The Sun.
London, England, 1846-08-07 00:00:00

that uniformity of season' could not be obtained in the
manner sought.
Mr. PIG OTT explained that, according to the 3,1
clause of the Bill, the Board of Public Works were
bound to exercise their powers, and to say yea or nay
whenever it was called to their attention that the season
was such as to render its ,xtension. expedient.
The several clauses were then read and agreed to, and
the report was ordered to be brought up to-morrow.
The House resumed.
BATHS AND WASIIHOUSES (IRELAND) BILL.
This Bill was read a third time and passed.
Mr. HAWES intimated, in answer to an Hon. Mem •
ber, that it was intended to extend the provisions of the
Bill to Scotland.
STEAM NAVIGATION BILL.

ho was born in 1822. Mrs. Cooko always appeared to
me to be very fond of her husband. I should consider
her good. looking on an evening but not on a morning.—
(Laughter.) She is well got up.—(Renewed laughter.)
By that expression I mean, she was always very well
dressed.

In answer to a suggestion from a juror, the witness
said he declined to state the reason why he declined to
act any longer for Mrs. Cooke. He sail it was in conse-
quence of an opinion he had formed.
The juror—Was it one of disgust ?
Witness—l should rather not answer the question or
give any further reason ; but I declined to act in con-
gnome of an opinion I had formed founded upon parti-
cular facts. .

Sergeant SHEE—Was there anything in the conduct
of Mr. Wetherell towards his daughter, or in her con-
duct towards him, which induced you to decline to act
any longer for the lady ?
Witness—l would rather not state my reasons. I was
acting professionally for the lady, and I do not think
I ought to state anything mere.
Sergeant SHEE—Did you see anything in the conduct
of the father? Witness—lt appeared to me that there
was a most extraordinasy degree of intimacy between
the father and the daughter, and that he had an extra-
ordinary influence over her.
Baron PARKE--How old is the defendant ? Witness
—I should think about sixty.
Sergeant SUER then put in a letter, without date,
from the plaintiff's wife to her father, and the letter of
the defendant to her, signed " The Wretch." They will
be found in the copies of the correspondennce.
Gordon, the clerk to the plaintiff's attorney, was then
called, to prove, that upon an execution being served
against the effects of the defendant, the letters that had
been produced. and a number of others, to,ether with
some envelopes, addressed to T. C. M 11;, Esq., and a
copy of the letters sent by the plaintiff's wife to her
husband, wero found in a box among his property.
In cross-examination, the witness said that there were
five or six hundred letters in the box. Some envelopes
were addressed T. C. Mills, Esq., but he did not see any
letter addressed to Miss Mills. Mr. Cooke was now
living in Great Ormond-street. Before that, he lived in
Seymour-street. Mrs. Baynton was thb landlady of the
house. He said he had not seen her present when the
witnesses who were to be questioned were present ; but
he would not swear that she had not been in company
with Mr. Cooke in the Queen's Bench Prison. Ho did
not see Mrs. Baynton in Croydon upon the occasion of
the last trial, and he had not seen her in Guildford since
these assizes commenced.

The House went into Committee on this Bill.
Mr. P. M. STEWART wished to know whether the
Bill had been altered from its original form.
Mr. M. GIBSON said it remainci almost as it stood
at first. It was intended, however, to compel paddle-
wheel steamers to carry paddle-box boats, unless in par-
ticular circumstances, in which case the Board of Trade,
if it thought proper, might license them to sail with only
the common description of boat. As to the mail
steamers, they would be subjected to another super-
vision than that appointed by the present Bill.
Mr. P. M. STEWART said the Oriental Steam Com-
pany had been in correspondence with the Admiralty ;
trial had been made of the paddle box boats, and it
ended in the Admiralty being of the Company's opinion
that the attempt was a failure, and the expense was
useless. _

