were empowered, at the expense of the
Corporation, to administer to the wayfarer, as well as to
the poor in their own locality, such medicines as it was
proved were calculated, in a premonitory stage of the
complaint, to arrest the progress of the disease. Medical
gentlemen in every ward of the City emulated the con-
duct of the physicians attached to the board, by placing
their services gratuitously at their disposal. Every man
seemed to vie with his neighbour in endeavouring by
exertion to justify the confidence which had been reposed
in them on what might prove to be an important crisis.
With a knowledge of the rapid and fearful ravages of
this fatal disease where it had once established itself—
with the records before them of the state of the City in
past ages, when visited by a somewhat similar calamity
—with the information they received from their medi-
cal officers of the aggravated amount of danger which
would result from the intermeut of those who might
fall victims to the disease in the crowded churches
and churchyards within the City, the board obtained
the Corporation leave to purchase a suitable site
remote from the City, for the interment of the cholera
dead, at the expense of 4,000/. The Privy Council, at
the instance of the board, passed an order forbidding
burials in the City, and had the disease gained ground
to an extent to render it necessary to employ a separate
place of sepulture, the Bishop of London, at the request
of the board, had engaged to consecrate a portion of
the ground for the reception of deceased members of the
Established Church, leaving the remainder for the in-
terment of their Dissenting brethren, according to the
rites of their several communities. The disease at length
reached the City, and found it in a state of needful
preparation, numbers of the board, as well as the me-
dical officers, were all at their respective posts. The
usefulness of hospitals had been neutralised in other
places by the prejudices of the poor and ignorant against
post mortem examination, and by the belief that all per-
sons dying of cholera in these establishments would be
subjected to dissection. The City board established
confidence in this respect by giving a public assurance
which satisfied all scruples and removed all suspicions.
In Paris, on the 13th of February, a voice of warn-
ing was heard in the streets, but no precautions were
taken. On the 25th of March four persons were seised,
but the arms of the authorities were folded. The hos-
pitals were soon crowded with the dying and the dead.
The dead swept [away eighteen thousand of the popula-
tion of that capital, while, in the city of London, no more
than three hundred died during the whole period of time
it lingered amongst us, and even the larger portion of
these were not residents, but wayfarers and casual
strangers.
" Although the Common Council had the legal right
to tax the parish to defray the charges of the cholera
preparations, they paid every shilling of the amount out
of their own funds. Dr. Babington, Dr. Ptoupel,
Rideout, and Mr. Field, the medical officers attached to
the board, acted without the slightest pecuniary recom-
pense. The board met daily for several weeks, and
some of the members visited the abodes of the diseased,
directing; measures for disinfecting their rooms and de-
stroying and replacing articles of clothing or bedding
calculated to retain or spread infection, and the port of
London, which but fur the course of vigorous action re-
sorted to would have been closed against continental in-
tercourse, was kept open for many weeks."
The subject of preparing to meat the enemy will, it is
understood, come before the Corporation, on the occa-
sion of the appointment of the medical officer of health,
most fully.

MORTALITY in the METROPOLIS.

We have been much gratified to find, upon an at-
tentive examination of the detailed return of the
deaths registered in the metropolitan districts during
the last week, and published under the authority of
the Registrar-General, that the mortality was con-
siderably less, on the average, than it has been daring
the corresponding week of the last five years. The
number of registered deaths from all causes in the
metropolis, during the week ending Saturday last,
Oct. 7, was 1,003, while the weekly average for the
corresponding period of the last five autumns has
been 1,154. This paper, therefore, shows that
at the present time the general health of the me•
tropolis is much better than it generally is at this
period of the year. The prevalent disease ap-