The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1849-09-04 00:00:00

Such are the results of our conciliation policy.

IN the last return of the Registrar-General to the
Board of Health, that functionary takes the public
to task for the comparatively " insignificant" ef-
forts made to prevent-the spread of fatal disease,
compared with the vast means and agency which
are brought to bear by the nation in other fields
for the protection of life and property. As an in-
stance he refers to the case of the recent Bermond-
sey murder. " Steam-ships," he says, " the elec-
tric telegraph, the heads of the police and profes-
sional agents, were all employed to arrest the de-
stroyers of this life ;" and, in contrast, he points
to the circumstance of 19 persons having died of
cholera in a terrace of a few houses in the Wttnds-
worth-road, in which the refuse of one house "had
been allowed to accumulate in the vault for above
two years," and the drains " had burst and over-
flowed into the tank, and impregnated the water,
with which the houses were supplied."
We are quite willing to allow that public and in-
dividual sympathy is most readily excited by such
events as the Bermondsey murder. Hundreds of
people, of a certain distorted state of mind, would
eagerly rush to witness the scene of such a tragedy,
scrutinise anxiously the grave into which the mur-
dered man was thrust, turn over the debris of lime,
by which his body was covered over, and handle
the very instrument by which his death was
effected. In our own town we lately witnessed a
similar tragedy, and remember what eager numbers
were last week endeavouring to procure seats in
the Court, to listen to horrible details of butchery,
and to gaze upon the brutal features of the mur-
derer. We are well aware that numbers at this
moment—and, we regret to say, amongst them fe-
males, many of whom would shudder at the sight
of blood from the pricked finger of one of their
children—would gladly be permitted to visit the
convict in his cell, to watch the throbbings of re-
morse, vainly striven to be repressed by a stolid na-
ture, and to weep sentimental tears over his ap-
proaching and - ignominious end. But few such
persons could bring themselves to visit the cellars
and hovels in which fever and pestilence are busy
with their victims. It is a melancholy truth that
such is human nature.

We submit, however, that neither the law, which
sets itself up to put down crime, nor human nature
itself, are guilty to the extent urged by the In-
spector-General. Individual indifference and ava-
rice are often in fault. Admit that the congregated
filth mentioned was " allowed to accumulate" in
the neighbourhood of the houses inhabited by these
nineteen persons, who died from cholera in the
Wandsworth-road. Let us see how far they were
in a position to have helped themselves, instead of
calling upon the public to help them. We take
the description of them, given by the Registrar-
General himself : .
" On August 9 a stock-broker died at No. 12, AlbiOn-
terrace, Wandsworth-road ; a widow lady, and an old do-
mestic servant at No. 6; in the five preceding days in
the same terrace, the daughter of a grocer, a child of five
years of age, had died at No. 1 ; the widow of a coach
proprietor, and a commercial clerk, at No. 2 ; a gentle-
man's widow at No. 3 ; a surgeon's daughter at No. 4 ;
a spinster of 41 at No. 5 ; the wife of a dissenting minis-
ter, his mother, a widow lady, and a servant at No. 6; a
young woman of 21 at No. 10 ; a gentleman at No. 12,
xliere the stock-broker died ; a commercial clerk and a
young woman of 19 at No. 13, where a young woman also
died on July 28; a gentleman's wife at No. 14, who had
seen her daughter die there the day before. The 19
persons died of cholera, many of the inhabitants of the
terrace were dispersed, and the deaths of several have
been registered elsewhere."
This is certainly not a case in which it should be
complained that " no medical police had interfered
to disturb the contents of Mr. Biddle's cellar."
This is not a case in which the blame should be
attributed to " the guardians of the district—to the
institutions of the country !" Na one of these
unfortunate people can be presumed to have been
ignorant of the pestilential atmosphere, with which
they were surrounded, and the impure water which
they drank. The bulk of them were in a position
of life to have known the effect of these causes in
producing disease, and in circumstances to have
removed to more cleanly localities. Yet we find
that in one house—that of the dissenting minister
—four deaths were permitted to occur before the I
minister himself could be brought to leave it ;
and even then, if we remember right, only to
die in another locality, from the disease engendered
here! Not a single representation appears to have
been made to the authorities from first to last.
This neglect was morally suicide, or the most im-
penetrable stupidity, on the part of the victims
themselves.

We have noticed this case, in order to enter our
protest against the-cruel and unjust charges, which
are frequently urged against the local authorities,
of neglecting proper sanatory precautions against
cholera ; and to impress upon the community the
fact, that to a great extent their lives are in their
own keeping, so far as human means are efficacious.
It would require an army of medical police and
other visitors, and an altogether ruinous expendi-
ture of money, to detect every producer of disease.
For this very object we are expending just now at
the rate of above £lO,OOO a-year; and yet, we can-
nct but admit that the work is done imperfectly,
and will be so done, until the inhabitants them-
selves, individually, aid the efforts of the authori-
ties. A notice to remove a nuisance, to empty an
ashpit, or to cleanse a drain, is promptly attended
to ; but too many of our poor seem to be content
rather to inhale pestilence that to take a single step
of themselves to remove its source.