Tho whole of the clauses having been agreed to, the
House resumed, and the Bill was ordered to be reported
to-morrow, (this day.)
Mr. BROTHERTON, in the absence of Mr. Hutt,
who had previously given notice of the motion, moved
for a return of all the appointments made by the Se-
cre!ary of State for the Colonies, since the Ist day of
September, 1841, to public offices in any of the colonies
or dependencies of the British Crown ; stating the
name and previous employment (as far as it is known)
of each individual so appointed, the date and nature of
his appointment, and the salary attached to it.
Mr. LABOUCHERE obtained leave to bring in a
Bill to provide for removing the charge of the consta-
bulary force in Ireland from the counties, and enlarg-
ing the reserve force ; and to make further provision
for the regulation and disposition of the said constabu-
lary force. _ _ _

The Bill was brought in and read a first time.
The remaining orders of the day were then disposed
of, and the House adjourned at a Quarter to Ten
o'clock.

Some other letters were here put in and read.
Mr. Baron PARKE observed that he did not see how
those letters could, in strictness, be produced as evi-
dence.

Sergeant CHANNELL said he did not object. He wished
the documents to be read.

The first nuptial settlement was then read. It com-
menced by reciting that a debt was due from the defen-
dant to his daughter amounting to 15,0001., and the
defendant undertook to repay the amount by yearly in-
stalments of 5001., the whole of which was placed at the
disposal of Mrs. Cooke, and the plaintiff did not take any
interest or advantage under the deed.
At three o'clock the Court and jury adjourned for a
few minutes to take some refreshment, and the trial was
:hen proceeded with.
Eleanor Williams, examined by Mr. JAMES —I am at
present chambermaid at the Rummer Hotel, Bristol, and
in 1843 I was in the same capacity at the Beaufort
Arms, Chepstow, and I remeniber inquiries being made
of me in June, 1845, relative to some parties who had
come to the Beaufort Arms in August, 1843. I remem-
ber an old gentleman coming to the inn at Chepstow in
that month. He was accompanied by a young lady ap-
parently about eight-and-twenty years old. There was
nothing particular about the dress of the gentleman, but
I noticed that ho wore gold spectacles. I saw them both
upon their arrival in the inn, and they engaged a bed-
room, a sitting-room, and a dressing-room. Two of the
rooms were numbered 12 and 13. There was a large
bed and a small bed in the bed-rooms, and
they selected the room which was usually
occupied by a lady and gentleman. They stopped
two nights in the hotel at Chepstow, and both
occupied the same bed. When they went away from
the hotel they left a box in the care of the boots, and I
am not aware of anything else being left. I left my
situation at Chepstow to go to Bristol, in December,
1844. After the lady and gentleman left, some appli-
cation was made about a cloak and an umbrella, but I do
not think the articles were found, and I do not know
who made the inquiry respecting them. I was first asked
whether I could identify this lady and gentleman in the
summer of last year. Two gentleman came to the
Rummer Hotel, at Bristol, aad I saw a portrait, in the
bed-room, of one of them. I was taken to the Queen's
Bench prison in June last year;and I there saw the gen-
tleman whom I had seen before at the Beaufort Arms
with the young lady. He had gold spectacles on, and
I recognised him immediately. I afterwards saw the
lady in the same prison. I am sure they are the parties
who were at the Beaufort Arms at Chepstow, and who
slept together. I went back to my situation at Bristol,
and in a short time the plaintiff, Mr. Cooke, and another
gentleman, came to the Rummer Hotel, and it was on
this occasioa that I found a portrait in their room. It
was the portrait of a clergyman in his robes, and I
believe it to be the one now produced. I had not seen
the portrait before I recognised the gentleman in the
Queen's Bench prison. I saw the same gentleman sitting
in the Court at Croydon upon the last trial, and I pointed
him out.
Cross-examined—There was another chambermaid at
the Beaufort Arms when I first went there, and we
shared the perquisites. She had them one week and I
had them the other. I cannot tell whether she had left
the service in August, 1843. The lady and gentleman
came to the inn in a postchaise. I will not swear that
they did not come by water. I will not swear either
way, or that a waterman did not bring their luggage.
I cannot say whether any other party came to the inn
that day. No. 13 was the dressing-room, and 12 the
bed-room. I cannot exactly say what number their
sating room was, but I think it was No. 12. I have
learned since that Mr. Cooke was one of the gentlemen
who applied to me at the Hummer. He was accompanied
by a lady, and they both occupied one room. The lady
first spoke to me upon the subject of the lady and gen-
tleman coming to Chepstow. I don't think Mr. Cooke
said anything to me upon the subject till the next morn-
ing. Mr. Pring is the landlord of the Rummer Hotel.
I believe the lady said that they were in search of a gen-
tleman and lady, and that the gentleman was an elderly
man, and that he stooped, wore spectacles, and had the
appearance of a clergyman, but I cannot say whether
I replied that I did not recollect any such
persons. I will swear that this did not occur
in the presence of Mr. Bring. The gentleman
did say to me, " Try what you can recollect by to-mor-
row." I went to London on the following day. I was
alone. I went to 29, Seymour-street, where I saw Mrs.
Baynton, the lady whom I had previously seen with Mr.
Cooke at Bristol. I was taken to tho Queen's Bench
prison on the same day. I cannot swear whether I saw
Mr. Cooke and Mrs. Baynton the next day, or whether
they examined me. To the best of my belief, I cannot
say. Mrs. Baynton gave me the money to pay my fire
back to Bristol, and I was afterwards sent for a second
time by Mrs. 13.4nt0n, and it was upon this occasion I
was taken to the chapel of the prison, where I saw the
defendant and his daughter. Mrs. Baynton paid my ex-
penses both on the first and second visits. I showed the
portrait that was left in Mr. Cooke's room to the house-

