The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1847-01-12 00:00:00

TO THE EDITOR OF THE- LIVERPOOL STANDARD

Lr.7"7rEn xxiv

" There are three facTtohrestiorfstthaen operation of an epidemic, or
tv,iemseipa.l.one is the predis-
•us in the at..
patonsemds date co
fd itta sbeo.
dy ; secondly'
inoSphere ; and, thirdly, the accidental gierecluhincist"
ther, locality, food, occupation, &e. Against trecessecoofnri
these we are powerless : its nature, causes, and sympathies are
too subtle for our senses to find data to go uron. Against the
first, medicine may act profitably. Against the third, a :arse
and sagacious metrical police ought to be adopted; but, above
all, let every man act like a Christian, in all charity, and love,
and brotherly kindness, and sincere reliance on Cod's merciful
providence."—CotEriincE.

This unexceptionable summary was worded by this

acute modern philosopher, about fourteen or fifteen years
ago ; and I quote it in order that I may have the pleasure
of subscribing my own deliberate concurrence with the
several medical propositions, and also my hearty con-
sent to the conch ding clause ; for I am free to confess,-
once and for all, that we are in danger, through our
philosophy of second causes, of overlooking too frequently
the philosophy of venerating acknowledgment of the
Great Firs Cause. If, in the course of my past remarks
upon the MlMpe and resources of a " wise and sagacious
medical police," any readet could have imbibed, correctly
or not, it matters not in one sense, the idea that, for one
of the medical profession, I was apt to set forth second
causation, in such a way as to pass over the Supreme
Cause of all other causes, I ought to feel anxious that no
such supposition should be allowed to remain. Hereupon
no ambiguity ought to be left, doubt ought to be completely
removed ; for. it is plain that the term " second cause"
presupposes a first in science, and also in something
higher than mere science. ' Philosophy asserts her claim
to the acknowledgment of both first and second causa-
tion : that which absorbs all scientific pretehsion into its
own supreme unity, distinguishes as faithfully between,
but never divides them. They are essential compo-
nents of sound philosophical truth, which must ever
preserve their relative order towards each other, or the
' first great law of nature" were broken. It is evident,
that lie who only recognises a distinction between them,
holds them both ; whilst he who, in order to distinguish,
must divide, may possibly drop one, and, as the earlier
cause is the one more remote from his scrutiny, that will
-be the one he will be in danger of overlooking.
I consider that I have now brought my fact-reporting
to a close, and. I hope that it is demonstrated—
Firstly,—That " the purlieus of Liverpool Proper are
awful in capability for developing fevers of all kinds, and
of the profoundest intensity,' which Proposition I started
with the affirmation of, in my second letter, dated
March last.

That these foci of malaria have been fertile beyond even
the terms of my own prediction, if that were possible, as
furnishing the predisposing causes of those fevers which

