The Sun.
London, England, 1866-08-09 00:00:00

125 respectively, the ordinary weekly average being
18. The local committee applying for the grant yes-
terday did not enter into details of distress, but
assured the Mansion-house committee that it is most
appalling and is increasing. They had relieved dis-
tress for one week, during which about 150 families
had received help ; but the numlier of applicants
was continually increasing as the charity became
better known. In Mile-end New-town the Sanitary
Committee have commenced a house-to-house visi-
tation of the hamlet, and there is not a street in it in
which there are not some cases of cholera and
diarrhoea. The house-to-house inspection com-
menced yesterday morning, and disclosed many cases
of extreme distress, occasioned solely by sickness
and death. The Rev. A. B. Sutter said there were
11,000 people in his parish, and only one family in
it kept a cook. Mr. J. Young, jun., a common
councilman, called the attention of the committee to
the state of a district just beyond the city bounda-
ries, and including Tower-hill and the neighbour-
hood abutting upon the St. Katherine Docks. He
said 60 or 70 cases of cholera had occurred in the
district, and there had been 16 fresh cases since
Tuesday last, 12 of which were absolute cases of
cholera, and a case had occurred yesterday in the
parish of All Hallows, Barking, within the city.
In the course of the proceedings yesterday the
Lord Mayor stated that a suggestion had been made
to him from a quarter entitled to respect, and
which he thought was worthy the attention of all
whom it might concern—namely, that it was desir-
able in many respects, and especially with a view
to a uniform system of relief, that the Bishop of
London's fund and all other kindred ones should be
merged in that of the Mansion-house Committee.
The suggestion met with the unanimous approval of
the Committee, but of course the sanction of the
Bishop of London and of other parties interested is
necessary before it can be carried into effect.

A slight diminution took place yesterday in the
number of cholera cases brought to the London
hospital, the figures, as compared with the previous
day, being 18 instead of 22. Of the new admis-
sions, 10 were cases of cholera, and 8 of diarrhoea.
The deaths during the same period also show a
satisfactory diminution, the total being 8 (7 from
cholera and 1 from diarrhoea), as against 11 on the
previous day. The recoveries were 8 ; 6 from
cholera and 2 from diarrhoea. The applicants for
out-door treatment in the period in question were
234 in number.
Those still under treatment in the
cholera wards are stated to amount to 110. In the
workhouse of St. George's-in-the-East the new
vagrant wards have been formed into cholera wards,
and they are excellently adapted for the purpose,
being large and well ventilated. The number of
cases under treatment there yesterday was 22.
Since the outbreak 71 other cases of cholera and 7
of diarrhoea have occurred within the walls. The
deaths have been fearfully numerous, 61 of the
cholera cases and 4 of those of diarrhoea having
proved fatal ; only 10 persons recovering from the
former and 3 from the latter. The local Board of
Works have divided the district into nine sections,
and placed a medical man over each. The pressure
of the epidemic has been very great. Since the 22d
of July 506 cases of cholera, exclusive of those in
the workhouse, and about 4,500 cases of diarrhoea
have been treated by these nine doctors. The deaths
from cholera have been about 170, and from diarrhoea
7, up to last Saturday.
Since Friday last two deaths have taken place
from cholera at Appledore, in Devonshire, and an
additional death at Charlestown, Cornwall.

A Timely Word about the Cholera.

(From the Examiner.)

Cholera poison has, like other poisons, its specific
action. It excites the copious discharges we see ;
it acts also as an irritant upon the muscular tissue.
This is shown by the severe cramps that it pro-
duces. Thus it acts on the muscular tissue of the
arteries, exciting contraction, and the effect of
this in the network of the capillary 'vessels
that spread the blood over the air cells in the
lungs is so to contract them that the blood
enters them with great difficulty, or is unable to
enter them at all. This is the cause of the collapse ;
in popular phrase, cramp of the capillaries of the
lungs. _ _

