The Sun.
London, England, 1866-08-10 00:00:00

THE CHOLERA.

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MANSION-HOUSE RELIEF COMMITTEE.

Subscriptions continue to flow into the Mansion-
house, and to the banks in connection with it,
towards the fund now being raised there for the relief
of the prevailing distress consequent upon the visita-
tion of cholera at the rate of nearly £l,OOO a day.
Up to last evening the total amount received was
roughly estimated at something upwards of £4,000,
though the subscription has only been going
on four days ; and the committee, composed of emi-
nent bankers, merchants, clergymen, and other per-
sons of consideration in the City of London, with
the Lord Mayor at their head, look forward to
the receipt of a large sum for the humane object
they had in view. Yesterday at the Mansion-house
alone £730 was received. The Lord Mayor has
kindly placed one of the largest rooms in his house
at their disposal, and they meet there daily at one
o'clock to hear and consider applications from local
bodies for assistance and to make grants in money,
to be expended at the discretion of those local
authorities, who are presumed to be best ac-
quainted with the state of the districts in which
they reside, having regard to the extent to which
cholera preVails, and to the consequent distress from
the death of heads of families. Yesterday the Lord
Mayor, Mr. Thomas Baring, M.P., Mr. Joseph
Hoare, banker; Sir Mordaunt Wells, the Rev.
William Rogers, rector of Bishopsgate ; the Rev.
F. G. Blomfield, rector of St. Andrew, Undershaft ;
Mr. R. N. Fowler, banker ; Mr. W. J. R. Cotton,
Mr. W. J. Maxwell, Mr. R. B. Wade, Mr. Andrew
Johnston, Dr. Andrew Clarke, Mr. Charles Hut-
ton, and other gentlemen, were engaged for about
two hours in this self-imposed duty. The Com-
mittee are exceedingly desirous that it should be
widely known that they have a fund at their dis-
posal, that they are prepared to dispense it in the
districts where it is or may be wanted, through the
agency of local boards, committees, dispensaries,
and the like, and to consider every application made
by such committees on its merits. Each application
must also be accompanied by reliable statistics as
to the epidemic. They suggest, too, that wherever
in any poor district in which cholera has made its
appearance no local board of that description exists
one should be formed without delay, in order to take
advantage, for the sake of the poor and for the
common good, of the means at the disposal of the
Committee for providing suitable food, stimulants,
and other necessaries for persons afflicted with the
epidemic, or liable to it from predisposing causes
and circumstances. They also contemplate the re-
lief in particular, as far as practicable, of poor chil-
dren who have lost one orboth of their parents by the
disease. Upon this point the Lord Mayor read a let-
ter he had received from the secretary to the Orphan
Working School, llaverstock-hill, stating that, al-
though they had only the day before received 40 or-
phans into the school, and intend to receive 40 more
in January, they had, in deep sympathy with the pre-
vailing suffering, determined to admit 10 more at a
special election to be held shortly from children
whose parents or whose fathers only have died of
cholera. They would gladly have admitted more
, than ten, but they have already 355 in the house,
I and have only room for 400 altogether.
Yesterday the Rev. Mr. Blomfield, a member of
the Committee, took occasion to refer to a sugges-
tion which had been made there on the previous
day, that it would be desirable to merge the Bishop
of Loudon's fund and some others now being col-
lected to meet the emergency in that of the Mansion-
house. There must, he thought, have been some
misunderstanding; but however that might be, the
Bishop of London seemed to think there were rea-
sons for acting separately from the Nla.nsion-hoUse
Committee, but still in co-operation with them, and
especially that there should be a daily communica-
tion between the two Committees as to the grants of
money made by each.
The LORD MAYOR said the suggestion had come
from one thoroughly competent to give an opinion,
and who thought such an amalgamation for many
reasons desirable, but the Bishop was, perhaps,
right in thinking that his fund should be kept sepa-
rate. lle (the Lord Mayor) was strongly of opinion
that they ought to have, wherever practicable, local
committees in all the various districts of the metro-
polis. Ile haul the highest opinion of the clergy as
a body, and should be happy to see them helping
on this movement in their respective districts ; but
the Committee should give a guarantee to the public
that they were going to apply this money regardless
of all considerations of creed. (Hear.) Ile saw
great danger in the clergy being made the exclusive
medium, as was colitetuplated in the case of the
Bishop of London's fund. It did not follow that in
poor districts a local committee could not be formed
out of poor people. What the Committee wanted
was supervision, and some of them might pay occa-
sional visits to the different districts to see how the
relief committees were working.
The Rev. Mr. BLO3IFIELD referred to a large dis-
trict of the metropolis,with an estimated population of
120,000, in which the local authorities for some
reason or other had not moved yet, and nothing
had been done.

