The Sun.
London, England, 1832-02-16 00:00:00

ground ; for it is not for us to offer any opinion
i question, the subject of so much angry dis-
cussion arriotw eliedicalanen: -to the nature of
this dilease. We wish Merely, while recommend-
ing:64.4irecautions,before the disease has made
progitess, to guard against any unnecessary a ppre-
tteinlionS. The evil of the disease itself is nothing in
comparison to the evil that would be produced by
...guy alarm which might have the effect or throwing
the working .people out of employment. We
have received a multitude of publications on the
subject, but from our unwillingness to spread
alitui, before the disease had made its appear-
ance among us, we ham avoided noticing any
of them._ In one which we have received this
(jay), entitled " Observations on the Pestilential
Cholera ( Asphyxia Pest:fie:an), as it appeared
at Sunderland in the annths of November and
December, 1831, and on the measures talcim for
its prevention and cure, by Wm. Ait,sworth,
Esq., Member of the Royal College of Surgeons,
late Junior President of the Royal Physical and
other Societies of Edinburgh, &c." we find the '
following remarks, which seem particular de-
servnT of attention at this Inotnent t—
".Whetber the cholera is criosidered infections or not,
the samUlittlfaSUre ought to ht pursued on the first arrival
of the jdivaße. Like the Pollen of Plants, which loses, its
aciivity-wiA conveyed to a certain distance by the atmos-
phere; so.rectisin disorders, as the yellow fever, may go in
vesselste rlstuntelimes ; and though the crews have not
been alifeetod:by the disease, yet will they communicate i•
to persons newly exposed, and will infect whole towns
when ether circumstances are favourable to propagation.- "
The Lerms of an epidemic: radiate as if front a tom--
mon centre, 'and they will iliminiA" in intensity as they
hmouted;ffitsed. The germs of'ati infectieui•diseatee'irac: I
With tifeic,victisnss.and are regenerated by the very mew-
tid actitm which they themselves excite. An epidemic
propagates itself almost immediately over a populous city
—an infretious disease only in proportion ti, the number
of points over which its gernis are dis.setniiirited ; in the
en't the 'first eases are the most fatal---in the other, the
d;gtat't, *•!3tiligi 1401;4 bra reacliedtita Dorsi ;3111 the
one, it retl'ains lonce.,t where the streets are narrow-, And
the air pent, up and conficed—in the other it retrains
longest 'Ade If ere is poverty, drunk, tines', or debility,'
to pitadiaPapetles:itti attacks. iniboilythere can he no doubt,
hut tho the Orecentionaey mettettreCtoi ate Stxt artis%,;t•ot
the rhseaie should *:the seqUestraittwot the atilictill,frotW
the healthy, and. their removal. to an hoepital in alwell.
vetwila t, tied commodious situation ; Ind this ADAM. con..
time se fong as circumstances and the spread' of the dis-
ease wilt allow it." • •

We cease more thaitl•once alluded to the total
absence of poliee in the metropolis with regard
to beggars:and vagrants.. Mr. Ainsworth -ob-
serves ••
.«,,1; plink that the progress of the Indian' pestilence in
ibis country, as well as on the, Continent, Mark it out as
on, of tcl,e most controllable diseases that ever, assumed the
cbaractsr of a pestilence, brAlt from the short time whicw
apparently the virus can remain' latent in the human sys-
tem, or active in apparel, anal frrii the few, except the
intemperate, who appear exposed to its morbid iefluerer. -
And from these consideration*, convinced with others, of
the improbability of introciucinc any general system of se-
clusion into, this kingdom, I c:innot too much enforce the
necessity orimperlingfts far as possible, the progress of
vagrants across thedoulatry, and that more especially in
she vicini'y of the,diseas*. In a letter to the Editor of
The Medical Gazette, 11In. Greenhotv, of North Shields,
says, All he little tcavns and vilLges round about us ars
suffering under a grea,empt-tali44" owing to tl.e unrestricted
admission ofniendicaiitc vaijitaints; Dennis 111‘Gxv in,
who took' the disease. to Noitih rne, from Sunder -
land. ~::rhe put, itt-,Svith Shields-was a boy from
Gafe!,bLad. Aledlar weMais -took it to Houghton ; a op-
yeller tolthirpeth ; ant I have no doubt its arrival could
similarly be traced to .13ntb;:m, Haddington, and Tranent ;
and all towns upon the same high ro,:d. A wandet er almr)
perished of the disea-e at Doncaster ; but luckily there were
no other cases."
..Idr.. Warburton, alluded last right to the
means. of disinfection adopted by the Central
Board of Health,which he said were disagreeable
and useless, and spoke of the method which had
been discovered by Mr. Henry, of Manchester,
namely, exposing objects to a heat of 200 de-
grees, which entirely freed them from the power
of infection. We confess—considering the high
name of Mr. Henry—that we ate rather surprised
that his discovery should have been treated .with
so much indifference at a time like this. Mr. P.
Thomson said— .