she seemed to be poorly, and was much thinner. I told
her she looked ill, and she said she had been ill, but when
I said she ought to have a doctor, she replied that her
papa was her doctor. The witness then proceeded• to
describe the appearance of some linen that was brought
home by the defendant's daughter, upon her return with
her father from their journey, and said that in her
opinion it denr)ted that a miscarriage had taken place.
She likewise said when Mr. Cooke was taken into cus-
tody, and the inquiry took place at the Queen-square
Police-office, upon their return home she heard Mrs.
Cooke say, that sooner than live with her husband again
she would see him transported beyond the seas.
Mr. IL G. Shute, a surgeon residing in Mecklenburgh-
square, deposed that he was in extensive practice as a
surgeon and accoucheur, and he expressed an opinion
that the appearances described by some of the witnesses
denoted a miscarriage to have taken place, and could not
be reasonably accounted for in any other manner in the
cage of a young healthy woman.
In answer to questions from the Court, the witness
said that some disorders of a character peculiar to fe-
males mi4ht produce somewhat similar results.

Mr. Sells, another medical gentleman, gave a similar
opinion as to the appearances described being the result
of a miscarriage.
James Russell, the husband of the former witness, de-
posed that in consequence of a communication made to
him by the husband of the laundress, he was induced to
pay particular attention to the conduct of the defendant
and his daughter, as they thought there was something
very wrong going on. After he had gone to bed, he re-
peatedly heard the doprs of the bed-rooms of Mr.
Wetherell and his daughter open and shut, and this hap-
pened at all hours of the night. The coachman (Revell)
also used to watch, and he had seen him listening on the
staircase. He once went into Mr. Wetherell's bed-room
without knocking, and he found them both there,
and Mrs. Cooke appeared very much confused, and
her hair was hanging about her shoulders. She
complained to her father of his going into the room,
without knocking, and he replied, "Oh, never mind
Russell." He had seen Mrs. Cooke go into her father's
bed-room with nothing on but her dressing-gown. They
used to be very loving at meals, and used to shake one
another's hands, and if she happened to forget to bring
any thing down stairs, they would playfully struggle
together and push each other to try which should be first
to get it. They used to drink love to each other at
dinner time, and he had often seen Mr. Wetherell's
arm round his daughter's waist. He had seen her also
lying upon the sofa after dinner with nothing but a
dressing-gown on, and with her hair hanging about her
ears. Upon another occasion, about seven o'clock in
the morning, he missed Mr. Wetherell from his bed-
room, and his suspicion being excited, he knocked at the
bed-room door of Mrs. Cooke, and she said something
in a low tone and sent him away. The witness went on
to state, that before Mrs. Cooke and her father left town
is August, 1843, he had observed that the former ap-
peared to be getting very stout, and on their return she
appeared very much thinner, and seemed to be very ill.
Cross-examined—Witness and his wife went to the
house in Eaton-place in April, 1843, and it was under-
stood that they were to remain there until the house was
let, and that they were in the mean time to wait upon
the defendant and his daughter. Could not say when
the occurrence took place of his not finding Mr. Wether-
ell in his bed-room ; it might have been in May, June,