The venous blood goes into the chambers on the
right side of the heart, which pumps it into the lungs
for aeration. After aeration it goes from the lungs
into the chambers of the left side of the heart, which
foice it through the arteries for the nutrition of the
body. Thus the lungs lie on the blood's route from
the right side of the heart to the left. Contraction
of the capillaries bf the lunge establishes here a
blockade, and after death from the collapse of cholera
we find the right side of the heart, and its communi-
cations with the lungs, usually gorged with blood,
the lung itself unusually bloodless, and the left side
of the heart almost or altogether empty and con-
tracted. Thus there is little or no aeration or che-
mical combustion in the lungs. Hence blueness of
the body and coldness even of the breath. There
is little or no blood for the arterial side of the heart
to propel. Hence the faint pulse, almost no
pulse, the shrunken features, the fallen eye, and
all that depends on the absence of the vital
fluid that plumps oat and colours, while it animates
the organs of the body. The action of the irritant
poison may cause a contraction of those muscular
coats of the capillaries of the lungs so suddenly that
a strong
of ho
cmalli may fall in a fit, struck with the col-
lapseera, as sailors did in the Black Sea. Also,
after the contraction has passed away and the blood
has been set flowing again, if its sudden rush into the
lungs do not cause death by their engorgement, the
relief is as of recovering from drowning, and the
I patient is well in a day or two, and able to go
abroad.

That is, in a few words, the gist of Dr. Johnson's
pathological discovery. LHe has not laid hold of the
cholera poison itself, analysed it, or found an anti-
dote for it. But he says, given the poison in the blood
and it may get there—experience shows, through
the lungs or through the stomach—Nature's effort
is to save life by expelling it out of the body. If it
be not expelled, then, as an accomplished pathologist,
Dr Johnson is the first to tell us how it acts upon
the system, and produces the effects we see.
Of course the treatment to which this points is, to
seek the quickest and safest way of getting rid of
the poison, and on no account to lock it in the sys-
terd by checking the discharges with an opiate before
they have done their appointed work. Now that the
epidemic is again upon us, Dr. Johnson publishes a
little pamphlet of counsels, the second brochure on
our list, and prefixes to his counsels an approving
account of his theory which was contributed to the
Saturday Review by the most eminent of our physi-
cians, and having said that, it is superfluous to
name Sir Thomas Watson.
We quote here a few sentences containing that
part of Dr. Johnson's counsel which, is of most use
to the public geherally :
Darrhaea during an epidemic season is in many instances,
though not in all, an early stage or a mild form of cholera;
and in the great majority of cases of actual cholera, an
attack of bilious diarrhoea marks the onset of the disease. A
diarrhoea, when it is not the actual beginning of cholera,
will weaken the patient, and so may predispose him to
suffer from the more serious form of disease. Diarrhoea,
therefore, ought not to be neglected even for an hour.
That plan of treatment for diarrhoea, is obviously the best
which most speedily and completely puts a stop to the
disease, without subsequent ill effects.
It may be stated as a general proposition, that the imme-
diate cause of diarrhoea or looseness of the bowels is the
presence of offending materials in the alimentary canal.
These offending materials aro of various kinds in different
classes of cases. In ono case, unwholesome and undigested
food is the exciting cause of the purging ; in another case,
a large and unnatural accumulation of the fa).mlent con-
tents of the bowels: while, in another class of cases,
noxious secretions are poured from the blood. into the
in consequence of the action of a morbid poison
upon some of the ingredients of the blood. To this last
class of cases belongs what is called choleraic diarrhoea.
The most reasonable theory of choleraic diarrhoea is,
that a morbid poison enters the blood either with the air
through the lungs, or with the food and drink through
the alimentary canal ; and that this poison excites certain
changes in the blood, in consequence of which some blood
materials are spoiled, and thus rendered not only useless,
but noxious. These morbidly-changed blood materials are
then discharged from the blood-vessels through the mu-
cous membrane of the stomach and bowels, and are ulti-
mately ejected by vomiting and purging.
VariQus as an: theremote and primary causes of diarillceft,

this one condition is common to all classes of cases, viz.,

that the contents of the bowels are unnatural and offensive.
These offending materials are the immediate cause of tho
purging ; and they must be expelled from the bowels be-
fore the diarrhoea can come to an end.

