WORSE 11/6.EASES THAN CHOLERA.
TO THE EDITOR OP THE SPECTATOR.
Ramsgate, 20th Fefshaary 1331
SIR-I observe in the last Number of your valuable Miscellany art excellent article on the epidemic, which at this Danz lent excites his Majesty's liege' sub- jects from Falmouth to John O'Groat's, and induces them to imagine that all the other diseases " which flesh is heir to," are unworthy of their notice. Per- haps you may judge it not out of place further to inform your numerous readers, that other countries are afflicted with even more fatal diseases, which are often Iceonneetag.,,ious, and yet they do not consider them as either "plagues" or " pesti- In the year 1825 or 1826, it may be recollected, that in various parts of North Holland a typhus fever (proceeding from marsh miasma, alias malaria) de-
stroyed one fifth part of its inhabitants; and from the medical reports, in the
town of Groeningen, containing 00,000 souls, no fewer than 11,000 fell victims to its effects. To add to this dreadful calamity, there was great scarcity in that
part of the United Provinces, amounting almost to famine, the crop having tailed by reason of the stagnant waters left on the land by previous floods. Yet the Dutch neither stopped their intercourse with other nations nor with their neighbours; and the disease was removed, no doubt by the blessing of Provi- dence, but without the interference of the clergy, salt fish„ or fasts.
It has been calculated, that for many centuries past, the mortality from mal- aria alone, in the Southern parts of Italy, amounts to 50,000 annually. But the Italians do not consider this scourge so awful as the smallpox ; for the pre- vention of which they have very salutary laws, that it would be wise in our Government to adopt-viz. lazarettos in every large town in the kingdom, with a severe pecuniary mulct (or imprisonmentwhere the defaulters have no means) for concealing from the police the first symptom of that infectious disease. At this moment, smallpox has been raging to a great extent at Ranasgate, arid in several instances has proved fatal ; but little notice is taken of it, though it still exists. The fact is, that though this distemper, since the use of vaccination, is little heeded, it is a worse one than cholera • only, as the wench said about her eels, "they be used to it !" Habit reconciles men to every calamity : no one thinks of the immense number of lives daily destroyed by typhus fever, and we have quite forgotten that within a very few years some 20,000 wretched beings were sent to the churchyard by it in one district in Ireland. It is just so with the Italians : they have more apprehension of danger from what they call La Maladia Inglese (consumption) than from malaria, consi- dering it contagious ; and it often happens, that a poor English invalid, with pulmonie affections, can hardly gain admission into respectable lodgings, and then only with a guarantee that the house is to be painted, cleaned, and washed at his departure, and at his expense, and in case of death, his friends must re- place the bedding and other articles in his apartments. This is the effect of sheer ignorance, avhich an enlightened Englishman can have no idea of! It is to be hoped, however, when John Bull "gets used" to Cholera, he will think less of it.
Query; has tar, extracted from coal, deleterious effects when inhaled by hu- man lungs? It would be gratifying to the inhabitants of many parts of Rams- gate, if the Medical Board of the metropolis would solve this doubtful point ; as, if the exhalation of tar be poisonous, the great nuisance which has prevailed at this sea-port, for many years, of careening ships, boats, and other craft, with that stinking mixture, might be removed ; which would be a great benefit to the keepers of the lodging-houses facing the harbour, and to the visitors of tins
famed bathing-place, who greatly complain of the diabolical smells. Q.
Previous page
