The Sun.
London, England, 1869-07-27 00:00:00

HOW DISEASES SPREAD.

Overcrowding, impure air, and impure living
make the amount of disease amongst the lower
classes in our large towns by no means marvellous.
If their habits are generally such as those which
Dr. Bateson, the medical officer of health for
Southwark, describes, it becomes a wonder that
disease is not more- prevalent than it is. The
doctor describes some visits to a room in which
a child was found dying of smallpox. Two other
children in the room were immediately vaccinated,
but the smallpox poison forestalled the vaccine
matter, and they were seized, fortunately, however,
getting safely over the disease. When the first child
died, the coffin in which it was placed was actually
used as a work-table, with the lid partly slid aside.
In another case it was shewn that a mother
had been carrying her child about the streets
upon whom the eruption of smallpox was fully
developed, thereby endangering the public as well as
rendering herself liable to a penalty. Clearly it is
time the Ladies' Sanitary Society brought its in fluence
to bear.

"PUNCH" NOT SOLD.

The proprietors of Punch, Messrs. Bradbury,
Evans, and Co., write to the Times denying very
explicitly a statement which has appeared to the
effect that their comic paper had been bought by Mr.
Agnew. "We wish most emphatically to make it
known that this firm only are the proprietors of
Punch, and that no sale whatever of that journal has
ever taken place."

•
The Honolulu Gazette reports the discovery of
what is described as a valuable fire-proof hydraulic cement,
It is formed of volcanic ash from the volcanoes of Molokai
and the Hawaiians expect to find it a now and importani
source of commerce.

FOREIGN NOTES.
-DEFEAT Of THE CABLISTS IN SPAIN.

The unfortunate supporters of Don Carlos's pretensions
to the Spanish throne have hitherto met with nothing but
disaster. Most of their chiefs have been arrested, most
of their plots have been unearthed, and finally they have
met with a serious defeat in a conflict of some magnitude.
That the movement is a widespread one is evident from
the fact that this engagement took place in the neighbour-
hood of Ciudad Real, a town about 100 miles south of
Madrid, and far from the northern frontier where it is sup-
posed that the Carlists are chiefly congregated. A band of
about 500 to 600 men, under the Carlist leader, Sabaruge,
was met by the Government troops under Commandant
Formaseti. The former party were beaten and dispersed,
many being killed and wounded. This fight took place on
Saturday evening. Much agitation then prevailed in
many parts of Spain ; but the telegraph made the usual
announcement that there was " tranquillity at Madrid."
It remains yet doubtful whether Don Carlos has passed
the frontier, or whether he is still, as say some journals,
at Fontainebleau ; but it is clear that, whether animated
by the presence of the Pretender or not, his followers are
getting lively, The Spanish journals are in high spirits,
one of them expressing a hope that the Carlists might
assemble in considerable numbers, headed by their
chief, in order that the Government might enjoy the
gratification of more effectually demolishing them;
but the Government itself does not appear to share
this exhilaration. It has resolved to put in force a law on
pu7)lic security passed in 1821—a measure conferring
extraordinary powers of seizure and repression.
Making allowances for the inaccuracies and confusion
always attendant upon events in a country where there
are no proper means for the transmission of news, the
Carlist rising must undoubtedly be considered a
serious one. The correspondent of the Standard
rap that Carlist conspiracies have been discovered
simultaneously in many places within the last few clays,
even in Madrid itself. " The clergy here are almost to a
evident
man in his favour, as he represents the restoration of
Catholicism to all the prestige and power it has lost
through
the
seriousrevolution.
i s That the Government
movementsrnmentbeli ofes-o
matters
the continuous
troops all over the country, and by the fact that Prim and
Serrano, who had intended to take some holidays as soon
tia..oQrStmliQlWltl. bye deluellheialcutivhatml

The Madrid correspondent of the Independance Beige
mentions a very alarming fact. The securities for a loan
issued by Don Carlos have met with a very favourable
reception in some parts of Spain. At Saragossa the
bonds offered by the agents were covered by three times
the required amount, at Valladolid twice, at Burgos the
sum was half as much again.