Report Gested by Dr

273 THE MEDICAL CLUB. THE Provisional Committee of the new Medical Club sug- Report gested by Dr. Lory Marsh held a meeting at Mr. Propert’s, OF New Cavendish-street, on Tuesday last. Mr. Propert pre- sided ; and there were present Dr. Fraser, Dr. Lory Marsh, THE LANCET SANITARY COMMISSION Dr. Foster (Birmingham), Dr. Stillwell, Dr. Richardson, Mr. ON THE Slaughter, Mr. Grigg, R.N., Mr. Swaby Smith, and others. The report of the honorary secretary was very favourable, and EPIDEMIC OF CHOLERA IN THE the number of members promised was so well advanced tha-t EAST END OF LONDON. it was decided to hold a general meeting in October next; and a small committee was formed to initiate the work of organizing the establishment of the Club. Mr. Propert was also electec No. III. treasurer. Amongst other resolutions passed at the meeting the the river Lea and the canals in was one of for to Investigation of influence of importance, admitting membership repre conne:J;Íon with it the cholera in East London. sentatives of the sciences allied to medicine. upon epidemic They appear to have had no particular influence. The water- 8up/,ly of East London the only appczrent cause of the out- bi-ea7o, and a highly probable one. But eddence of the con- ABOUT this time last year we ventured a iew words of tamination of this water with choleraic ejecta as yet wanting. advice to authors as to the selection of titles for medical Investigation as to ivhether the cause of the East London works, and urged the abandonment of " sensational headings,"" cholerct vwtatioib ha3 been in action throvghout the visitation, 01’ at its commencement. It to have acted we are to believe not without effect. We have now to only appears only happy at t7te commencement of it. call attention to another failing on the part of some medical EVER? time a disease in London or authors which is more serious-the foisting of old editions of prevails epidemically any of its conditions are works with new title-pages upon the public as second editions. part London, imperfect sanitary strongly There are on our table at this moment the " second editions" insisted on by the local medical officers and others who take an of two works which shall be nameless. In one the tint of the interest in the public health. In the epidemic of cholera at the now we have been re- paper betrays the fact that two leaves only, together with the East-end, apparently passing away, minded of the of the of canals title-page and preface, are new, the remainder being the unsold very imperfect drainage district; and river courses the district water sheets of an unsuccessful issue. In the other, the author, who through carrying horribly offensive to smell and of the attendants of binds up a second treatise with his original production and sight alike ; poverty- then dubs it " second edition," coolly states in his preface that crowded houses and dirty habits-among the hard-faring part mode of " the first edition having been exhausted he was asked to have of the people; of the unsatisfactory supplying water it reprinted," c. Such proceedings are unworthy both of for a short time only each week-day, and not at all on Sunday; authors and publishers, and, if repeated, must be exposed with of the mode of storing water in open butts close to privies less mercy and with more particularity. and dust-bins, and in cisterns over waterclosets so arranged as that the gases from the closet shall be passed through the water every time the pan is liushed ; and, lastly, of the objec- DR. BALLENDEN, Sen., of Sedgley, was brought before the tionable character of the drinking water drawn from a river Sedgley Police-court, charged with having taken advantage of extensively navigated, and receiving the sewage of different the presence of a female patient to commit an offence of the towns and villages on its banks. And most important is it that most character. The was a revolting complainant widow, this should be done. No one familiar with the laws of life can who swore most to the facts. circumstantially Fortunately doubt of the deleterious influence of each and all of these im- for the cause of truth and justice, it was proved by the evi- conditions upon the health of a dence of two witnesses that the crime perfect sanitary community respectable alleged exposed to them. But it must be remembered that such condi- could not have been committed without their cogni- possibly tions are equally powerful to do harm at any time unless other sance. And if this testimony needed corroboration, it was circumstances are present to modify them. Thus in the case of shown that a party of ladies and gentlemen were playing at East London it cannot be supposed as very probable that any croquet on the lawn, on to which the window of the consulting or all of the conditions just referred to have brought about the room