July, or September, or perhaps August. He had re-
ceceived 101. from Mr. Cooke, and the money was
marked in the presence of Mr. Wetherell and a police.
man ; and on this occasion Mr. Wetherell told him not
to be bought cheap. He had seen Mr. Cooke at the
house in Seymour-street, but he did not know that
he was living with Mrs. Boynton at that house.
He saw Mrs. Boynton two or three times in the
year 1844, but he denied having asked her for any
money. Mr. Cooke was present on those occasions, but
he did not examine him, or inquire the evidence he had
to give in her presence. When he said that he had seen
Mrs. Cooke with nothing but a dressing-gown on, he did
mean that she had no other articles of clothing on, but
she had taken her gown off, and put on a dressing-gown.
It was hot weather at the time, and Mrs. Cooke was
said to be very poorly. When he was examined at the
last trial, he did not say a word about the defendant and
his daughter toying together when they were at dinner
Mr. Wetherell would say to his daughter at dinner!
" My love to you, my dear."
Mr. CLanKsoN—And did you think that indecent ?
Witness—l did. I thought their conduct was improper.
Baron PARKE —I think you should give some other
reason for your opinion than what you have just stated.
By Mr. CHAMBERS—Had lived in many respectable
families, and he never saw a father act towards her
daughter in the manner Mr. Wetherell did to Mrs
Cooke.

At half past seven o'clock the further proceedings in
the cause were adjourned until this morning.

QUARAN TINE.

The following is the report of the Academy of Medi-
cine of Paris upon this much-agitated question:—
" We have lately shown how urgent it was becoming
that reforms should be introduced into the existing sys-
tem of quarantine ; we demonstrated the evil conse-
quences arising out of the maintenance of rigorous
measures, the only effect of which is to create difficulties
in our relations with the East without insuring more
security to public health. England and Austria have
long since freed themselves from this excess of useless
precaution, and experience has justified their temerity.
Consequently, unless we choose wilfully to abandon
the advantages of commerce with the East, it is high
time for us also to modify the rigour of ouesanatory
rules now enforced at Marseilles.

" The experience of those two great nations is alone
sufficient to show that the limits of the danger are much
more circumscribed than ono would suppose. This im-
portant question has, however, been submitted to the
Academy of Medicine and the Academy of Sciences. Of
these two learned bodies, the latter is more particularly
charged with enlightening Government on all points
where public health is in question, and has already made
its report. That of the Academy of Medicine has just
been delivered, and it does not appear favourable to the
sanatory precautions actually taken in France. An
opinion may be formed on this subject from the follow-
ing extract from it:—

keeper, and several other of the servants. I afterwards
took the portrait with me to Seymour-street. Mrs.
Baynton accompanied me to the last assizes in a cab. I
saw Lee, the boots at the Rummer, at Mrs. Baynton's,
in Seymour-street, but he did not stay till the trial. Ile
was one of the persons to whom I had shown the por-
trait. When I was examined upon the last trial, I said
that I had never seen a portrait, and I repeated the
answer, although I was asked the question several times.
I did not know what I was saying. I don't think I said
a word about finding the portrait in the dressing-case. I
have never said that the rooms occupied by the parties
were Nos. 13 and 17.