have invaded, in grouped (epidemically) or in isolated
forms (sporadically), the town of Liverpool to an extent
and in a ratio unprecedented.
It matters not to the strict argument, whether the
exciting cause was found in concurrent atmospheric
changes themselves, or was simply conveyed by wind
inechanically as it were, or was the result of contact with
the contaminated—whether the exciting cause were re-
alized, in other words, by mediate or immediate means—
as seeds of infection or contagion. In several instances
adduced, if I mistake not the nature and scope of the evi-
dence, both the primary and secondary, the predisposing and
exciting causes presented themselves in the bosom of the
nuisance itself ; whilst in a host of other examples, the
primary one was shesin as an adequate cause, and was
the alone object of investigation—the secondary being
well known to exist in the wide fields of varying atmo-
spheric constitutions, &c., the inquiry intr which, per-
haps for ages to come, will baffle the persevering scrutiny
of science.
The date of my second letter was March of the present
year. The date of the fulfilled prediction was September
of the same year ; when the parish of Liverpool adver-
tised the fact, that, " in consequence of the overcrowded
state of the Fever Hospital, it is absolutely necessary to
discontinue the admission of fever patients to the Hospi-
tal for the present."
The West Derby Unibn of townships suburban to Li-
verpool, had, in consequence of this fact, to open wards
for their own cases, which hitherto had been sent in to
the fever wards of the parish of Liverpool,—their fever
cases being unusually numerous from the prevalence of
the same causes. '
Finally, the parish of Liverpool itself had to provide
temporary additional fever wards in another part of the
town.
These facts require not a word of comment.
I claim for the whole medical profession here, and not
for myself, the warning voice of these approaching evils.
At the most, I have only constituted myself a voluntary
mouthpiece, defective I know, but still I venture to hope,
in the main accepted by them, and acceptable as from
them saving, of course, all errors or failings of the
individual writer.
I felt so satisfied as to the nature and amount of the
evidence that could be brought forward, that I ventured
before the public in what may have been considered a
questionable manner for a medical practitioner, upon the
sole ground of the capability of making good the proposi-
tion, and of the necessity for so doing ; in order to arouse
further attention to the magnitude of those evils, brood-
ing like a curse over and amongst our labouring popula-
tion, and threatening not them alone,—which facts, if
brought home to every man's power or opportunity of
personal scrutiny, would, if undenied and undeniable,
tend in no little measure to ripen the public mind for the
forthcoming operation of the new Sanatory Bill.
I consented also to the alternative, that, if I failed in a
satisfactory public proof of the proposition asserted, I
should have silence imposed upon me, with the words
".not proven" inscribed publicly upon the attempt.
No one has assailed my facts—no one, that I know of,
has even attempted to disprove their veracity in number,
nature, or accuracy, or 'even to mitigate the rigour of
induction from them. So that I am entitled to take it
for granted, that THE PROPOSITION HAS BEEN PROVED—
nay, so abundantly proved, that I have laid myself open
to the counter charge of reiteration of proof, " fugue ad
nauseam."
I consider, therefore; That the period has fully arrived,
when " silence " becomes my duty—not for the " not
proven," indeed, but for the " proven." If there should
be yet any lingering scepticism on so important a subject,
I have yet some bolts left in my quiver.
Secondly,—lt has been demonstrated, that the same
malarial poisons, where they have not been sufficiently
concentrated to produce, in conjunction with other essen-
tial conditions, fever in one or other of its forms, yet have
nevertheless not remained innoxious ; for that the same
resultants of damp, filth, and uncleanliness, might become
potent predisposing causes of other epidemic diseases,
such as have Been instanced in the late autumnal attacks
of cholera, diarrhoea, and dysentery, and also of other
non-epidemic diseases, always occurring, such as convul-
sions in infant life, rheumatism, consumption, asthma,
dropsy, jaundice, indigestion, &c., &c., and, in fact,
numberless shapes of depraved bodily health.
Thirdly,—That the chemical elements of several ma-
larial. sources, having been investigated by one equal to
the task—viz., my friend Dr. Brett—shew, by the results
of many analyses, not only what may be now, I think,
safely considered as the normal elementary constitution
of such frightful pestilential foci ; but further, that these
elements exist here in a plenitude of strength efficient for
the production of the assigned natural effects, but even
in an excess of the worst elements unprecedented in the
tables of analysis of analogous refuse matters, as rendered
by Orfila, Devergie, Taylor, and other forensic chemists.
Fourth ly,—That these sources of disease are largely
due to utterly inadequate scavengering and other public
cleansing processes, especially the supply of water, which
is a reproach to the late authorities.
Fifthly,—That the clauses of the more recent acts of
parliament are inadequate of themselves to grapple with
the evils to, be contended with efficiently, unless the pub-
lic mind is prepared to receive and support, to the utmost
of its voluntary power, the operation of such, and to
counteract,' on the other hand, by the moral force of

public and indignant opinion, thOse breaches of the
meaning or words of the act, ingeniously contrived by
interested individuals, in furtherance of their own alfish
ends, in the teeth of good morals as well as of these their
legislative exponents.

Sixthly,—That the result of hasty legislation, .in the
late instance of the Liverpool Improvement Act being put
into force, without the authorities having armed them-
selves, at the same time, with the means, power, and
plans, for providing suitable reception for the poor ex-
pelled from the cellars under the act, has had a most
injurious effect, in numberless instances, by necessitating
the hasty running up of a host of jerry-built houses, and
the equally hasty and therefore highly dangerous occupa-
tion of the same, or the deepening of the condemned
cellars, whereby, especially in the former instances, many
lives have been sacrificed through the diseases, acute or
chronic, superinduced, or at least aggravated thereby.
Seventhly,—That the fact of the streets of these new
houses having been found wanting in needful sewerage
previous to the buildings having been erected and occu-
pied, has been attended with the most natural, but most
prejudicial results, by creating sickness or retarding con-
valescence.

