The Sun.
London, England, 1869-11-11 00:00:00

A NEW EPIDEMIC.

There is too much reason to apprehend that this
country is likely to become the prey of a new and in-
sidious disease—" Relapsing Fever." This malady
has hitherto been very rare and little known, even
amongst medical practitioners. During thirteen years
hardly one case was met with. Of thirty
thousand patients at the London Fever Hospital
not one was afflicted with this disease. But
in the summer of last year a strongly-pronounced
case was found in Whitechapel, and since that time
the epidemic has crept gradually onwards, until in
September it began to gain a great footing. Before
the close of the
_month A many as forty cases had
been received into the metropolitan hospitals, and
upwards of sixty admissions followed in the first
half of October. Last Saturday there were 120 cases
in the London Fever Hospital alone, so rapidly is the
disease now diffusing itself. Yet not one of the
persons attached has died ; so that, as far as the
mortality returns are concerned, no trace of the
existence of this subtle disease is to be found. It is
not, in fact, dangerous in itself. The Times remarks :
"It is very rarely fatal, and corresponds in its prin-
cipal characteristics rather with the 'low fever' of
our medical nomenclature than with any of the more
violent forms of the malady. It is dangerous
from its extreme communicability and its distress-
ing consequences. It is easily caught ; and is easily
carried from place to place ; it is very difficult to
deal with ; and it leaves the unhappy victim predis-
posed by weakness and exhaustion to the attacks of
more acute complaints. Relapsing Fever,' in fact,
is the ally and provider of .typhus." Good ventilation
and the use of disinfectants are effective precau-
tionary measures; but these are just the preventives
which are wanting in the case of the poor.

A FRENCH JOURNALIST UPON HIS OWN
COUNTRY.

Ono of the most respected and eminent of French
journalists—M. Prevost Paradol, the editor of the
Paris Dgats—has been endeavouring to enlighten
the Philosophical Society of Edinburgh upon
the political state of his own country.
His account of the condition of France might be
summarised in the word " unsteady ;" it was, he said,
like the sea, perpetually moving, never still—or the
weather, about which no one could foretell. " Who
knows (he asked) if, in the very moment when I de-
scribe a quiet and regular state of things, a tempest
will not break forth and give the Ee to my words ?"
Revolution was so familiar as not to be dreaded very
much by even the most conservative. And yet the
present Government had stood very long ; how was
that ? Tie attributed it to three causes :—(1). That
the Imp3rial Constitution was open to modifications in-
dicated by the popular will; (2). That the people were
becoming aware of the power of universal suffrage,
and knew the effect of a significant vote; (3). That
a great, an exaggerated fear of Socialism was felt by
the upper and middle classes. M. 'Paradol attacked
personal government; pleaded for parliamentary
power and Ministerial responsibility • urged the folly
'
of centralisation • spoke in favour of focal self-govern-
ment ; declared that the judicial system of France—
the immense power given under it to the Execu-
tive—wanted reforming; and protested against the
power of the Pope, the separation of Church and
State being a check to it.