From the above considerations we deduce one important
and guiding rule of treatment, which is this—not to at-
tempt by opiates, or by other directly repressive means, to
arrest a diarrhoea while there is reason to believe that the
bowels contain a considerable amount of morbid and offen-
sive materials. It is certain that these offending materials
must be cast out from the bowels before the diarrhcea can
permanently cease. The effect of an opiate at this stage
is to prolong the disease, and to increase the risk of mis-
chief, from the retention and reabsorption of the morbid
contents of the bowels. If the opiate have the effect of
retaining within the blood-vessels some of the morbidly
changed blood-constituents, this astringent action will
probably be more injurious and even deadly than the re-
tention of morbid secretions within the bowels.

The purging is tho natural way of getting rid of the
irritant cause. We may favour the recovery by directing
the patient to drink copiously any simple diluent liquid—
water cold or tepid, toast-water, barley-water, or weak tea ;
and we may often accelerate the recovery by sweeping out
the alimentary canal by some safe purgative, and then, if
necessary, soothing it by an opiate. Castor-oil, notwith-
standing its unpleasant taste, is, on the whole, the safest
and best purgative for this purpose. It has the advantage
of being very mild and unirritating, yet withal very quick
in its action. A tablespoonful of the oil may be taken,
floating on cold water or any other simple liquid which
may be preferred by the patient. A mixture of orange-
juice or of lemon-juice with water forms an agreeable
vehicle for the oil. If the dose be vomited, it should be
repeated immediately ; and the patient should lie still, and
take no more liquid for half an hour, by which time the
oil will have passed from the stomach into the bowels.
Within an hour or two the oil will usually have acted
freely. Then a tablespoonful of brandy may be taken in
some thin arrowroot or gruel ; and if there be much feel-
ing of irritation, with a sense of sinking, from five to ten
drops of laudanum may be given in cold water. These
means will suffice for the speedy arrest of most cases of
choleraic diarrhoea. If the patient have an insuperable
objection to castor oil, or if the oil cannot be retained on
the stomach, ten or fifteen grains of powdered rhubarb, or
a tablespoonful of the tincture of rhubarb, ar a teaspoon-
ful of Gregory's powder, may be substituted for the oil.
If the diarrhoea have continued for some hours, the
stools shaving been copious and liquid ; if there be no
griping pain in the bowels, no feeling or appearance of dis-
tension of the intestines ; the abdomen being flaccid and
empty, and the tongue clean—we may conclude that the
morbid agent has already purged itself away. There will,
therefore, be no need for the castor oil or other laxative,
and we may immediately give the brandy in arrowroot
and the laudanum, as before directed. The rule in all
cases is, not to give the opiate until the morbid poison and
its products have for the most part escaped ; not to close
the door until " the enemy" has been expelled.

