The Sun.
London, England, 1866-08-14 00:00:00

THE CHOLERA.

MANSION-lIOUSE RELIEF COMMITTEE.

Yesterday, at the Mansion-house alone, irrespee

tive of the sums paid into the banks in connection
with it, upwards of £1,32.1 was received towards
the fund now being raised there towards the relief

of the suffering and destitution occasioned by the
visitation of cholera. It is the largest suni that has
been receivea tnere in one day since tue movement
was set on foot by the Lord Mayor, acting in con-

cert with a committee, and it has raised the subscrip-
tion to nearly £6,000 as the result of barely six
days' work. The committee were engaged upwards
of three hours yesterday in hearing applications for
assistance from the fund by local bodies, and in
making grants proportionate, as far as possible, to
the distressed districts. There were present the
Lord Mayor, gr. Thomas Baring, M.P., Mr. Alfred
Rothschild, Mr. Nathaniel Rothschild, M.P., Mr.
Joseph Iloare, Sir Mox daunt Wells, Mr. R. B. Wade,
Mr. Alderman Cotton, Mr. R. N. Fowler, Mr.
Needham, the Rev. Wm. Rogers, rector of Bishops-
gate ; the Rev. F. G. Blomfield, rector of St. An-
drew Undershaft ; Mr. W. J. Maxwell, Mr. Ripley,
Mr. Andrew Johnston, Dr. Andrew Clarke, and
Mr. Charles Hutton.

A communication was read from the Rev. Robert
11. Atherton, incumbent of St. James's, Ratcliffe,
describing the state of that parish, and the rev.
gentleman attended before the committee to afford
additional information. There, he said, the disease

had been fatal, and a local committee, of which he
was chairman, had been giving medicines, disinfec-
tants, and food, as far as their means allowed, but
which were wholly inadequate to the necessities of

the case. The deaths in Ratcliffe from cholera alone
had been 21 for the week ending July 21, 44 for
the next week, 47 for the next, and 31 for that end-
ing Saturday last, being four or five times more
than the ordinary average from all diseases. These
sudden deaths, he said, had created an immense
amount of distress which called for immediate re-
lief, and while he was writing a poor woman was
dying whose husband died on Saturday, leaving her
with five children altogether unprovided for, and in
a few hours theywould in all probability be orphans.
That was only one out of many cases, and he should
rejoice to help them. A poor man who died on
Friday of cholera was ill twelve hours, and a woman
who lived in a back room in the same house, and
who went in to see him, died the same day. A child
in the same house had since been taken ill, and now

the man's wife was dying. The people in the neigh-
bourhood were becoming greatly excited. The
committee made a grant in this case for St. James's,
Ratcliffe, of £5O, with five gallons of port wine to
be distributed at the discretion of the local com-
mittee.

According to the Rev. Isaac Taylor, incumbent
of St. Matthias, Bethnal-green, the epidemic has
attacked that part of London with great severity.
About 50 cases had come to his knowledge, more
than half of which had proved fatal. A local com-
mittee had been formed, consisting of the clergy,
churchwardens, and leading parishioners, and they
had already taken energetic measures for preventing
the spread of the disease. St. Matthias has a popu-
lation of between 6,000 and 7,000, and is situate in
the very poorest corner of Bethnal-green. On the
motion of Sir M. Wells, the committee made agrant
of £5O, with five gallons of port wine. From a state-
ment made to the committee by the Rev. S. Han-
sard, rector of Bethnal-green, it appeared that the
number of applications at the free dispensaries dur-
ing the week ending Saturday last was 5,783. Of
these 2,983 had recovered, 37 had died of cholera
and choleraic diarrhoea, 1,340 were under treatment
and 1,423 were unaccounted for. Altogether, how-
ever, he said, there were 118 deaths from cholera
and choleraic diarrhoea in the parish last week. A
place for an hospital capable of containing 30 beds
had been obtained and would be ready on Wednes-
day. The vestry, of which he was chairman, was
convened to consider the Order in Council before
an official copy of it had been received. An hospital
would also be opened by the Sisters of Mercy, under
two medical men, capable of holding 300 patients,
in Commercial-street. The Sisters of Mercy bad
also an excellent dispensary in Bethnal-green, under
the superintendence of a medical man, and they had
made arrangements to supply any number of
nurses
on an emergency to sick people in Bethnal-green.
There were five dispensaries at work in the parish ;
and a house-to-house visitation had
been attempted,
but the staff was not yet equal to it in consequence
of the pressure on the dispensaries. The vestry had
three qualified medical visitors and three .
assistants,
If and the parish divided into three districts, eaQh