We are afraid, however, that with respect to one-
half the cases which occur amongst our unfortunate.
poor, the chief inducing cause of disease is altoge-
ther overlooked. Our scientific people talk of
sanatory measures—sweeping, cleansing, and ven-
tilating—as the great specifics; but they rarely
refer to the bodily susceptibility of the victims,_
arising from insufficient or unwholesome food.
We beg their attention to the following evidence
before the coroner, given with respect to a woman
found dead of cholera in a wretched room in
Southwark :

" W. Brooks, th-. 1 husband of the deceased, said he had
been married 42 years. Deceased was 64, and a stay-
stitcher; but she could only earn a shilling a-week at it,
though she worked from morning till night, and part of
Sundays. Her employers wished tr, cut her down to 6d.
a-week, but she declined, and had therefore done no work
lately. Deceased had an allowance of 2s. a-week from
the parish. She had suffered much from privation, and,
to his certain knowledge, she had not tasted animal food
for the last twelve months." _

Alas, for the children of poor " John Bull !"
Alas, for the once beef-eating working people of
England ! The mania for cheapness, and the
" coarser food" legislation of our Somerset-House
conclave, have brought them to a sad condition,
when an employer dares to offer a miserable six-
pence for a week's labour. English matrons—
buyers of cheap stays—see what you are doing !
You are grasping a large portion of the bard earn-
ings of your own sex ; condemning an aged female
to toil for a shilling a-week, whilst the husband,
who was stated on the inquest to have had in
earlier lift a large practie as a barrister (0, and to
have been reduced by misfortune, is now an inmate
of a workhouse; while his poor partner for 42 years,
has been allowed two shillings a-week, to assist her
in procuring the wretched food, of which your
parsimony and love of the " cheap shop" deprived
her. How many of the deaths, which we hear of
daily, attributed to unhealthy dwellings how
many in our town, and at our own doors—are in
reality brought on by destitution, indisposing the
frame to bear up against the slightest attack of
even ordinary disease.

THE HARVEST IN IRELAND.—OUT accounts are some-
what cintradictory. We learn from Waterford, that
with the exception of a couple of days rain the weather
has continued fine since our last, and harvest work goes
on rapidly ; whilst in the neighbourhood of Cork, although
considerable progress had been made during the week in
securing the mops, the very heavy rain which fell on Sa-
turday, accompanied with thundey, caused serious fears to
be entertained that the corn still in the fields (comprising
about half the Wheat crop) would receive considerable in-
jury. In the north, also, the weather has not been so
favourable, being close and damp, which retards harvest
operations. We quote the following about the potatoes,
dated Cork, Saturday, with our usual reservation as to the
extent of the danger to be apprehended : •
"The disease in the Potato Crop which hitherto was chiefly
indicated by the appearance of the leaves and stalks, is now
found to have extended to the tubers, and in many cases where
these appeared lately to be perfectly sound, they exhibit the
well-known discoloration caused by the blight, and in conse-
quence, the farmers are forcing them to market with increased
rapidity, fearing they will not keep."
Another letter, however, from Cork, states that the tubers
do not appear affected, except in particular instances.

THE ALLEGED RECIPE OF SIR JAMES CLARKE

FOR CHOLERA.

Same few weeks ago, it was announced that a prescrip-
tion had been given by the above eminent physician,
which was almost an infallible cure for the dreadful malady
at present prevailing ; and with such confidence were its
merits spoken of that it was adopted by the Dock Com-
mittee, and medicine provided by them for gratuitous
distribution amongst such of their labourers as might be
attacked. The mixture was strongly narcotic; and the
quantity to be taken was a teaspoonful for ordinary diar-
rhoea, and a tablespoonful for cholera. Laughably enough,
the authority of so great a name was eagerly seized upon
by Dr. Hawthorne, as warranting his own strong doses of
opium, that learned gentleman declaring that the larger
dose given was equal to 9or 9,1 grains of opium. A cor-
respondent, however, set him right upon this point in our
own columns, showing that it was not quite equal to half
that quantity; and, during the past week, Sir James
Clarke himself has published a strong disclaimer of his
having ever advised the medicine as a univereal cholera
mixture, and stated that he considers even the smaller
dose a dangerous one, and confirms the evidence of our
informant by estimating the largest dose at less than
5 grains.

We have been put in possession of the following parti-
culars, upon which we can depend as correct, respecting
the mode in which the prescription got into circulation :
and publish them with a view of exonerating the Dock
Committee from any charge of haste in its adoption.
Every one will admit that their affording it to their work-
people was the prompting of pure philanthropy. Several
years ago a respectable ship captain of this port was com-
plaining to his merchants—a well-known and influential
firm—of being afflicted with constant and excruciating
headache. He was introduced by them to 'Sir James
Clarke, whom he consequently visited, and was cured
within a fortnight. Hamming to say during his parting
interview with Sir James that he was about to sail to New
Orleans, the physician remarked that that port was, at
the time, very unhealthy with cholera and fever; and he
volunteered to give him, prescription to be taken in case
he was attacked. This was the one in question, which on
his return he communicated to a friend, from whom it
found its way ultimately to the Dock Committee. It is
obvious that what might have very well suited a particular
c-institution. in such a climate as that of New Orleans,
might be dangerous if promiscuously given in this locality.