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

TniEs.---lEven the Reform League cannot expect
to keep up popular excitement under the depressing
influence of the season. The close of the session,
the wet weather, the flight of the well-to-do world
for some warmier and sunnier spot, and more than
all, the weariness of the public, must throw a damp
on political agitation. The long-promised meeting
in Guildhall, under the presidency of theLordMayor,
was held last night, but even with a large assemblage,
strong resolutions, and some fair speaking, it is not
likely to raise much interest among those who read
the report of the proceedings. Probably these
things will soon pall on the taste even of the work-
ing man. When he has shown his sympathy with
the Reform leaders by attending onemonster gather-
ing, and finds that it involves standing for three
mortal hours in a crowd and catching only occasional
syllables of some not very important orator, he is
likely to think he has done his part, and that he
may be content for the future with subscribing
an occasional shilling, and diligently perusing a
friendly newspaper. It was not to be expected that
the Guildhall meeting would muster any imposing
array of speakers. The ill success of the Isling-
ton assemblage in inducing politicians of reputation
to attend seems to have been before the eyes of Mr.
Beales and his friends,and, to do them justice, they
did not attract the public by announcements made
at hazard. Probably for this reason the quality of
the meeting was hardly equal to that at the Agri-
cultural Hall. At the tatter there was a large body
of middle-class people who had evidently come with
the expectation of hearing some of the leading
Liberal members of Parliament. At Guildhall last
night this element was absent. There was only one
class present, and that was the working class.
Though there were no processions and no bands,
the meeting was more exclusively composed of
mechanics and labourers than any which have yet
been held. As was the audience so were the
speakers. There was Mr. Beales to begin, and
Delegates from the League and the Working Men's
Association to move and second the resolutions.
But the meeting was not graced by Parliamentary
rank, nor enlivened by political ability. Yet it was,
undoubtedly, a quiet and well-behaved assembly,
and the promoters appear to have taken care that
those admitted, or, at any rate, the great majority
of them, should be trustworthy people. Tickets
were issued, which were given up at the doors, and
we may assume that these tickets were distributed
in such a manner as to imure that the " rough"
element should not preponderate. The people came
in numbers fairly large, and the hail was at one time
filled. The Lord Mayor opened the proceedings by
a speech in which he recommended moderation' to
the audience and brevity to the speakers. Both these
suggestions NN ere received with applause, and, what
is more, acted upon by the meeting. It had been
wisely agreed that the speakers should be limited to
a eertain time each, and it may be presumed that
what the speeches lost in length they gained in point
and power. The speakers were all working men,
except their President, and we are bound to say
that they most of them made very good speeches.
Mr. Beales was rather prosy and more bitter in some
of his remarks than was necessary, but the working
men themselves were, on the whole, both brief and
good-humoured. Of course the Tories came in for
a greal deal of invective, and were charged with
bludgeoning the people by means of the police, with
denying the franchise to the working men, and other
misdemeanours. Yet Lord Derby seemed not to be
personally unpopular with some of the speakers,
nor with a large section of the audience. Some of
the best speakers were comparatively moderate.
Mr. Odgers, whose name is well known in connec-
tion with 'Working Men's AsSociations, declared amid
the applause of the audience that the people would
accept a good Reform Bill from the Conservatives
if they could get it, and be satisfied when they had
got it ; and all through its proceedings the meeting
never lost an opportunity of testifying its loyalty
to the Crown, and its respect for the person and
office of the Lord Mayor. The meeting in Guild-
hall had this great advantage over its predecessors
—that it was possible for a large'part of the audience
to hear. At the beginning of the meeting the hall
was filled, and an outdoor meeting was made up of
those who could not get in or were unprovided
with tickets. Even when the meeting began to thin
the hall was about three-fourths filled. Yet several
of the speakers made themselves heard even at the
further end, and the people having their attention
fixed were, of course, orderly and patient. The ex-
periment proves, if proof were needed, that it is
more reasonable to hold political gatherings in
places of moderate size, and to make the limit of the
human voice the limit of a public meeting. Even
the Guildhall, indeed, is toolarge for effective speak-
ing, and some of the speakers were scarcely audible
half-way down the hall. We trust that the League,
if it continue its agitation during the autumn, will
profit by the lesson of the last fortnight, and spare
us any more monster demonstrations. Mr. Beales
and his friends have proved that many thousand
people can be brought together to hear popular
speakers, or to show their sympathy with the cause
of Reform. - So far they have achieved something
in favour of their cause; but the more reflecting
members of the League must be conscious that the
oratory addressed to these great assemblages has not
been of a high order, and even the speakers must
feel that they could do themselves more justice if
they were discussing the merits of a definite Reform
scheme, instead of shouting out generalities at the
top of their voices to an indiscriminate multitude.
Outdoor meetings have a disquieting effect on the
neighbourhood where they are held ; it is impossible
to make sure that they will not be the means of
bringing together numbers of persons who care less
for Reform than for riot and mischief. Immense
indoor assemblages like that in the Agricultural
Hall are less inconvenient, but they are useless
for any practical purpose. When the Reform
League discusses its principles in a place not be-
yond the limits of the human lungs, we may expect
it will make more clear to the world the nature of
the measure it demands and the reasoning by which
it associates the late Ministry with its cause. At
present we can only see that the League is for uni-
versal suffrage and the ballot, while the statesmen
whom it calls its leaders in Parliament are opposed
to both these measures. While the Leaguers are
thus uncertain as to principles, it can hardly be ex,
peeled that they -should be very accurate in the
details of what has passed during the session now
coming to a close. That Mr. Gladstone's Reform
Bill was a most imperfect measure, and introduced
in a manner which provoked almost universal dis-
trust in the Commons, is well understood by every
one who has made himself acquainted with recent
politics ; but all the arguments of the League and
the Working Men's Association are based on the
supposition that the majority of the House of Com-
mons, composed of Tories and Liberal renegades,

have absolutely declared against Reform in any
shape. The same wildness of statement and vio-

