THE CHOLERA IN LONDON.

'Tins disease, or what is called so, has at length exhioited itself in Lon- don. Cases have been reported in Limehouse, Rotherhithe South- wark, Lambeth. The first cases were announced on Monday, at a meeting of the Limebouse Parochial Board, which took place in the Board-room of the Workhouse in the evening of that day. The cases as detailed at the meeting of the Board were as follows.

On Sunday afternoon, a man called on Mr. Livingston, one of the overseers of the parish, to request that he. would send the parish sur- geon to see a female named Sarah Ferguson, who resided in White's Rents, Fore Street ; and whom he described to have been suffering, the greater part of the night and day, from violent spasms. Mr. Li- vingston accompanied Mr. Ctunming-, the parish doctor, to the house; and thatgentleman, as well as Mr. Barnet, another medical gentleman, who was called in having declared the case to be one of cholera, the patient, with as little delay as possible, was removed to a building at the rear of the parish workhouse, and the most.active remedies resorted to to check the disease ; but to no purpose—at five o'clock she breathed her last. Ferguson had previous to the attack been in the enjoyment of robust health : she obtained a living by picking up coals and pieces of timber along the river-side : and was in the constant habit, even in the most inclement weather, of wading. knee-deep in the water and mud. Her child, which is about eighteen months old, during the tem- porary cessation of pain of its mother, sucked for some time at her breast, yet it is still in perfectly good health. • The next victim was the wife of an Irish labourer, named Shay. She had exhibited symptoms of the disease on Thursday, and was attended by Mr. Cumming, who considered her much better on Saturday. On Sunday afternoon, however, she was much worse; and her daughter, a girl of twelve years of age, also becoming seriously ill, they were both i removed to the workhouse at five o'clock n the evening. .Che mother died about midnight, and the daughter at seven o'clock on Monday morning.

The bodies of the three deceased persons were, on the afternoon of Monday, rolled up in 'a pitched blanket, placed in a coffin, and buried at a great depth in the corner of the churchyard. Although these three are the first announced cases, it appears that others had occurred early in the previous week.. At a meeting of the London Medical Society on Monday night, Mr. Hooper, surgeon, of London Road, described,one case. The patient was a back-maker (a kind of cooper),- named_ FlOrance„Sidlivan, residing at No. 1, Mint Street, Southwark ; his Si:dr:L*1; ;_repated,to be before the attack a strong healthy man, amid very temperate. He was perfectly well on the night of the 7th instant, when he ate a sprat supper, and 'went to bed. Soon after twelve o'clock, he was suddenly seized with a purg- ing; and in a short time, vomiting came on, with dreadful cramps in the calves of the legs, arms, hands, and muscles of the abdomen. He di ct not apply for medical advice until twelve o'clock next day ; when Mr. -Evans, the surgeon, saw him ; and he was then in a state of ex- cusive exhaustion : no pulse at the wrist could be felt, the extremities

were cold, a clammy perspiration bedewed the whole body, and the whole of the appearances of a patient in the blue or intense stage of the malignant cholera were present. The alvine evacuations were not then very copious, as they had so long existed, but they were whey- like, and a little tinged with blood. The vomiting had ceased some hours. The stimulatinn.c remedies usually resorted to were tried, and a little heat was restored, but not permanently ; and at seven o'clock on the same evening (the 8th) he died.

Some of the Metropolitan Board doctors saw this case ; which they decided not to be cholera grarior (we take the liberty of baptizing

the disease anew—the term Indian is hypothetical, and spasmodica ap- plies to only one form of -the disease), because of the tenseness of the abdomen.

Dr. Whiting mentioned two eases—the first was that of a woman named Roberts; living in the Bear Garden, Bankside; who was per- featly- well= Sunday trioriting.7 • She went to the New Cut, Lambeth, before breakfaSt, and there' drank some elder wine, and came home per- fe.ctly well : before she took her breakfast, she felt-indisposed, and was induced to obtain medical advice. The gentleman who Saw her thought it only a common affection of the bowels, and merely sent her some chalk mixture and opium. But violent purging and vomiting soon came on, and excessive prostration followed, coldness of the surfaCe, loss of pulse, and sunken .countenance ; the tongue white and clammy, the fluid ejected like whey; and in fifteen hours from the attack she was a corpse. The other case was that of a boy who was found ill in the-Borough in the same morning, when his mother arose. The symp- toms were similar, vomiting and purging, prostration, entire coldness of the extremities, and low pulse. He is convalescent. The post mortent appearances in the woman were very different from those in

Sullivan. There was merely alight blueness on the mucous membrane of the bowels ; none7on the skin.