Her Royal Highness the Princess of Wales has
been pleased to contribute the sum of £5O to the
fund for Mrs. Gladstone's " Temporary Home for
Children recovering from Cholera."
We are requested by the Bishop of London to
state that several ladies accustomed to nursing, and
clergymen from the healthy parts of London, have
offered their services in the districts afflicted with
cholera. The Bishop of London will at once make
arrangements for the employment of any competent
persons who apply by letter to Fulham-place, S. W.,
stating their desire to engage in such work.
The admissions to the London Hospital for cholera
in the 24 hours ending yesterday forenoon were 10,
and for diarrhoea 9, being only one more than had
been brought to the institution during the previous
24 hours. The deaths during the same period have
been 7 (6 from cholera and 1 from diarrhoea), while
the recoveries have been 9, 6 being from the more
severe form of the epidemic. There remain in the
wards 113 persons.
An unusually rapid case of cholera occurred yes-
terday in the workhouse of St. George's-in-the-
East. One of the washerwomen of the establish-
ment, a woman of robust health, was seized with the
disease at 5 in the morning and she was dead at 11
in the forenoon. No previous symptoms existed.
The epidemic continues with great violence in this
parish, and several new cases were reported yester-
day. The local Board of Health have had to pur-
chase a hearse capable of carrying 12 of the dead to
the cemetery at once. Before this was done the ac-
commodation of unburied bodies threatened to be-
come a source of great danger, the regular under-
takers not being equal to the emergency. A special
conveyance has also been procured, and is kept in
readiness day and night for the conveyance of
cholera patients to the hospital, thus obviating the
necessity for the employment of cabs.
Yesterday a meeting of the West Ham Board of
Guardians was held in the board-room of the Union-
house ; Mr. J. Meeson in the chair. The chairman
said he was glad to inform the Board that during
the past several days the cholera had decreased, both
in the virulence and in the number of cases. There
had only been three deaths in the workhouse, and
these were cases that had been brought there. Their
staff of medical officers and inspectors of nuisances
had been working most assiduously, and their labours
had been attended with great success. He thought
also that too much praise could scarcely be given
to the clergymen of that parish. In answer to his
appeal in the newspapers, the Rev. G. P. Keogh
had received no less than £4OO, and so ample had
this been that he had sent a portion of it to Plais-
tow. He and the Rev. A. J. Ram, the vicar of
West Ham, had each also received £25 from the
Bishop of London. The following report of the
medical officer shows the prevalent disease for the
week ending August 4 :—" Attacks of cholera,
patotienntdededdubryingthteb
et
weneekdis,
Itrli9ct; mdeeadtibcsalf
rooffimceersh
cholera
during the week, 65 ; recovered, 3
under treatment, 51. Diarrhoea
;caanuems bdearrienfgcasthees
u some
re
o f the treatment,3s6
casesBs 2.
This week,
numberl,o27 ;
includes 5
of the previous week. I do not see any other 19prac-
ticable measures required than those in force. Regard-

ing the epidemic I am glad to say that the medical
practitionrs are working zealously and kindly in
their respbcti re districts. The total number of
deaths registered by all the practitioners, including
private patients, has been during the past week :
West Ham, 59 ; Stratford, 56 ; total, 115. Yours
obediently, JAMES THOMAS VALLANCE." This shows
an increase up to August of about 23 over the pre-
vious week, making the total number of deaths
since the commencement of the epidemic 298.