lence of denunciation run through most of the
speeches, but such language can have no real influ-
ence. We think the audience themselves will feel
surprised this morning at the difference between the
speeches as they heard them and cheered them last
night and as they read them printed in the news-
papers. When the loud voice, and the energetic
manner, and the sympathetic crowd are gone, and
when nothing remains but the naked words, then
comes the test of public speaking. Speeches that
do not bear reporting can have but little effect in
this country, and the audience may judge for them-
selves whether these speeches of last night, which
were so animated and successful, really add much
to our knowledge either of Reform or the working
class. The only argumentative speech of the even-
ing was that of Mr. G. Potter, who cited the indus-
trial associations of the artisans to prove that they
are capable of intelligent combination, and have
that stake in the country which the Conservatives
affect to consider so important. This was legitimate
reasoning, and we cannot but regret that it stood
isolated amid the declamation of the evening.
lIERALD.—The information derived from the
speeches of the leading members of both the past and
present Administrations as to the existing political
state of Ireland is indeed lamentable. After sixty-
six years' union with Great Britain, during which a
full equality of constitutional rights has been con-
ceded to the Roman Catholics of that country, ac-
companied by an abolition of tithes, at least in so
far as the occupying tenant is concerned, and a re-
duction of nearly one-half the bishoprics of the
Protestant Church—those important measures being
also supplemented by an extraordinary exemption
from direct taxation extended to all classes of the
Irish people—disloyalty is said, by those supposed
to be well informed on the subject, still to prevail
there to a hitherto unequalled extent ; and to stay
its further progress the Conservative Ministry have
been compelled, not only by a sense of duty, but
from the necessity of following up the policy of their
predecessors, and partly, we may say, in deference
to their urgent appeals, unwillingly to demand from
Parliament a still further continuance of the sus-
pension of the Habeas Corpus Act in Ireland. But
while the public exhibition of offensive party feel-
ing has been steadily discountenanced by those in
authority, and prohibited by legal enactments until
it may be said to have ceased to trouble public. tran-
quillity—at a period, too, of unexampled prosperity
amongst the class of small landholders, as is proved
beyond dispute by their enormous and prodigiously
increasing deposits in the local and savings banks_
we cannot avoid expressing our surprise that the
Roman Catholic portion of the community should
be represented by their late Lord Lieutenant as
traitors to their heart's core, who are ready, not-
withstanding their remarkable progress in the
acquisition of wealth, to join in a rebellion, hatched
by Yankee emissaries, should they only perceive
the slightest chance of its success. Lord Kim-
berley admitted—what indeed has been made
patent by the reports of the public press—that at no
period of her history has Ireland been in a state of
such perfect tranquillity as at the present moment.
There has been absolutely no criminal business
whatever to be disposed of at very many of the past
assizes. Agrarian disturbances have notoriously
altogether ceased, and as their evidence has been
always assumed as the surest test of popular discon-
tent, and their extent taken as the measure of the
occupying tenants' wrongs, we may fairly set down
to other causes than the ill-treatment of the small
class of farmers by their landlords whatever of dis-
loyalty may still exist in the sister country. The
Earl of Derby very fairly based his application
for the extraordinary powers he sought on the heavy
responsibility which must.devolve on any Govern-
ment, who, during the recess of Parliament, should
permit those persons now imprisoned, " and who in
point of fact still maintain the language of defiance
to the authorities," to go at large without any
security for their future good conduct, or who
abandoned the only means by which they could deter
equally mischievous individuals from invading the
country and propagating their pernicious dcctrines ;
and he justified the utility of the measure he pro-
posed by the well-known fact that—to use his own
words—" at the time of the passing of this act we
know that a large number of persons were in Ire-
land spreading their opinions amongst an impulsive
and easily deluded population. When they found
this act was passed they returned to America.
And from the time of their going, it was not so
much from the imprisonment of those who re-
mained, as the absence of those who went abroad
from a fear of the law, that peace prevailed. The
repeal of this act at the close of the session would
give those persons an opportunity of returning
with perfect impunity, and of renewing designs
which they have never abandoned, but which they
still put forward with the utmost confidence and
effrontery." As an extension of the time during
which public liberty must remain in abeyance in
