The Sun.
London, England, 1832-09-04 00:00:00

CENTRAL BOARD OF HEALTH.

COUNCIL-OFFICE, SEPT. 4.
The Central Board of Health deem it expedient to give
the tarliest publicity to the subjoined extract of a letter
from Dr. 11I‘Cann (employed under the order of the Board
at Bilston), showing the efficacy of an early application
for relief in bowel complaints, during the prevalence of
cholera. W. MACLEAN, Secretary.
Bilston, Sept. 3.
Sir,—l have the satisfaction to acquaint you that the
mortality from cholera at this place has been reduced dur-
ing the last week to less than one half of what it was
during the preceding. The number of deaths from that
complaint for these two periods respectively, as taken from
the burial registers, having been as follows, viz.._.

From Aug. 20 to 26
27 to Sept. 2 132
" For this happy change we are, I have no doubt, mainly
indebted to our Dispensary* for bowel complaints, up-
wards of eleven hundred personal applications for re-
li,f, under such afictions, having been made at the Insti-
tution during tile last eight days."
- • -

4 A public Dispensary for the- gratuitous distribution of me-
dicines to all persons labouring under bowel complaints was
established on the 26th of August, and placed under the care of
a resident surgeon and one assistant.

MANCHESTER, SEPT. 3.

SERIOUS DISTURBANCES, AND ATTEMPT TO
DESTROY THE CHOLERA HOSPITAL.

Last evening, between the hours of 5 and 6 o'clock,
this town was thrown into a state of great alarm, in cons
sequence of a most serious disturbance breaking out at New'
cross and St. George's •road, the neighbourhood of the
Cholera Hospital. The streets were thronged by several
thousands of people, principally of the lower class, a party
of whom carried a coffin containing the body of a little
boy, apparently about the age of four years, (the head had
been severed from the trunk), and every now and theta
the mob stopped and exhibited the headless trunk, and the
party who carried it addressed the multitude assembled,
stating that the boy had been murdered by the doctors in
the Cholera Hospital, they (the party) having exhumed
the body and found it without a bead, the child being seen
nearly well in the hospital the previous evening. In tbis
way the mob passed through the principal streets in the
town, augmenting in numbers at every step, until a fearful
;assemblage had congregated. The cries of execration
against the doctors were very general, and an almost una-
nimous shout, "To the hospital,"" Pull it to the ground,"
&e. took place. In Oldham street, Mr. Robert Sharpe,
a surgeon, who was passing in his gig, was compelled to
alight and inspect the body, and having assured the mob
that an inquiry would no doubt take place, he was suffered
to depart without further molestation than the yellings of
the mob. The enraged populace now made the best Of
their way towards the Cholera Hospital, in Swan-street,
and immediately upon their arrival they commenced break'
ing the w ndow-, and puling down the wall that enclosed
the yard of the building. They then succeeded in forcing
the gates of the hospital, and, having obtained an en'
trance, carried away a number of patients then lying under
the ii:fillerlee of the di,ease, and having inquired their
various places of abode conveyed them home. A number
who were able to walk went away on their Own accord,
many through fear of the populace. Some were taken
in a state of collapse whilst they were being removed,
and died shortly afterwards. The infuriated mob then
commenced a scene of wasteful havoc, destroying the
beds, tables, and every description of moveable
furniture they could lay their hands upon. Der
seized one of the new spring vehicles, lately built
for the conveyance of patients, which they dragged into
the street, broke to pieces, and afterwards consumed the
fragments by fire. Mr. Stephen Lavender, the active.
deputy constable, with a posse of police-officers and specie'
constables, arrived upon the spot armed with cutlas,eo9,
just in time to save the other vehicle, both of which he°
cost the Board of Health a considerable sum of money. The
mob became so furious, attacking the police lock-ups, near
the hespitil, and committing such further outrages, that
it was deemed necessary to despatch a messenger to Hulrne
Barracks for the military, and four troops of the 16th
Hu.sars, under the command of Lord Brudenell, arrived
with a Magistrate of the division. With this reinforce'
ment the police were enabled to apprehend some of the
ringleaders, together with the relatives of the decease"
boy, who had exhibited the body through the streets'
The prisoners, nine in number, and chiefly Irishmen,
were escorted by the dragoons to the New Bailey. 11
Magistrate then informed the multitude that if they 41
not immediately disperse it would be his duty to read the
Riot Act, and they must take the consequences. Thli
warning, together with the praiseworthy exertions of
Catholic Priest, who addressed the mob opposite to the
hospital, bad the desired effect, and the assembly gradually
dispersed. The military and the police paraded the street'
in the neighbourhood of the disturbance until a late hour,
but no further violence was offered. It appeai's that the
deceased boy had ran father nor mother, they having
recently died of cholera, dhe being afterwards attacked,
was sent to the hospital. The grandfather of the boy 'vs:
with the deceased on the Friday night, when he appears'
to be so mooch better, that he was about requesting his
:novel from the hospital, hut on the Saturday when
called again to see him he was refused admission; but it id
said afterwards he applied to the Board of Health, ner,
to tt body requested the House Surgeon to allow bias $1
interview with his grandson. On going to the hnspi,':'
again, the old man, whose name is John Hare, Was 1";
farmed that the boy was dead and buried. Hare beiP°
dissatisfied, asseedeed a number of his friends and relatived6'
who proceeded on the Sunday to the cholera but ial grout'
where they forced the gates, and exhumed the b°l,:f
which they discovered to be headless. The appearance "to
the body was perfectly white, which led the ignorant
0a
believe that the chill had been murdered. In the placee
the head was a large brick fur the purpose of making o
coffin weighty at that end. An inquiry is to be instit" ng
into the affair, and it is regretted that any of the surace-or
shwa(' have used any plat of the body of a person dyirlaree
c: okra for surgical purposes, for the antipathy of the IcTioa
orders to the cholera hospital has been so great in
town. And after this adding of fuel to the flame, it
reared under the present state of excitement that fell dd,
are attacked with the malignant disease will be pc": ea
to go to the Hospital. The Board of Health have heebria
gaged the whole of this morning in endeavouring to ,
back the patients who are living to surgical treatment a'
that p irt cf the Hospital which has received but horn
t injury.

Government, it is rumoured, have it in C°ll'
tetoplation to make Ilfiacolobe a post-office port"--#
Exeler Gazette.