Eightly,—That the cemeteries and grave-yards, as
public resorts for suitable purposes or for exercise, &c., are
not without risk, inasmuch as either in selection of loca-
lity, nature of soil, economic arrangements, overcrowd-
ing, or other important particulars, they tell unfavourably
upon the health of the living, especially in large towns,
crowded upon the surrounding area, as is instanced in
Liverpool to an unprecedented extent,—the best way of
performing the last offices for the dead, compatible with
safety to the living, not havitg been systematically at-
tended to, or consulted.

Ninthly,—That the physical evils already discussed (as
only a part, after all) do not stand alone, but that society
endures another penalty, additional to the direct and im-
mediate one of causation of disease, which is a physical
result of a physical cause,—to wit, the moral effects ;
which form also a long train of secondary results, preju-
dicial in various ways to the wellbeing of social and indi-
vidual happiness, and which, like circles formed on the
water by any disturbing body,, proceed expanding as they
run, until they are absorbed in the magnitude of their own

giant footsteps. The orderly, cleanly, and virtuous por-
tions of society are thus discouraged in welldoing, and,
by evil example and contagion of filthy habits, are degraded
and are drawn into the vortex of encouragements to vice ;
and are, as a penalty for resisting the latter, imposed on
by the idle, filthy, and bad-disciplined neighbours, who
often succeed in removing the burthen off their own
shOulders, and placing it upon those of their industrious
and cleanly neighbours.
Lastly,—That many of the evils contained in this cate-
gory are capable of mitigation and correction by the ma-

gistiate, but that eradication and restoration of the pro-
prieties of life still remain the field for the enterprise of
individual teaching, influence, and example, and can be
no otherwise accomplished ; and that, therefore, it is idle-
ness itself to expect everything from the magistrate, and
nothing from ourselves,—as if " every man" had not "to
do his duty."

I remain, Sir, yours, faithfully,
GEO. C. WATSON, M.D
Bedford-street, Dec. 29, 1846.

MODE OF FURTHERING THE OBJECT OF THE
REV. HUGH M'NEILE'S APPEAL ON BEHALF
Ox THE POOR OF IRELAND AND SCOTLAND.

F
ToslTßiti_BAEllnowlTOmßeOt:
sTulgl
gEestLlthV
aEtßtPheoo.p.LpeSaTliwAh'DicAh RhDas
.
been made to the mercantile community, and the public
in general, by the Rev. Ilugh APNeile, whose address ap-
peared in the Courier of Wednesday last, might be re-
sponded to, more generally, if the means were afforded
for receiving contributions of small sums, such as the do-
nors might not wish to have exposed to the surveillance
of collectors and committee-men; by having their names
recorded on the lists of subscription. The means that I
would suggest, to carry out to the fullest extent Mr.
M'lslaile's truly benevolent appeal, affording to all classes
of the community an opportunity of testifying their sym-
pathy in the sufferings of their fellow-countrymen in
Scotland and Ireland, are—

Firstly, That boxes should be placed in all the news-
rooms of the town, having inscribed on theni, " For
. the relief of the suffering poor in Ireland, or in.
Scotland."
Secondly, That similar boxes should be placed in the
entrances of all churches, chapels, and places of wor-
ship in'the town. And
Thirdly, That similar boxes be exhibited in the Windows
of the newspaper offices, in some of the most public
and n,ost frequented shops of the town, such as
Hausburg's, Compton House, Golden Eagle, &c.
By these means many, as I observed before, might
promptly be induced to give something, though abstain-
ing to expose their poverty by recording their names in
subscription lists for SUMS which the world might imagine
very inadequate for their appearance in society and posi,
tion in life.—l am, sir, &c.
teo,7wewousirdonomotsiletshiseta.otePc.c.
N.B.—The proprietorsuin-
piers of the shops, &c.,alluoclfeldh

such a cause, to.be at the expense of providing such boxes
Liverpool, 7111 January, 1847.

THE HIGH-PRICED MERC

7ERPOOD STANDARD,
t
TO TAE
r CEanDly7oVuß
nOfForm7limE
eL,,11
11 y
he Mercury still re-
tains its high price, when I alwaysunderstood the tiro-

prietor was an advocate for the reform of abuses, highprices, hoary :whs. &c. Surely he does not consider his
paper more valuable than the rest, for I used to take
about two hours to read it ; now less than an hour will do.
—I am, sir, &c. STUDIO.
January, 1847.