Ireland has met with the almost unanimous appro-
bation of all political parties, the Conservative
Premier cannot justly incur any odium for placing
his Government in such a position as may enable
it to deal promptly and successfully with the unfor-
tunate state of things which the Whigs, after their
lengthened enjoyment of power, have left him as an
inheritance. Lord Derby, while addressing the
house, most properly confined his remarks to the
subject under discussion, and reserved to himself a
perfect freedom of discussion as regards the nature
of any future legislation he might consider neces-
sary to promote the interests of Ireland. Had
Lord Kimberley limited his observations in support
of the Government proposition to a confirmation of
Lord Derby's statements and a coincidence in his
views, such conduct must have entitled him to our
respect and approbation ; but unfortunately the
ex-Viceroy could not resist the opportunity of doing
a little stroke of party business, and he therefore
touched upon two subjects, the advocacy of which
he no doubt thought might place his political
adversaries- in an awkward position, and at the
same time impress the leaders of Irish agitation
with the conviction that the Whigs were now more
than anxious to carry out measures which while in
office they studiously declined to deal with. Those
measures were the adjustment of the land question
in such a manner as to satisfy the professed friends
of the Irish tenant, and the confiscation of the
temporalities of the Irish branch of the Established
Church. He professed his confident belief " that
it is impossible for England to perform its duty. to
Ireland so long as no attempt is made to deal with
the important question of the tenure of land ;" and
he described " as a great and formidable evil, with
which, he was convinced, Parliament must some
day deal," the existence in Ireland of a religious
establishment to which no more than 700,000 out
of a population of more than five millions and a half
belonged. It is indeed true that at the last moment
of their existence Lord Russell's Ministry intro-
duced a bill for the arrangement of the Irish land
question on terms which would have virtually de-
prived the Irish proprietors of -all control over the
management of their properties, by permitting the
tenants, at their expense, to make any so-called im-
provements they pleased without their knowledge or
consent ; but they could not and did not expect that
such an act of positive confiscation would have been
sanctioned by any Parliament recognising the rights
of private property. It was introduced, like Mr.
Monsell's Oaths Bill, at the close of the session, and
when the Government was in the very throes of dis-
solution, and it was abandoned when it was no
longer available for its designed purpose, without the
slightest attempt being made to carry it through.
Thatthe possession of its temporalitiesby the Church
cannot, even according to Lord Kimberley's own
showing, be considered such a grievance by those
who, to a large extent, bear the burden of its sup-
port, is evident, for he tells us in his speech " that
he cannot omit the opportunity of stating how cor-
dially he was supported throughout the whole of his
proceedings by all persons of respectability and posi-
tion in the country, irrespective of creed or party."
The noble earl waxed warm as he advanced in his
address, and concluded by a most unjustifiable and
uncalled-for attack on Irish landlords. " I know,"
he said, "it is most distasteful to gentlemen living
in that part of the United Kingdom to be told that
their condition requires exceptional measures, and
that they are not to be treated in the same way in
which those holding land in England and Scotland
are treated. Exceptional measures in regard to the
tenure of land are absolutely required in Ireland,
and I believe that the question of land tenure is the
one which most interests the people, and it is the
one with which Parliament should deal first." It
is impossible to avoid remarking the exactitude with
which Lord Kimberley adopts the programme of
the Irish National Association—fixity of tenure
first, and the despoilment of the Church after—
and we cannot doubt the source from which he
drew his inspirations. For this libel on Irish pro-
prietors the ex-Viceroy was most sharply and pro-
perly called to account by the Marquis of Clan-
ricarde, who accused hint of entire ignorance
of the subject on which he touched, and asserted,
what is the undoubted fact, "that Feminism Fenism had
no connection whatever with disputes between land-
lord and tenant, as it had been concocted in Ame-
rica, and supported by American gold." To coun-
tervail Lord Kimberley's assertion as to the mis-
conduct of the Irish landlords, we may appeal to
the condition and conduct of the Irish tenants ; the
cessation of agrarian outrage l3ears ample testimony
to their contentment with the existing situation,
while their accumulated wealth gives convincing
evidence of their increasing prosperity: and we sin-
cerely trust that the Conservative Government will
not fall into the fatal error of accepting the un-
founded assertions of those who are in some quar-
ters supposed to represent them as a true exposition