of which was a dispensary station, open night and
day. Five men were employed in disinfecting.
In the district of Bow and Bromley, with a popu-
lation of about 50,000, there had been between
2,000 and 3,000 cases of diarrhoea during week
and cholera in proportion. On Thursday last, ac-
cording to the medical officers of the Local Board of
Works, there were 154 new cases of diarrhoea, 17
new cases of cholera, and six deaths. The private
practitioners on the same day reported 112 new
cases of diarrhon, 13 of cholera, and one death ;
but their returns were imperfect. The committee
made a grant in this case of £l5O.
In the Christ Church or Marsh district of Strat-
ford there were 150 cases of cholera under treatment
yesterday, but the reports were rather more favour-
able generally in the East of London than they had
been.

lefore the committee separated yesterday the Rev.
W. Rogers urged upon them the necessity of taking
steps towards
establishing a temporary home for
convalescents, referring to a case in which a whole
village had been infected by a convalescent child
which had been removed thither from London. The
Trinity-house Corporation have made a donation of
£5O to the committee for this express purpose.

During the past week the epidemic has been
steadily though slowly on the increase about the
river and the docks, and the number of patients re-
ceived by the Dreadnought authorities on board the
Belleisle up to this date amounts to 35. The Com-
mercial Dock still continues to contribute a large
proportion of this number, and the locality of other
cases indicates a very defective sanitary condition
of the upper and lower pools, particularly off the
well-known landing-place called Stone-stairs, where
colliers and other small craft are moored in tiers of
two or three deep. The Committee of Management
of the Seamen's Hospital Society have resolved to
commence a daily inspection of vessels lying on the
river between London-bridge and Woolwich, and
there is no doubt that this arrangement will, as a
preventive aid, afford very great benefit to the vast
floating population of this port.

The following is the official return of deaths from
cholera and diarrhoea for Saturday, Aug. 11 :
Cholera. Diarrhoea.

West districts 3
North districts ... 5
Central districts... ... 4 ...
East districts ... 8
South districts ... 4

Total „.

... 94

TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN.

••• 4
... 6
... 5
... 12
... 4

Sin,—Now that so much importance is attached to the
use of pure water, we wish to bring before the poorer
classes, through you, the fact that we manufacture syphon
filters under Dahike's patent, which will purify six gallons
of water per day at a cost of 2s. 6d. each; and to notify,
that as long as this country is afflicted with cholera we
shall be willing to deliver ono of these in any part of the
United Kingdom on receipt of 2s. 6d.
The general and also the district post-offices in London
are supplied with our filters.—We are, sir, your obedient
servants,

TIDE SILICATED CARBON FILTER COMPANY.
Works, Church-road, Battersea, London, S.W., Aug. 11.
We send specimen herewith.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE TIMES.

Sir,—Efowever good the water supply may be made by
care or filtering, it is poisoned afresh in every house by the
modern cheap, abominable practice of having one and the
same cistern to serve both water closets and sinks for
drinking purposes.

To all water closets there is a length of pipe more or less
always full of the foulest air, which, on the lifting of the
valve, rushes up into the cistern, ever polluting it, and in
the time of epidemic making it the wet nurse of contagion.
To the fond belief or assertion that the water descending
ever a
s odusttetrhne Iclodseect belowlitretoyiesul,isse,
idr,
let
nto y
asnt
vim stand
keeper, any builder, or one of my oxn prof3ssion do it,
and think of the water used at his own table awl .0 the
supply to the kitchen boiler, and he will sea anti smelt
what he will not easily forget. Let any one come to me
and see two cisterns side by side both emptied and refilled
daily in constant use by sinks and closets, he will see that
for the former clean, the latter with a horrible scum.

You speak plainly of the danger of the poor people using
the same pails for fetching water and for cholera patients (and
it is no time now to 1).3 pricking for words when hundreds
are dying), but if the air from the stool of a patient can be
seen rising into a cistern or butt at the very moment that
some one is drawing water for drinking or cooking
cau that be harmless ? We drink the virus of disease. I
would gladly show how easily and cheaply an old or new
cistern can be divided to keep the sink or clean part from
contamination by the closet or foul part without an addi-
tional service and ball-cock. I have had the arrangement

in use for years, but the owners of poor property will not
afford, and there is not time for alteration. This, however,
can be done quickly. The district boards can have stand
pipes in the infected neighbourhoods for all comers for
drinking purposes. The visitation is more fearful than
frost or fire.-1 am, sir, yours faithfully,
J. J. COL; Architect, Stock Exchange.