The Lancet of this week contains a report on the
present diffusion of cholera in the East of London,
of which the following are the principal conclusions:

"1. A remarkable close coincidence of the western
boundary of the East London cholera field with the same
boundary line of the houses supplied with water by the
East London Company—a coincidence preserved from
week to week.

" 2. That the East London Waterworks, to the credit,
we believe, of the present engineer to the establishment,
Mr. Charles °reeves, are well constructed to enable the
company to supply good water, so far as the state of the
river at Enfield permits.

" 3. That this company, however, have the means, both
at their filter-beds at Lea-bridge, apparently and at their
Old Ford pumping-works, of takingsupplies of water from
most objectionable sources, but that the use of these
means, under any ordinary circumstance, is disclaimed.

. .
" 4: That an inquiry into the condition of a drinking
water must be made more as to the nature of its contami-
nations than as to their amount.

" 5. That there is a difference between the mode at least
of the supply of water by the company to their northern
and morn elevated districts and that to their southern and
low districts, which coincides with the difference in the
mortality by cholera observed in these districts. It would
be unsafe, however, to draw at present any positive infer-
ence from this fact which, indeed, may be adduced in favour
of the harmlessness of the water as well as against it.
" 6. That the other hygienic conditions of the cholera
field present no difference from those of other districts
sufficient to account for its limitation. To this we may,
however, make perhaps one exception in the intersection
of the district by the lower part of the river Lea and canals
and cuts in connection with it, all in a rudely offensive
condition. The absence of drainage, through the unfinished
state of the low-level Sewer, is shown to be insufficient to
account for the present localisation of cholera.
"7. That there is good reason for believing, contrary to
much that has been said on the matter, that the injurious
constituents of a drinking water admit of removal by prac-
ticable means.

" In tho above report we have confined our attention to
cholera. This is not because we overlook the influence
of unsound water in bringing on diarrhoea ; but because,
among our reasons, we have not bad in our hands such
full data for comparison as we have had on cholera."

A case of Asiatic cholera was reported in Preston
yesterday, the victim being a miller named Jackson
Bradshaw. A few days ago he visited a friend in
Liverpool who was suffering from the cholera, and
it is said that he afterwards attended the funeral of
a person -who had died of cholera. Last Monday
evening Bradshaw left Liverpool at 6 o'clock for
Preston, arrived at the latter place at 8, and then
proceeded home. Nothing appeared to ail him at this
time. At 9 o'clock he was taken ill, and on being
visited by a medical man it was found that he was
suffering from an attack of cholera. He got worse,
and died shortly after 5 o'clock yesterday morning,
and was interred in the cemetery yesterday after-
noon at 2 o'clock. Bradshaw was a strong, healthy
man, and was a strict teetotaller. The street he
lived in is a very low one, the houses haying a very
dirty and most wretched appearance ; but nothing
of a local character has had to do with the attack
under which he succombed, and the case, according
to the authorities, was one of absolute importation.
For some time all the streets, &c., in the town have
been subjected to extra scavenging, all nuisances
have been looked after, and as far as possible sup-
pressed. Poor people have had Hine, brushes, and
disinfectants given to them, and the local board
have done their utmost to keep the town free from
disease.

RAILWAY 0 TELLIGENCE.

-`

ROYSTON AND HITCHIN.

The 41st ordinary general meeting of this COM-
was held yesterday at the offices, Graceeburch-
street ; Mr. J. Cobbold, M.P., in the chair, when.a
dividend at the rate of 6 per cent. per annum, less
income tax and a small sum for expenses, was de-
clared, payable on the consolidated stock of the
company.' The retiring directors were re-elected,
and a vote of thanks to the chairman terminated the
proceedings.