Dr. Gilchrist noticed, that the. body of one of the patients had re- mained in the room from the time of death up to that time, and the living relations along with it ; none of thein had, however, been seized. It was stated both by Dr. Evans and Dr. Gilchrist, that notwithstand- ing the most careful inquiry, not the slightest trace of connexion with one another, or with any other sick person, had been made out in the cases of these patients. It seemed agreed Among the medical men by whom these eases were detailed, that blueness of the skin was by'no means a prevailing symptom : one: gentleman mentioned the coldness and pearly feel [what is this :).] of the -tongue ; another the marble coldness of the hand.

Two cases, which Dr. Barry had pronounced not to be cholera, were reported on Monday at the Thames Police-office, for the purpose of being contradicted ; the Police-offices, hrough the medium of the penny-a-line-men, serving as a sort of conduit-pipes for the conveyance of rumours as well as contradictions to the public on all manner of sub- jects, serious or comic. In one of these cases of pseudo-cholera, a man named James, a ship-scraper, appeared to have been in the most indi- gent circumstances, and subsisting on the coarsest food, such as pota- toes, gruel, &c...; on Thursday night be was attacked with violent spasmodic pains, and the other symptoms which are described to attend cholera; and although medical assistance was promptly rendered, he died in a few hours. His health previously had been indifferent. In the second case—that of a person named Bowman, living in Adam Street, Rotherhithe—the symptoms were similar; the unfortunate suf-

ferer having long been in a most wretched state of poverty, subsisting on potatoes and water. Bowman had been 'using great exertion. in drawing a loaded truck, and while heated drank a quantity of cold water, and he was soon afterwards attacked with diarrhoea. Bowman is now doing well.

These cases, and several others, were announced still more publicly in the following bulletin, issued by the Council-office on Monday even- ing. The Council, it will be seen, consider the whole to have been genuine spasmodic cholera.

Couneeboffice, Whitehall.,13th February 1832. " Ten cases of a highly suspicious nature have been reported to the Central Board of health within the last two days.

"Three of these cases are already dead, and two others are reported desperate. "Three of the cases occurred at Rotherhithe; one a coal-dredger, one a ship-scraper, and one a sailor out of employ.

" Three took place at LiraehouSe; one a woman of loose character; two, a mother and her child nine years of age.

" One case, a woman in the Borough. A child is ill in the same house. " One man on board the Augusta, from Inverness, eight days in London. This man is now on board the Dreadnought. " One man on board the Bradford, lying at Deptford Creek.

The medical gentlemen deputed by the Board to inquire into the nature of these cases have as yet been able to see no more than three during life, viz, one at Bother- 'lithe, the sailor, the man belonging to the ship Augusta, and the child in the Borough.

" Oue examination after death was made by these gentlemen; and from their reports the Board regret to state, that they consider themselves bound to declare, that there seems but little doubt that the majority of the above cases have been affected with genuine spasmodic cholera."

The boy who ii here announced as ill in the same house in which the woman in the Borough had died, it has since been discovered, was afflict- ed with a disease in the hip-joint. Such is the accuracy of the Great Council of the nation in a matter of the highest national interest We should like to hear any of these gentlemen talk in future of the slips or misstatements of the press.

On Monday night, a meeting took place of the City Board of Health ; when the following resolution was come to—

That a communication be made to the Treasurers of the different Ward, National, and Parochial Schools, stating that a report bad been received from the Medical Offi- cers attached to this Board, strongly urging the propriety of closing their respective schools for the present, thereby preventing the assembling of children from those classes of society among whom the spasmodic aliolera is most possibly communicated and makes the most destructive ravages.

The different Ward Committees are actively employed in directing the cleansing of those lanes and courts (and they are not few) that require it.