This important document is the work of a commis•
sion composed of Messrs. Adelon, Begin, Dubois
(d'Amiens), Dupuis, Perrus, Londe, Malier, Pariset,
Poisenille, Royer-Collard, et Prus (reporter). The re-
port is divided into four parts:—The first refers to
countries in which the plague has arisen or still arises
spontaneously. The second relates to its epidemic or
sporadic character, and to the manner in which it pro-
pagates itself. The third treats of the transmissibility
of the disease. In the fourth and last part, the object
of the Commission was to inquire what is the common
or exceptional time for the incubation of the plague.
Then are introduced the applications that may be made
to the question of quarantine.
" What definition is to be given of the plague?—lt is a
disease of the whole organisation, in which the nervous
and lymphatic systems, as well as that of circulation, are
principally affected, and which is commonly characterised
externally by buboes, carbuncles, and petechim. From
the numerous documents consulted by M. Prus, the
plague thus defined has arisen spontaneously at different
times, not only in Egypt, Syria, and Turkey, but also in
a great number of other parts of Africa, Asia, and
Europe. At the present moment it is almost exclusively
from Egypt that we have to fear the importation of that
disease. But if in the view of health we compare the
different points of the globe acknowledged to give birth
to the plague, we are amazed to see in Egypt, in spite of
its fino climate, a miserable population inhabiting villages
composed of filthy huts, unfit for human beings, living on
spoiled seeds, unsound meat, and putrid fish ; we are
surprised to see even the towns—even Cairo—encum-
bered with cemeteries, and composed of houses built ou
sepulchral caves, where dead bodies lie mouldering. The
same circumstances are to be met with at Erzeroum ,a
large town, having 50,000 inhabitants, built in a penin-
sula formed .by the two northern sources of the Eu-
phrates. This city, where the plague arises spon-
taneously, is traversed by filthy streets; dead animals lie
in them unheeded ; every description of filth is thrown
into them , • the butchers kill animals in these streets,

Re-examined—There was no other old gentleman
and young lady stopping at the house at the time in
question. I recognised the gentleman again the moment
I saw him in the Queen's Bench. A man named Screm-
miger was with me, but he did not point him out to me.
I was taken ill, and fainted about the time. I was exa-
mined respecting the portrait. No one did 'show me the
portrait. I found it myself. lam still in the same ser-
vice at Bristol.

Mary Anne Hall—l am a married woman, and carry
on the business of a washerwoman in Hill-street, Dorset-
square. In the early part of 1843 I was in the habit of
washing for Mr. Wetherell and his daughter, and I
noticed from the first that a portion of his linen had
been washed with scented soap, and his shirts have been
sent to me wet. I noticed similar appearances upon the
linen of his daughter.
The rest of the evidence of this witness was of a simi-
lar character, and may not be further alluded to.
Mr. Wm. Pitman, clerk to a stock-broker, proved

that during the year 1841 he sold out 18,0001. standing
in the name of Miss Wetherell, by direction of Mr.
Wetherell. his daughter was present, and sanctioned
the proceedings of each sale of stock.
Mrs. Russell deposed, that she and her husband were
in the service of Mr. Wetherell in April, 1843. They
were engaged as general servants, and had the charge
of the house in Eaton. place. They were in the habit
of going backwards and forwards to Byfield. Mrs.
Cooke's bed-room was on the first-floor, and her father's
was next to it, and a dressing-room adjoining it. The
witness then said, when I had been in the service a
short time, not more than a week, I saw Mr. Wetherell
come out of his daughter's bed-room at half-past five
o'clock in the morning, and he had nothing on but his
dressing gown and slippers. I saw him come out two
mornings running, and about the same time. The first
time I saw him he made a kind of stop or baulk ; but
the second he did not appear to take any notice of me,
I went into Mrs. Cooke's bed-room tho first morning I
had seen her father come from it, and I found her