The local has been unanimous in press exposing’ opened. presence of cholera in the district, inasmuch as these condi- and the to blast the character of a denouncing attempt highly tions have been long in action under apparently similar climatal honourable member of our profession by the trumping up of a sta/hes to the a7rPCPnt_ n.’ rtrevinns north of the nresent which "is so made, and so difficult to charge easily disprove. year or in former years. Still, if not probable, it is possible that cholera may have been thus produced, so that it is on this GLASGOW MEDICO-CEIRURGICAL SOCIETY. -At a ground important that these circumstances, undoubtedly un- meeting of this Society held in the hall of the Faculty of Phy- favourable to health, should more particularly be removed as sicians and Surgeons, St. Vincent-street, on Sept. 4th, the much as possible during a visitation of cholera, and that obser- following gentlemen were elected onice-bearers : - President : vations should be made with the view of detecting what influ- Dr. Allen Vice-Presidents : Dr. Robert Thomson. Paterson, ence have in such a visitation. Dr. Coats. Council: Dr. Naismith Dr. W. T. they causing (Hamilton), And then there is the much for so Gairdner, Dr. Yeaman, Mr. Robertson (Renfrew), Dr. Dewar, stronger ground treating Dr. Tindal, Dr. G. H. B. Macleod, Dr. A. R. Simpson. these circumstances, that they almost to a certainty greatly Secretaries : Dr. James Adams, Dr. Robert Perry. Trea- favour the propagation of cholera. Impure drinking-water surer : Dr. H. R. Howatt. may bring, suspended or dissolved in it, matters thrown off by BRADFORD INFIRMARY.-It has been determined to a cholera subject; overcrowding may cause contact of cholera free from raise a fund in connexion with this intirmary, to be called subjects with persons the disease; unclean habits " The Outhwaite Convalescent Fund," in order to perpetuate may cause persons to take into their systems choleraic matter a grateful remembrance of the many valuable services rendered derived from others, and so on. Dr. Outhwaite to the Bradford Infir- by during many years Now there is one of the states of in East and the kind interest which he has shown in objectionable things mary, always London which has caused the the prosperity of the institution. A very influential com- particular outcry during present and that the influence of the foul waters of the Lea mittee, headed by the mayor, has been appointed to carry out epidemic, is, the object. and of the Limehouse cut in polluting the atmosphere in their 274 neighbourhood. And it may be questioned whether this state of and Shipbuilding Company’s Yard; yet the seizures with diar- have been remarkable things is not the principal cause of the localization of the cho- rhcea and cholera, though many, nothing other districts, so far as we can learn. lera. We believe that many are disposed to attribute the pre- when compared with valence of cholera to this of the with pollution atmosphere Atthe thedeaths point which where we the have Limehouse spoken cutof as leaves having the taken Lea occurredplace in foul gases, and to acquit the supply of drinking-water of any Bromley Old Town; and the Lea has equal claims, such as influence in the matter. The facts of the case, however, will they may be considered, with the Limehouse cut to be their hardly bear out such a belief. Let us examine them. cause. we turn to t h e R t’ s canal, anand d hhereere we The East London cholera field is bounded on the south byb the Regent’segen perhaps . we findNow the we case turn not so unfavourable, if to the suppo- the and the eastern line of the anything, Thames; boundary registration sition that the vapours from a foul canal may cause cholera to is river Lea. are the districts the Along the Thames bank spring up, although it has received but little- censure compared basins and channels of the different docks; while the south- with that bestowed upon the Limehouse cut. But in this case eastern corner of the registration districts is cut off from the also we do not ourselves see any real signs of such an effect. rest by the Limehouse cut running from the Thames to the In its course northward from the Thames to Victoria-park we observe on our a number of deaths that Lea at the middle of may map took place Bromley. Passing up nearly through the week 21st. For instance, the cholera field is the and of its in its vicinity during ending July Regent’s canal ; along part 2 at least of the 14 deaths in Ratcliffe, 15 to 20 or more of northern margin is the continuation of this canal and its the 43 in Limehouse, 5 or 6 of the 33 in the Eastern sub- eastern branch (Sir George Duckett’s canal), which joins the district of Mile-end Old Town (although the canal passes a rather of the Hackney cut about half a mile above Old Ford.

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