On Tuesday, the clothes, beds' and furniture of Roberts, the female who died in Bear Garden, were burnt. This is a foolish and a most

unjust e of proceeding. Foolish, because exposing the clothes to a temperature of two hundred to two hundred and twelve degrees will disinfect them were they impregnated with plague ; unjust, because a man's having lost his wife, or a wife her husband, is no sufficient reason why they should lose thier property also. If people will continue to be- lieve nonsense on this subject, let there be a lazaretto or airing-house procured for infected garments. On Wednesday, a meeting was held of the District Board of Health of Rotherhithe, when a long report, drawn up by Mr. Wright, the pa- rochial surgeon, and Messrs. Morton and Johnson, two other medical gentlemen residing at Rotherhithe, was read by Mr. Nottingham, the Vestry Clerk. If stated, "that for the last six months the parish had not been in such a healthy state as it was at present; and from. the most minute inquiries which they bad made, no case of cholera had Occurred in the parish." Thus, the Rotherhithe Medical Board and the Government Medical Board are directly at issue. • What is to be done with the recusants? We suppose they must be compelled by-the Privy Council, by virtue of their enlarged powers, to conform in all. respects to their more dignified brethren.

It would appear that the site and aspect of Rotherhithe have been. as idly Maligned as the health of its inhabitants. At the meeting in question, a gentleman said, "the business of the parishioners had been injured by the official report from the Council-office; the depression of trade had been sensibly felt before ; and the false report, that cho- lera had reached the parish, was not wanting to depress it further. Another statement had gone forth, that Rotherhithe was a filthy damp place, when the very contrary was the case. In fact, there was not a more dry and healthy parish on the south bank of the river—the streets were well cleansed, and the greater portion of them were wider than those of Wapping and Shadwell, on the opposite shore." The com- parison here instituted is not of the most ambitious kind—Wapping

and Shadwell are not very wide nor very clean.

The ladies of Marylebone, St. George's (Hanover Square), and Paddington, have formed themselves into a society for the purpose of purchasing and distributing food and clothing to the poor in those pa- rishes who have no parochial claims, and also for procuring lodgings for the destitute among them. Lady Cholmondeley, an evening paper says, has already relieved "an innumerable quantity of distressed Irish families." We wish our contemporary had stated how far short of five thousand this innumerable quantity of families fell; we have not the slightest doubt of her Ladyship's benevolence, and would fain render it credible by showing that it was possible.

Crowded meetings within doors seem to be generally discredited. The Coroners have refused to hold inquests on cholera patients,— properly, we think. The member for Middlesex, Mr. Hume, was in- vited to a meeting in the course of the week, and declined, because of the possible danger. The Gallery of the House of Commons on Tuesday night was not above half full,—we suppose Mr. Wright, the doorkeeper, will be obliged to raise his price ; and the avenues and stairs were fumigated with chloride of lime. This is a useless precau- tion; if there be such a gaseous substance as that which is called infec- tion, it is wholly incapable of being detected by any known test. It can neither be chemically nor mechanically acted upon. The heavy smell, as it is infection; called, which chloride of lime partially re- moves, is not nfection ; it emanates in as ° -abundance from a healthy body as a sick one, from a non-infectious as an infectious

disease.

The Bishop of London has forbidden bodies of persons dying of cholera to be carried into the church, " previous to interment." This is the language of the Council-office; whether they may be carried into the church subsequent to interment, is not said ; but we apprehend the Bighop means that they shall not be carried into church at all. If the_entire service be read in the open air in such inclement weather, the clergyman will run a greater risk of cholera than would his flock, were part of it, as usual, read under cover.

It is remarked by some of our contemporaries, that the east wind, the constant bringer of a certain degree of malaria, had blown for some time previous to the appearance of the cholera in the metropolis.

We give the bulletins at length. For the first week or ten days, the progress of the disease will be matter of curious and anxious attention— Central Board of Health, Council-office, glitehal415th February 1832.

LONDON—REPORTED TO TEN O'CLOCK Tills MORNING.

The total number of cases reported at Rotherhithe, Limehouse, Ratcliffe Highway, Lambeth, and Southwark, are as follows Cases

Place and Date. Left at last Report.

16 Deaths

February 16, 1832.

New Cases. Died. Recovered. Remaining.