which are, in short, as unhealthy as they can possibly
be. The population of it are, generally speaking, very
poor.
" The same poverty is to be met with likewise on the
banks of the Danube, and the want of rapidity in the
current of that river produces the same effects as do
marshes. On its banks the diseases, which are frequent
in all seasons, frequently assume, after hot weather, a
remarkably serious aspect. In the autumn of almost
every year very dangerous intermittent fevers appear,
and are soon followed by the plague, which is generally
sporadic, but which in some years assumes the epidemic
form. It is thus ascertained that in all countries where
this disease has been observed to be spontaneous, it
may reasonably be considered as arising from deter-
mined causes acting on a great portion of the population;
these causes are, living on a marshy soil near the Medi-
terranean sea, near certain rivers—the Nile, the Ea-
phrates, or the Danube ; living in houses that are low,
, and where there exists supera-
tion of inhabitants ; hot and damp
animal and vegetable substances in a
bnas
tiuorantfewat nheotleflaalcc.etcinuotmniaoutlfea d
.decomposition ; and, lastly, great moral and
bodily misery.
these generating causes being united every
year in Lower Egypt, the disease is endemic in that
country, where it is observed to assume the sporadic
form every year, and the epidemic about every ten
years. Besides, if we consult history, wo shall find that
during the reign of the last of the Pharaohs, during the
194 years of the occupation of Egypt by the Persians,
these
laibescs roo
asl' theyl countries
a and
the Kables living, the first under Algiers forms an exception, be-
the 301 years during which lasted the dominion of
Alexander, the dynasty of Ptolemus, and a great por-
tiOn of that of Rome, Egypt was free from the plague.
This absence of any epidemic for the long space of time
during which good administration and the sanitory
police of the country conquered the producing causes of
the plague, justifies the expectation that the same means
will be followed by the sane results.
" Epidemics of the plague have appeared in Syria, in
ntries Algiers
having being
remained excepted,
in itth me ay b e
same
Turkey, in the regencies of Tripoli and Tunis, in Mo-
were when the plague broke out,
for thinking that similar epidemics
rssmet ohtaa
state
uedtcyrseoee niai
oishnt
that
whichend
do
ohAAo sa reason
tents, the second in abodes placed on the tops or sides
of mountains, cannot give birth to the disease ; and
also because that several marshy parts of that country
have been made more healthy, and the truly remarkable
improvements introduced into the construction and
police of the small number of existing towns there
seems to be a sufficient security against spontaneous
epidemics of the plague. Prom this statement (which
we may draw this important conclusion—that
is a summary of the first part of the work of the7com-
mission),
the progress of civlli,ution and a constant and general
, $ application a the laws of hygiene can alone furnish u 3

setting at a table, with only a dressing-gown. On one
occasion, when I looked at Mrs. Cooke's bed, I have no
doubt that two persons had slept in it. My husband
was assisting me to make the bed at this time, and I
pointed his attention to it. I never saw Mrs. Cooke's
night dress in her bed-room, and it struck mo as being
a remarkable circumstance. I do not know where she
put her night-dress. I never saw it except on ber
person. Mr. Wetherell always used to make his own
bed, and his daughter gave me directions not to
make it, as she said her father always did so him-
self. I never saw his bed, or the condition
as though it had been slept in. I remember the de-
fendant and his daughter going away alone in August,
and being absent about ten days. I do not know where
they went. On the previous June and July I had re-
marked that Mrs. Cooke appeared getting much stouter,
and I had much difficulty in getting her dresses to meet,
and I saw her altering two of them. She said to me,
on one occasion, that if I could not fasten her dresses
without tearing them that her papa should dress her.
When she came back, after being absent about ten days,

THE SUN, LONDON, FRIDAY EVENING,- AUGUST 7, 1846.

with the means of preventing the outbreak of spouts-
nious plague. Let us now pass on to the second part.
" Is the plague an epidemic disease, according to the
sense of this word ?

" A disease is epidemic when, in a given time, it at-
tacks a great number of persons. Epidemic. diseases
present characters by which they may be distinguished
from those that are not so. 1. There is a special march
in their progress. Three periods are generally admitted
—the commencing, the confirmed, and the declining or
ending period. These often display neither the same
symptoms, the same alterations, nor the same gravity.
2. During the reign of an epidemic disease other dis-
tempers are less frequent, and bear the stamp of the
predominant affection. 3. Whilst an epidemic disease
is raging, it seldom occurs that the persons who retain
their health do not feel, more or less, the general in-
fluence. 4. Epidemic diseases often return and disap-
pear in the same season, and last generally the same
length of time. 5. An epidemic disease is often pre-
ceded by other affections, offering various degrees of
gravity, which are more or less general, and seem as it
were its precursors.
" All these characters having been observed in the
plauge when it has raged with violence in Africa, Asia,
and Europe, it ought, under these circumstances, to be
considered as an epidemic disease.
" But sometimes, in countries where the plague arises
spontaneously, it attacks a small number of separate
individuals; it is then termed sporadic, and is wanting
in the characters belonging to epidemic diseases.
" The plague, the influence of those labouring under
the disease being put aside, is propagated in the same
manner as the generality of epidemic diseases—that is to
say, by the action of general causes.
" After this follows, in the third part, an inquiry into
the important but difficult question of the transmissibility
of the plague, both within and without the epidemic focus.
"Is the plague transmissible by inoculation? Is it
transmissible in and out of the focus of the epidemic by
immediate contact of those that are infected, by that of
their garments, of goods, and by the miasmata exhaled
by the persons infected, and which are conveyed by the
air?

