CHOLERA. REPORT FOR THE WEEK.

On Thursday sennight, the disease, as far as London was concerned, for the first time during its progress appeared to be subsiding; the new cases on that day were 58, the deaths 28, the recoveries 30, the entire cases remaining 176. The deaths had in every previous report been greater in number than the recoveries. On the 16th, the new cases were 54, the deaths 35, the recoveries 29, the cases remaining 166. We "Pere in hopes that, as R. change of temperature had accompanied these favourable symptoms, they would continue ; for we were led from the ebservations of Doctors Lorimer and Burton, of Haddington, to connect these two circumstances together. The event has neither wholly con- firmed nor has it negatived our conjecture. The cases on the 17th and 18th averaged 364, the deaths 224, the recoveries 271: on the 186, the total cases remaining were 139; on the 190, however, there was a large increase ; the new cases were 86, the deaths 38, the recoveries only 25, the cases remaining 162. Whether this change was a conse- quent of the dissipation that usually marks the beginning of the week, -we cannot say. On Tuesday and Wednesday, there was a second re- tession, though not so marked as the previous one; the cases being 120 On time two days, the deaths 73, and the recoveries 43. The Central Board not having published a list on Wednesday,—and the Clerk not being sufficiently remunerated, we suppose, by his 20/. a month, to war- rant the labour of making any distinction of the two days —we cannob assign its proper share of the cases and deaths to the indulgence on the occasion of the general fast. Yesterday, the new cases were 63, the deaths 36, the recoveries 27, and the cases remaining 166. The average of the six days stands thus—cases 58,. deaths 32, recoveries 25: so that ithile, since Thursday sennight, the cases have slightly increased, the ideaths and recoveries have diminished; the ratios, however, remaining She same. The Country eases do not admit of so precise an estimate as the London cases, for in some instances the reports are not made with

regularity. There are several collieries round Newcastle that only report once a week. In these, there were on the 15th, 38 cases, and for the previous eight days the new eases had averaged S per diem. With the exception of these collieries and the metropolis, the disease can hardly be said to exist in England. All the rest of the cases put to- gether, amount, in yesterday's report, to 8. There are reports, we ought to add, of some cases at Belfast, and at Ely in Cambridgeshire.

In Scotland,—except in Coldstream, where there were, on tbe 20th, 22 (the last report gives 13 recoveries, and only 2 deaths),—Glasgow, where there are 32,—and Paisley,lvhere there are 25 cases,—the disease may be soul to be extinct. All the other cases make up the number of 17; and these are scattered over a tract of country about seventy miles- long by sixty miles broad.

Last week, we said, in our Summary, that the disease was declining not in one place, but evely place. The facts of the declension we stated under tbe head " Progress of the Cholera;" where we commented on the diminution of cases in Southwark, and the stationary character which throughout the metropolis the disease had for the first time as- sumed. In ow Postscript, we observed on a further diminution of the new eases, and a retrogreseion in the entire number. Yet under these circumstances, we find the Edinburgh Weekly Journal, after quoting our general remark, proceeding to observe—"it is really strange that so acute a paper should hazard such a misstatement so directly in the teeth of facts." We iii charity suppose, that from a scarcity of news, the Journal found it necessary to practise, on this occasion, the not uncommon art of writing against time ; and having no readier subject at which to carp, it took the Spectator, at hap-hazard,—as it has frequently done before. Compassioneting, as we do, a contemporary in so desperate a predica- meut, we must yet s,,-, that we think it both strange and impertinent, in one so acute, to charge us with misstatement, where the proof and grounds of what we said lay before him in the same paper. Since vaticination has come so much into vogue, we think we may now hazard a prediction on the "pestilence ;" and it shall be this— that in a very few weeks, the Medical Boards will seek in vain for its place, as in tnany instances every one else, the Medical Board excepted, has already done. We believe it is dying out everywhere, the metro- polis not excepted ; and that, though people will still die of Cholera, as they have perchance done for the last thousand years, time bugbear of an imported disease, of deadly contagiousness, will soon be numbered with the Shiloh of Joanna Southeote and the Musical prophesyings of Miss Carsdale.

From a letter in the Times, we find that we have exposed ourselves to the censure of a person who describes himself as a Hydrophobian- he ought to say Potamophobian, for he fears rivers only. He too charges us with misstatement in saying that the good people of Had- dington drink well-water. On the contrary, he asserts, that all that died of Cholera at Haddington, save only two, drank water from the stream. We cannot call up the sleepers to corroborate our assertion. Some of them, we are given to understand, had but small affection for water of any kind. We must content ourselves with repeating, that Potamophobius's theory will not fit Haddington; for, notwithstanding his denial, we know- that the people there have wells, and use them. The theory of cholera being • caused by river-water, seems absurd every way. Unless where the water of a running stream is contaminated by manufactories or sewers, or by passing through mineral strata, or by admixture with decayed vegetable matter—in every case, in fact, where foreign bodies are not mixed with it, river- water is lighter and better than well-water for all culinary purposes. In Scotland, the streams for the most part run in rocky channels, and are therefore exceedingly pure. The following is yesterday's bulletin, from the Central Board, as regards the state of the disease in the metropolis and its vicinity.

Remaining

Places and. Dates. :a 1:,,t

Report.

New Cases. Dmd,

Total Total Recovered. Remain- Cases from Deathstrom ing. commence- commence- meat. meta.

Afloat on the River 13 .... 5 . 1 . 1 16

60 26 Li mehouse 1 . . 0 •

0 0

1

21 17 Shadwell 3 . . 2 3 . 0 2

15 12 B atelitlb 2 . .. 1 0 . 1 2

8 4 Bermondsey 21 .. . 6. 4 .. 3 20

86 40 Southwark 49 . . 21 .... 8 ... 13 49

491 245 Newington Butts 8 . 2 0 .. 0 10 77 38 Camberwell

2 .... 0 1 4 3 Lambeth 10 . 5 5 .. 2 14 87 62 Christchurch, Surry 3 .... 1 .... 3 0 1 41 24 Westminster 14 .. 2 . 1 . 6 9 35 17 Chelsea

1 0 4 21 16 St.George, Hanover Sq 0 .... 1 .... 1 . . 0 0

5

4 St. Marvloboue 6

1 .... 0 6 62 16 Paddington 1 . 0 . . 0 . 0 1 5 4 St. Pancras 0 1 0 . .. 0

1 8

6 St. Giles's 2 . 2 . 1 . 0 3

37 24

Whitechapel 8 2 1 .... 1 8 36 21 St. George in the East 6 .... 1 .... 2 .... 0

5

19 11.

St. Luke's 5 1 • 0 . 0

6

20 11 Bethnal Green 0 I .. 0 . 0 1 5 3 Old Brentford 4 . . 0 . 1 . . 0 3 18 9

Wandsworth (21, 22). 0 ....

4 .... 1 .... '0

3 4

1

Total 166 63 36 ... 27 . ..166 .. . 1,165 614 Cases before reported from other places

48 33

—

Total

1 243 647