Rotherhithe, Feb. 15

1 0 1 0

0 Limehouse

1 0 0 0 '1 Afloat on River

2 0 0 0

0

R ateliffe

1 0 1 0

Lambeth

1

1 1 0 1

Southwark

0* 11 2 0 0*

* Not stated.

A fresh case occurred on Friday at Limehouse. A woman named Connolly, about forty years of age, who resided in White's Rents' was conveyed to an apartment in the rear of the Workhouse-yard, at half- past one in the morning, and died at a quarter to four. A number of -men were engaged several hours yesterday in working the parish- engine and waling the dwellings, &c. in White's Rents, making them as damp and unhealthy as possible. The place is about a hun- dred yards to the eastward of Nightingale Lane, between Rope- -makers' Fields and Fore Street, a confined dirty alley.

Another case is said to have occurred on Friday in the City. A person residing at j Hexton, who had fallen down in the street, was taken to Abegurch Lane, the hospital proposed by the Lord Mayer. His limbs were contracted, and his countenance exhibited the usual appearance of cholera. He was not received into that hospital, but was sent immediately to the Surrey Dispensary.

The Ward of Farringdon Within had a meeting on Thursday night, when some discussion took place on the plan of breaking up the schools ; which was generally disapproved. The Reverend Mr. Nott, the vicar, hoped that gentlemen would raise a fund for the purpose of cleansing awl whitewashing the residences of those who were ineapahle of doing it themselves. He said he would put down 10/..towards such a purpose. Mr. Figgins said he was friendly to the proposition; hut' remarked, that in sonic of the houses he had visited Winund the in- mates enjoying good health, though living in the midst of all manner of nastiness and filth. It was a fact recorded in history, that during the plague of London, the catgut-spinners, &c. who lived in and about

Cow Cross, for the most part escaped the contagion.

The City Board also held a meeting. It had been proposed that the old Post-office should be used as an hospital; but this many of the bankers and others in Lombard Street objected to. We hope the Privy Council will put an end to this indecision, by fixing on those houses that are best situated for hospitals, without regard to the opinions of those that live near or far from them. We hope too they will avoid the ground floor, as they would the cholera itself ; no patient ought to be placed lower than the first floor.

The ward of Bishopsgate have suspended ad interim the order for shutting the schools.

We conclude with a placard which has been stuck up over the me- tropolis by the Metropolitan Board-

-Cholera Districts.—Looseness of bowels is the beginning of cholera; thousands of than . No prosecution for the misdemeanor where the penalty is re- livesmay be saved by attending is time to this, a complaintwhich should on no account covered. be neglected by either old or young. In places where the disease prevails, whenetamps in the legs, arms, or belly are felt, with looseness or sickness at the stomach, when medical assistance is not at hand, three tea-spoonsful of mustard powder, in half a pint of warm water, or the same quantity of warm water with as much common salt as it will melt, should be taken as a vomit, and after the stomach has been cleared out with more warm water. twenty-flve drops of laudanum should be taken in a small glass of any agreeable drink. Heated plates. or platters, to he applied to the belly and pit of the stomach. As persons run considerable risk of being infected by visiting those suffering from thisdisease, in crowded rooms, it is most earnestly recommended that only such a number of persons as are sufficient to take care of the sick be admitted into the room. " W. MACLEAN, SOC. "Central Board of Health, Council-office, Whitehall."

It is really disgraceful, that, among the whole of these men, there is i not one that s acquainted with the ordinary rules of grammar. What is called " common sense," is no everyday accomplishment, and we are accustomed to dispense with it in Boards ; but common English is not rare; and if neither the members nor the Secretary happen to possess it, they should hire one that does, to put their nothings into such a shape that the walls shall not be ashamed of them.

February 17.

Left at tind

Noce and Date. Report. New Cases. Died. recovered. Retnainina.

Limehouse, Feb. 16 0

0 0 1

Afloat on River, Feb. 16 2

0 0

0 2 Lambeth, Feb. 16 . 1 0 0 0 1 Southwark. Feb. 16 9 2 2 0 9 Cases before reported at

Rotherhithe and Rat- chile, Feb. 16 0 0 0 0

The information contained in the last line is exceedingly important !