" The following are the answers to all these questions,
such as they flow, with so much order and lucidity, from
the conscientious and profound discussion established in
M. Prus's report.
" The inoculation of blood drawn from the vein of an
infected person, or the pus taken from a bubo, only gave
equivocal results; the same attempt made with serosity
taken from the plycterim of a carbuncle of the same na-
ture, always failed to give the plague. It is consequently
not proved that the plague can be transmitted by inocu-
lation, even within the focus of the epidemic.
" A severe and attentive examination of the facts of
which medical science is posssessed, establishes, on one
hand, that in the 'focus of the epidemic the immediate
contact of infected persons by thousands proved to have
no ill effect on those that were exposed to it in the open
air or in well ventilated places; on the other hand, that
the possibility of disease being transmitted by the simple
contact of persons infected is not demonstrated by any
rigorous observation.

"A great number of facts prove that clothes having
belonged to infected persons did not communicate the
plague to those who made use of them without any pre-
vious purification in a country actually or recently sub-
mitted to a pestilential constitution. The facts which
seem to have offered a contrary solution, can only be-
come of any value by being confirmed by new observa-
tions made without the epidemic focuses, far from those
of miasmatic infection, and from countries where the pest
is endemic.

"The transmissibility cf the plague by goods, in coun-
trieswhere the distemper is endemic or epidemic, is by no.
means proved.
" Within the focus of the epidemic, the plague is trans-
missible by means of the miasmata arising from infected
persons.
" The pest is indubitably transmissible without the
epidemic focuses, in ships at sea, or in the lazarettoes of
Europe.
" Nothing proves that the plague is transmissibls
without the epidemic focus by the immediate contact of
those who are infected.

" It is not established that the pest is transmissible out
of the epidemic focus by clothes that have been used by
persons infected.
"It is in no manner certain that goods can convey the
plague out of the epidemic focus.
" The classification existing in our lazarettoes for ob•
jects liable and not liable is not grounded on any facts or
experiments worthy of credit.
"The investigation into the proper means of disin-
fecting clothes and goods has not yet been achieved. To
make it rational it would be necessary that it should be
preceded by the proof that these objects can be impreg-
nated with the principle of the plague.
" The plague may be conveyed out of the epidemic
cases by miasmatic infection—that is to say, by air
charged with miasmata exhaled from the bodies of per-
sons infected.

" From the various facts exposed in the chapter re-
lating to the transmissibility of the pest, it may be in-
ferred that infected persons, by vitiating the air of lo-
calities they inhabit, can create focuses of infection liable
to transmit the distemper.
" These focuses may remain after the parsons infected
have been removed.
" When once formed by the presence in a ship of one
or a greater number of infected persons, the focuses of
infection are liable to be carried great distances.
" Patients labouring under the sporadic plague do not
appear to have the power of creating focuses of infection
sufficiently active to enable them to transmit the dis-
temper.
" The degree of transmissibility of the pest varies ac-
cording to the intensity of the epidemic, according to the
period it is in, and finally to the organic dispositions of
individuals exposed to the action of the pestilential
effluvia.

