The New York herald., 1865-04-23


|epidemic prevailing in Russia The informa-
ton we have obtained enables US to declare
that no order prescribing this measure has been
sent from Paris. The most recent information
shows that this epidemic, the nature Of which
lis still unknown, has begun to decrease"
In the British House Of Commons on
the 9th instant, Sir George Grey, Secre- L
tary of State, announced that England
ever alive to the security Of her commercial in
|terests-had sent instructions to Sir A. Bu-
chanan, her minister at St Petersburg, to make
without delay the fullest inquiries into the sub
iect. and to send from time to time all the in- .
formation he could obtain as to the origin, ma
ture and progress of the disease, and the treat
ment of it. Instructions were also sent to her
representatives at Berlin, Vienna, Copenhagen
and Stockholm, and to the consuls at the Baltic
norris to send full information as to the disease,
should it appear in any OF those parts OF Eu-
rome. A medical officer was also directed to
proceed to st. Petersburg to investigate and re-
port upon the disease, and the officers OF GUS
toms ordered to exercise the utmost vigilance
| in the examination of vessels coming from the |
Baltic. In reply Sir A. Buchanan said that the I
disease is stated TO be fever new in Russia,
but moi unknown in other parts Of Europe, and
| it Is said to be diminishing. Lord Napier
said that the Prussian Minister of the Interior
| had told him that an unknown disorder had ap-
peared along the valley of the Vistula; but
that he was not aware that it came from Russia.
The consul at Dantzic says that the disorder
prevalent in that district is a complaint of the
brain, chiefly affecting children. The consul
, at Warsaw said that some cases Of typhus oc-
Cured there; but no disease having the pro-
: portions of an epidemic disorder had appeared
: in Poland The consul at Konigsberg reports
: that no particular epidemic disorder existed
there, and the consul at Memel said that no
symptoms of the disease appeared in that dis
trict nor in the adjacent Russian provinces; and
telegram from the consul at Stettin reported
that no epidemic disorder prevailed there.
Our latest reports from Vienna assure us
that the imagination plays tolerably large
part in the propagation of the rumors which
depict the horrors of this new plague" Late
and reassuring dispatches had, to great
face of the fact that very many Russians were
daily arriving there in an endeavor to ''run
away from the plague"
What, then, is the nature of this visitation!-
what the main exciting cause Of the malady!
DR.. Charles Murchison, of London-than whom
no higher authority on such subject exists in
the Old World-replies to these queries in such
kl~cA 1,<rv hiu Npdo Ho
says:-"If the details furnished by foreign ply
sicians are to be relied on, it is not a new pest
which has invaded the world, nor has the dis
ease any relation whatever to Asiatic cholera.
The maady is evidently relapsing fever, which.
under different designations, has been we'll
centuries, which constituted great part Of
Z The Irish epidemic of ls47 and which about the
same time was very prevalent in Upper Silesia
and in other parts of Germany The Russian dis
ease corresponds with relapsing fever in every
- particular save One--viz. its great fatality; but
this difference is apparent rather than real, and
is attributable to an admixture Of ordinary
typhus. The mortality from relspsing fever has
rarely exceeded three per cent; but almost all
= epidemics of relapsing fever have co-existed
y with epidemics Of typhus, Of which the average
4 mortality is nearly twenty per cent. Hence the
aggregate mortality of an epidemic of the two
diseases varies with the proportion of typhus.'
And again:-"The causes assigned for the Rus
sian epidemic are the crowding into st. Peters
T. burg Of forty-three thousand laborers in search
of work, but more particularly the unusual des-
titution among the poor, and their recourse to
! unwholesome food, such as bread containing a
large quantity of horned rye. The epidemic
we are told, is exclusively confined to the
= poorer classes In this respect the relapsing
fever of Russia is not singular. In this country
the disease has always been confined to the
l. poorest classes. In most of the accounts OF
Irish epidemics Of relapsing fever, and in that
; Of the Slesian epidemic, il is stated that the in
habians were net only starving, but that they
subsisted on unwholesome articles of diet
such as The roots Of trees, grass, fungi, DC
= The public need be under little apprehension
as to the importation Of the Russian epidemic
into England. The more formidable of The Too
diseases composing IL is here lin London) already
Viewing the subject from our own-ye,
healthy-standpoint on this side of the Allan.
tic, we think that it is eminently right and pro-
per that the most strict precaution should be
enforced, so as to guard against the advent. by
imported cOntagion. of this epidemic, OF
plague, whichever it may be. Our city autho
rites should be active in their cooperation
with the quarantine officers; and, now that the
warm but rather enervating weather Of early
spring is upon US, New York should have such
a thorough cleansing, both in street, lane and
alley, that disease may find no cradle within
it's limits, nor sickness from abroad have any
foothold.
Our people are happily free from the every
day causes which engender such disorders In
other lands: being well paid for their work,