The Liverpool Standard, and General Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1854-09-12 00:00:00

ROBERT I. WILBERFORCE

Bishopthorpe,

QTY DEAE SIB,--I saw h
paragraph to which your let'

IE, Sept. 6, 1854.
shire Gazette the

tsy whom, or at whose suggestion that paragraph was
inserted, I have no knowledge whatever, any more than
you have.

On the receipt of your resignation, dated August 30th,
I gave orders to discontinue all further inquiry on the
subject of the "complaint" which had been laid before me.
To that I adhere, as well as to my acceptance of your resig.
nations.—l am, my dear sir, your faithful servant,
The Rev. R. I. Wilberforce. T. EBOR.

THE CHor.EnA. PANIC IN ITALY.—The Corriere
Mercantile of Genoa of the 31st ult. gives some accounts
of the state of destitution in which the cholera patients
were left in some villao.pq 1.7

whom every sentiment of humanity was e-i4diCated by
fear. At Busalla a poor patient was dragged out of
the house, and left to die under a tree at some distance
from the village. At Toirano, the curate and another
priest had to go and bury a corpse themselves, the sexton
refusing to do it. In other places the sick and those who
attended them were locked up in the houses where they
were, and not allowed to come out. But the most curious
case of all is that of a poor woman, just recovered from the
cholera, who has had to sue her husband before the tri-
bunal, because he actually refused to let her into the house
again until she had performed quarantine.
CUOLERA.‘: ITS ORIGIN AND PREVENTION.—SINGU-
LAE REPRESENTATION.--On Friday, a miller attended
before Alderman Farebrother, at the Guildhall, London,
with the following communication relative to the fatal epi-
demic which is at present spreading its devastating influ-
ence over every part of the metropolis. He stated that in
1832 he purchased a large quantity of old foreign flour in
bond, and while tasting it for the purpose of separating
the fresher from the staler, both he and his men were
seized with sickness and excessive salivation, accompanied
with disordered bowels. He tried some of the same old
flour in his own family, and the consequence was that
three of his children were seized with violent purgings
and sickness, as in the ease of cholera, which disease soon
after made its appearance in London. After attentively
watching its progress, he was convinced it arose from the
consumption of old bread-stuffs, and he accordingly deter-
mined not to supply any old flour to his customers. The
result proved that not one of them had the cholera, even
in its most incipient stage, although exposed to the same
disadvantages in other respects as those around them, who
were daily falling victims to this sad malady. He wrote
to Sir Robert Peel, who was then prime minister, and his
letter was referred to the Board of Health, who granted
him au interview, but as he was not a medical man they
merely listened to him, and there the matter ended. On
one occasion he became aware that a quantity of stale
wheat was about being shipped from London to Leeds,
and he foretold that, if that corn was allowed to reach its
destination, the cholera would follow in its wake. Within
15 days after, the cholera broke out in Leeds with great
virulence. He said that in all the Russian wars against
Turkey and Poland the cholera had always accompanied
the armies of either country when traversing navigable
rivers ; and in the war of independence in Poland, when
news arrived that Warsaw was short of provisions and
had surrendered, lit prognosticated that the cholera would
visit that part, because he knew that Warsaw would have
to draw upon the same old stores that had previously given
to the Russians that disease. The visitation did come,
attended with the most calamitous results. He did not
complain of five or seven years old wheat. He alluded to
that which was received in the above countries in lieu of
money for taxes, and which was stored in warehouses for
15 or 20 years without seeing day light. It was remark-
able that cholera rarely appeared during years of plenty ;
and in India, when failures of the rice crops produced a
scarcity of food, the old stores were ransacked, and, as a
matter of course, the cholera commenced its ravages. In
1849, when cholera again visited London, and the armis-
tice between Denmark and Holstein removed the embargo
on corn-laden ships bound for London, he wrote to the
Board of Health, anticipating a supply of fresh corn, to
say that one of the causes of cholera was about to be re-
moved, and that there would be an abatement of the dis-
ease of 100 per cent in 12 days. The subsequent returns
issued by that body showed an abatement exceeding his
calculations, fully establishing it as a fact, that, as soon as
the new wheat got into consumption, the cholera decreased,
and ultimately disappeared. He condemned the practice
of abstaining from fresh vegetables and fruit, because it
led to an increased consumption of bad bread-stuff. He
said the disease was more general near navigable rivers or
watercourses, where the import of the stale corn takes
place, and is warehoused, because the consumption was
greater in such localities, the expense of carriage prevent-
ing its being sent far inland. The disease more frequently
showed itself in large institutions, such as prisons, unions,
and emigrant ships, where cheapness was the chief object
in their contracts for bread. It was only when fresh corn
became so scarce as to make a great difference in the price,
and nearly the whole trade were tempted to resort to the
old stores, that the cholera attacked the higher circles,
where there was neither want of cleanliness nor over-
crowded habitations to generate or aid the disease. When
the cholera was raging at Newcastle-on-Tyne, he went
clown there to prevail upon the authorities to try the expe-
riment of oatmeal or some other substitute for bread in
the union or prison, but without success, as the general
opinion was that the cholera proceeded from want of clean-
liness, notwithstanding the disease continued unabated
after the town was cleansed and purified, and it did not
diminish until the corn market introduced a supply of
fresh corn. He was satisfied if new wheat was tried to
the exclusion of the old, in any place where cholera existed,
that the disease would not only be stopped immediately,
but that no new case would appear after twelve hours ;
and, in case of failure, he would willingly pay every ex-
pense attending the experiment. He concluded by observ-
ing that he should be happy to furnish every information
and assistance to any scientific gentleman who would take
up the matter, and would show in what manner old wheat
--st through the animalculsi it contains, to generate
choler,