" If it is not proved that the existence of a pestilential
constitution in a country where the plague has been im-
ported be necessary to its transmission and propagation,
it seems certain, however, that it can make no great
ravages without finding in the climate, in the atmosphere,
and among the inhabitants, favourable conditions to its
increasing.
" The fourth and last part of the report refers to the
time of incubation of the pest. This is the name ap-
plied to the space of time during which the plague may
remain concealed in an infected person previous to its
becoming manifested by evident symptoms.
" The time of incubation of the plague is very variable;
it depends on the period of the epidemic, and likewise on
other powerful influences. These variations, however,
are restricted within certain limits. It is the knowledge
of these that is of importance, for it is by them that the
duration of quarantines is to be logically ruled.
" It has been observed that when a pestilential epi-
demic commences in a town, the incubation is excessively
short. Hence those cases of plague which prove mortal
in a few hours. _

"In the second period of the epidemic, the duration
of the incubation is from three to five days.

" It is the same in the third.
"If it be true that a fixed and absolute limit cannot
be ascribed to the time of incubation, it seems, however,
obvious, from well-known facts, that at a distance from
countries where the pest is endemic, and out of the fo-
cuses of infection, the distemper never broke out among
persons that had been exposed to its action, after they
had been isolated for eight days.
" The small number of facts seeming to depart from

this rule arc all liable to different interrietation.
"This extract, on account of the limits within which
we are forced to keep, cannot give an idea of the extent
of the work from which it emanates, but it is sufficient
to show that among the numerous questions the Com-
mission had to examine, it has met with a certain
number to which it has been able to give a clear and
precise answer, pointing out as the object of future in-
vestigations, those questions to which the want of posi-
tive observations has prevented a solution being given.
" in order to complete this laborious task, the Com-
mission thought proper to give a summary of the prin-
cipal applications of the scientific results it has come to.
The Commission only gave advice and expressed desires;
Government alone has the right to decide over them,
and bring them to execution.
" The sanitory measures which are to insure security
to France may be reduced to five heads, viz.:—
. " 1. The indication of the countries from which we
may fear importation of the plague.
" 2. The precautions to be taken on board of ships
sailing for France from suspected countries.
" 3. The rules to be observed during the voyage.
"4. The precautions to be taken on reaching a
French port.
" 5. The measures to be adopted should the plague
break out in a French town.

" If wo did not want space we would lay before our
readers the regulations made by the authorities of Mar-
seilles.

" These regulations having been dictated under the
influence of exaggerated fear, and a total ignorance of
the limits of the danger, are stamped in several points
with a character of barbarism which, as well as the re-
mainder of them, demand an early reform.
"The fundamental idea which prevails through the
regulations proposed by the Commission, consists in
comprehending in the quarantine the time of the
voyage, and imposing such measures as may offer the
necessary security to the health of the persons on board
during all the time elapsed since the moment of the
ship's sailing.
"But if any persons suffering with the plague are
received in the lazarettoes, how are they to be treated?
Aro they to be, according to the present regulations,
shut up in a solitary room, examined at a distance of
six feet through bars, turned about with hooks, or their
tisanes to be conveyed to them on the extremity of a
long board ? Is it necessary, when a bubo requires
opening, that the surgeon should use long-heeled instru-
ments, or is a knife only to be thrown to him in cider
that be may operate on himself ?
"Persons infected by this distemper have a right to
all the assistance that civilisation, science, and art can
offer ; once admitted in the French lazarettoes, they are
to receive all the relief and attendance that are given to
common patients in the best-established hospitals.
" The buildings in which they are to be received must
be so disposed as to offer the patients and those that arc
to attend on them the best possible hygiene conditions,
and above all an easy and complete ventilation.
" Other regulations that cannot fail to create indigna •
tion, are those prescribed in case the plague should break
out in a French town or only in a few houses. They
consist in enclosing the population within acertain space,
and by thus doing expose them to the general epidemic
causes when they exist, and at all events laying them
open to the influence of pestilential infection, to the crea-
tion of which they cannot fail concurring.
" The Commission proposes a line of conduct entirely
opposed to the measures now taken : they are to be re-
placed by means simple and of easy execution, which
have already received the sanction of experience.
" If the plague should break out in a house, the pa-
tient is to be removed to some distant and well-ventilated
place, where ho may receive all necessary attendance.
All the inhabitants of the house must repair to some