The Sun.
London, England, 1857-11-02 00:00:00

QUARANTINE AND YELLOW FEVER.

The news brought by the La Plata, which hal
just arrived with the West India mail is, that
chojera was still raging fearfully in Central America,
but that the West Indies, both on land and afloat,
was free from cholera, and yellow fever. The last
season in the West Indies has been the sickliest
known for twenty years past. It is now five years
since the La Plata arrived home on her first voyagi
as the first homeward bound West India packet in-
fected with the dreaded yellow fever. Her cornmeal.
der and several others had perished during her
voyage. From that time to the present, almost
every homeward West India mail steamer
has been more or less infected with the fever.
As many as thirty persons have died of it on
board one packet during a single voyage.
Many times the Royal Mail Company have had
the greatest difficulty to get crews for their
steamers ; and fearfully distressing scenes used to
be witr essed at Southampton on the arrival of
alnitst every mail packet. It was universally be-
lieved that the mode and place of coaling the mail
packets at St. Thomas contributed to the mortality.
The coaling arrangements have now been altered.
During a previous voyage of the La Plata, when
the yellow fever was rife in the West Indies, Dr.
Schuyler, the surgeon of that vessel, administered
quinine every morning to each of the crew, and
every one escaped disease. During the present
voyage of the La Plata the same plan has been
adopted, and with the like result. The superior
coaling arrangements at St. Thomas, with the un-
doubted discovery by Dr. Schuyler of an efficient
prophylactic for yel!ow fever, will, it is
confidently believed, secure the health of the
crews of the Royal Mail packets when that
epidemic again visits the West India Islands.
It is a singular fact that when Southampton
first became a foreign packet station, and the over-
land mail communication with India commenced,
the only mail packets for which quarantine regula-
tions were made at Southampton were those from
Alexandria, and the homeward India mail steamers
used to go constantly to the Motherbank, off the
Isle of Wight, to be purified. We never now hear
of the plague in Alexandria, and the mail, steamers
from that port come direct up to Southampton
without delay. The only mail packets at present
subjected to quarantine restrictions at the latter
port are those from the West Indies and Brazil.
The Portuguese are the most strict in enforcing
quarantine laws, and are the most unfortunate
in warding off disease. Their precautions to pre-
vent disease being brought to them by the South-
ampton mail packets are sometimes ludicrous. It
is said that they placed a mail packet in qua-
rantine a short time since at Lisbon, because while
the yellow fever raged there the hose pipe of a water
tank on shore touched the packet. The Portuguese
declare that the yellow fever which now rages so
lcaanuds
iendg byso am Be rpauz
putrid
pack,d
b ide
et
s
anta:l. The officers of the ship,
ab
to the Portuguese
virulentlyfor Si louLt hi sabmocnpa tpwoi
however, declare that the only thing that was
landed was a tiger's skin. There cannot be a doubt
that the absence of cleanliness in Lisbon is the chief
cause of disease. Southey, who resided the're, used
to say that it had been only twice thoroughly
cleansed since the Creation, viz., once at the time
of the Deluge, and again at the period of the Great
Earthquake at Lisbon, when the sea washed over
the city. Lord Byron, who visited Lisbon since
Southey, has recorded his opinion in well-known
lines.

MICHAELMAS TERM.—To-clay being the first day of
Michaelmas Term, the Lord Chancellor entertained at
breakfast, at his residence, Upper Bruton-street, the
learned judges and leading members of the bar. Their
lordships afterwards proceeded to Westminster Hall in
state, and commenced the business of their respective
court. The Lord Mayor elect (Alderman Sir R W.
Carden, M.P.), attended the Lord Chancellor's levee,
according to aueient custom, and was presented to his
lordship by the Recorder, when the noble and learned
lord signified her Majesty'a concurrence in the choice of
the citizens.