‘‘ That the statements of Mr. Henry on the subject had
been referred to the Board of Health ; and that the gentle-
man who attended there on Ms behalf was told, that if he
would construct his apparatus, and exhibit the effects be-
fore the Board, every atteution- would be paid to it. Mr.
Henry, or at least the gentlerofia who acted on his behalf,
had list been prepired to incur an eapenre of three or four
pounds for that purpose; and he (Mr. P. Thomson)
thought that lie could not recommend the Board to incur
that expeuee ; for then they would be furnishing precedents
for similar expences, of experiments to be made by all other
persons who were desirous of submitting their opinions on
other matters of science connected with the subject."
It was sensibly observed by Mr. Hume, that
the Government ought not to hesitate about an
expellee of this kind; and Mr. Warburton ob-
served, that there was a marked difference be-
tween this case and others of the kind referred
to, as the experiments had been made and pub-
lished, and Mr. Henry had proved that his plan,
if adopted, must be successful. It would be
absurd to think of throwing the expellee on Mr.
Henty. We trust the Government will at once
see the necessity of attending to this recom-
mendation. We are glad to learn that the
higher orders by no means display any umie-
cessary alarm ; and that it. is fashionable at the
West end of the town to ridicule those who
shcw symptoms of unnecessary apprehension
Morning Chronicle.

It always appeared to us unreasonable and un-
just, and we have frequently expressed the
opinion, that Legislators should be protected by
any privileges of their own making against the
operation of their own laws. Thus the Par-
liament of England have passed laws by which
the body of a debtor can be seized like the body
of a criminal, and thrown into prison, and it
matters not whether the non-pa} nent of his
debts be the result of dishonesty or misfortune ;
but the creditor, however grossly defrauded,
cannot touch with the finger of the law the
bodies of Members of Parliament themselves
who leave their debts unpaid. One would have
thought that the Members of a Legislature who
framed such severe laws against debtors in gene-
ral were of so strict a spirit of honesty that they
abhorred the very idea of running in debt, and,
in the excess of a virtuous severity of morals,
confounded all insolvency with crime. Yet the
very existence of a privilege which exempts
Members of Parliament from arrest for debt is a
standing proof of their aptitude to fall into the de.
linqu ncy which they punish in others. We are
aware that the argument used in defence of this
p. ivilege is, that it protects Members of Parliament
from being taken assay from their public duties
by fictitious arrests. If this lie an argument
worth any thihg, it must go the whole length of
proving the propriety of abolishing the practice
of arrest for debt altogether—for it there are per-
sons who would, through motives of malice, or
to serve some evil purpose, cause Members of
Parliament to be seized and thrown into prison
on false affidavits of debt, how much more likely
is it that persons not having the same station or
power as Members of Parliament have may be
arrested and thrown into prison upon false affi-
davits of debt, from motives of oppression or
revenge ? It is true the law has provided certain
modes of redress for chose who suffer false im-
prisonment in this way, for they may bring an