The Sun.
London, England, 1832-02-18 00:00:00

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CHOI .
T O THE EDIT ORS' Wri E S UN.
SlA,—Your steady and undeviating-at:tut-se of exposing
all jobs whenever they are brought to -ASIE-knowledge, re-
' girtiless of consequences, induces me to trouble you with
a few remarks on the present epidemic, which may, with
propriety, be called cholera mania. Having some know-
ledge of the Indian cholera, from having seen it in its
most severe forms, I was very desirous of seeing some of
the cases that were reported by the Central Board of
Health. In the earlier part of the present we. k, and with
this intention, I lost no time in visiting Litnehouse and
Rotberhithe. As far as Limehou-e is concerned, I would
beg leave to state, for the satisfaction of the public, a few
of the facts connected with it, and leave them to draw the
inference, which will, I think, spew that there is ‘‘ a
crew loose somewhere." With respect to the two cases
that occurred at the above place on Sunday last, two me-
dical gentlemen from Lirnehouse waited on the Central
Board on that day, and requested some of the gentlemen
who had seen Indian cholera to visit the cases instanter.
The answer given will surprise you, I am sure, as it did
me, and every thinking man. It was, that they could
not go on that day, but they would go on Monday morn-
ing ! On Monday, accordingly, two of them went. The
two patients by this time were dead, anti, strange to say,
were ordered by these gentlemen to be buried without ever
being examined. Thus by a few hours was I deprived of
;he opportunity of examining those bodies, and of pas-ing
decided opinion whether they were cholera or not, from
evidences which I have never seen wanting in those who
have died of the disease in question. I ought to have
stated, that upon the Central Board's determining not to
visit till Monday, the medical gentlemen from Limehouse
nformed the Board that in that event those two cases would
be reported in the Times and Chronicle of Monday
,norning as having died of cholera. Such, Mr. Editor,
is the migin of the cholera mania here. From Litnebous•
I went to Rotherhithe, where I was very fortunate in meet-
ing with some of ihe medical gentlemen who had some of
the cases, reported by the Central Board as cholera, under
their charge, and who, in the most open and candid man-
ner, gave it the negative. I then urged on the gentlemen
in question the necessity there was for them to give some
public contradiction to the statement, which, to their ho-
nour, and that of the parochial authorities in that quarter,
they lost no tine in doing. The whole of this humbug
has arisen from the first cases not being seen and examined
by some gentlemen who had seen the disease before.
I am, Mr. Editor,
Very sincerely your's,
MEDICUS.
P. S.—l find that many of those who are employed by
the Board have never seen the disease in question.

CHOLERA MORBUS.

(From the Morning Herald.)

COUNCIL-OFFICE, FEB. 17.

The rumour of a gentleman having been attacked with
spasmodic cholera, at one of the hotels in Albemarle-
street, has no foundation. Having ben deputed by the
Central Board to inquire into its truth, I am instruc'ed to
give, for the satisfaction of the proprietor and the public,
,n unqualified contradiction to the report.—James Evans,
surgeon.

The following letter bas been received from Lord .T, bn
Russell by Dr. Daun :

WHITEHALL, FRB. 15.
" beg to enclose a draft for 251. to be applied for pro-
viding medicines for the poor either of this or any other part of
the metropolis, as you shall think proper. It appears to me that
no time should be lost in furnishing the medical practitioners of
London with the means of affording such aid of clothing, or
medicine, as they may deem necessary to guard against the present
disease. " J. RUSSELL."

The cases of cholera—or of supposed cholera—now in
London or in its vicinity, are going on favourably, and we
re glad to say that no increase has taken place. But this
•emission should by no means cause a relaxation of the
measures of caution which ought to be now in active
)reparation every where ; and we are the more induced
to press the necessity of such preparation, in consequence
of a circumstance of a very striking nature which occurred
yesterday.
In the morning of that day a patient was brought to St.
Bartholomew's Hospital for admission. Before his removal
from the coach in which be was brought to the hospital,
the surgeons in attendance examined him, for it had been
peremptorily de,ermined by the Governors of the hospital
that no case of cholera should be taken into this establish-
ment. The symptoms of the patient were such, we pre-
sume, as to justify suspicions of cholera ; at all events ad-
mission was refused, and the persons who accompanied the
patient were told, as we understand, to carry him directly
to At,chnrch lane, where a receptacle was provided. Now
at Ahchurch .lane there was no sort of suitable preparation
ready—and the man could not, of course, be removed into
it. Indeed we are told that the Lord Mayor had been com.
pelled to recall his offer of the house in Abchurch-lane, and
that the workmen who were employed there have been dis-
missed. If the surgeons of St. Bartholomew's Hospital
bad inquired, as it was their bounden duty to do, they
certainly could not have had the cruelty to expose the man
to such a mortification as he endured.

From Abchurch-lane the unfortunate patient was carried
to the Surrey Dispensary, and there an application for his
admission was made. But there being no accommodation
in-patients in such establishments, the physicians, Dr.
Whiting and Dr. Davies, resolved to administer all the re-
lief which it was in their power to afford. Dr. Whiting
immediately proceeded to Union-hall, which is but a step
from the Dispensary, and stated the circumstances which
we have now related. The Magistrate sent a messenger
to Guy's and St. Thomas's Hospitals, to request that they
would receive the patient. The reply to this application
was, that no cases of cholera would be admitted in these
institutions. Dr. Davies then entered the hackney-coach,
and bled the man to about 18 ounces. ,The poor fellow
being then within the precincts of St. George's parish,
was carried off to the parish workhouse; but here, too,
there was no accommodation. At length the hackney-
coach, in which he was now nearly ready to die of ex-
haustion, drove in the direction of the Elephant and
Castle, and stopped at a house below St. George's-road 4
neatly opposite the Lunatic Asylum. This house had beers
but just hired as a temporary hospital for su• h patients as
might be attacked by cholera in the parish. But like all
the rest of the parishes St. George's began rather too late,
with its preparations, and the consequence was, the un-
happy patient found neither bed nor bedding, nor fire nor'
candle-light, nor even a drop of water to quench his raging
thirst—nothing, in short, calculated to assuage the violence
of his complaint, save and except the prompt attendance
of the parochial surgeon, Mr. Hooper.
This is the most scandalous transaction that has yet
arisen in consequence of the culpable supineness of those
authorities, whose duties are intimately connected with
the care of the public health ; and when our readers hoar
the explanations which we have to give, they, we are
sure, will feel with us that this affair deserves an imme..
diate and public investigation. It absolutely turns out
that the man had no cholera at all! and that he laboured
merely under inflammation of the bowels, which the bur-
geons of St. Bartholomew's Hospital were bound to have
been able to distinguish from cholera. This latter was
case on account of which the poor man had a strict legal
right to be admitted : there was no discretion to be used
in the matter. The patient was entitled by law to a bed,
and necessary attendance, and it was a gross violation of
the principles of the establishment to have turned him out,
But, as if the people at St. Bartholomew's Hospital were
not satisfied with the manner in which they had disposed
,f the supposed cholera patient in the morning, they took
it into their heads to follow up the measure by a still more
unjust and cruel arrangement; for, in the course of the
day, they placed boards at the doors of the entr inces to
the wards, declaring, in conspicuous letters, that no pa-
tient was to be seen at present by his friends ! It may
not be known generally, that the patients in this and
other hospitals are allowed mice a day to receive the con-
solation of an interview with some of their relations. To
debar a mother who has been forced by a hard lot to leave
tk beloved but afflicted daughter in the wards of an hos-
pital, with the certainty perhaps of not seeing her again
alive, shows such a cold-hearted indiff rence to the best
'eelings of our nature, as must excite general surprise, if
not indignation, against the authors of such a decree. In
the Middlesex Hospital, the exclusion of visiters is only
conditional, and persons may be authoris-d by either the
House- Surgeon or Apothecary of that estabLshment to sea
their friends in the hospital. But such a reasonable ar-
rangement has not entered into the contemplation of the
Governors of St. Bartholomew's Hospital, whose direction
admits"of no visit at all for the present.

ENTERTAINMENT To HIS MAJESTY'S MI"
ratsTeßs.—The Lord Mayor (Sir John Kay) gives s
grand entertainment to his Majesty's Ministers, and a large
party of Nobility, with their ladies, at the Mansion-house
to-day. Upwards of 150 tickets have been issued, and
the mist splendid preparations have been made to render
the banquet worthy of its distinguished vi.iters, and the
munificent hospitality of the present Lord Mayor. His
Royal Highness the Duke of SUSSEX is expected to be
present, His Lordship has also issued cards of invitation
invited.ot Or
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