THE QUARTERLY JOURNAL OF SCIENCE. JULY, 1866. I. THE MORTALITY OF LIVERPOOL, AND ITS In the course of the last year this country has been visited by a cattle murrain, the history of which may be summed up in a few words. It came, we know not whence, although we are aware that such a plague exists in certain continental countries; it raged, and we know not what kind of disease it is, by what laws it is governed, or why it appeared in certain places, disappeared, and sometimes appeared again. We know that in some districts it was the most virulent where there was a want of cleanliness in the stalls, whilst many well-regulated farms escaped its ravages, and that is about all that science has reaped from the visitation. Every precaution was taken by the State to prevent its spread, and chiefly should those efforts have been successful in excluding it from Ireland; yet it appeared at length in that country also. The Clergy prayed for its removal, the nation (at least by deputy, through the State) humiliated itself for its sins, and probably in the due course of conventionality, the people will in a similar manner set apart a day for thanksgiving, when it has pleased Providence to allow this visitation entirely to pass away. Whether the same invasion (if it be an invasion), the same destruction of live-stock, the same perplexity and the same religious processes will be repeated in another decade or so, remains to be seen, and will depend greatly upon the amount of improvement which takes place in the method of conducting farms, and the degree of application brought to bear upon the scientific question by veterinary surgeons, chemists, and physiologists. In the case of the cattle-murrain, the panic and helplessness of the nation has been to some extent justifiable, for our Statesmen knew nothing of the approaching danger, nothing of its nature when it came, and their professional advisers were in the same boat with themselves. But in the case of the human plague raging in the country, and recently aggravated by importations from abroad, there is no such VOL. III. Y excuse; and on this subject we now desire, while there is still time for warning, to address a word to the nation, and, not to the Government, but to the Representatives of the people. In the House of Lords, on the 15th of May last, the Earl of Carnarvon "moved for Copies of Correspondence," in other words, sought information concerning the outbreak of cholera in Liverpool. He stated the fact, well known to their Lordships, that "a large number of German emigrants had landed at Hull, and had travelled by railway to Liverpool, and it was at Liverpool, without an exception, that all these cases had arisen. The most formidable outbreak had occurred on board a vessel that had sailed from Liverpool to New York. It was at Liverpool again, and among this body of emigrants that diarrhoea and typhus had been prevalent, and the House was aware that diarrhoea was the first stage, and, at all events, the harbinger of cholera. The habits of these emigrants were the reverse of clean, and they were congregated together in the most unhealthy quarters of the town. A case had been stated where 150 of these emigrants lived in one house in Liverpool, and forty in a single room. If these persons really came from cholerainfected countries, were these not all the conditions that would justify them in expecting cholera to break out?" Earl Granville, who, be it remembered, was at least the nominal head of the Committee which managed the cattle-plague, stated what steps had been taken to prevent the importation of cholera; observing that it would be impossible to enforce a system of quarantine in Great Britain, and remarking further, that a letter which had been issued by the Privy Council insisted upon sanitary regulations, "which really might be summed up in the terms fresh air and fresh water, and some of the outports really stood in urgent need of sanitary measures."t In the House of Commons, the Right Honourable H. A. Bruce, the virtual head of the Cattle-plague Commissioners, gave the same information in reply to a similar question; and in the course of his remarks he observed that, "we were accustomed to think of cholera as marked by clear and unmistakable symptoms, and the stage of collapse was no doubt one about which there could be no mistake, but the earlier stages of the malady were not so easily discoverable. A person might have the disease lurking in his system for many days without suspecting it. He suffered but little pain, and the symptoms were such as persons often experienced without any interruption of their ordinary vocations. It would, therefore, be impossible, unless communication were absolutely forbidden between England and the infected countries, to expect that quarantine laws would prevent the introduction of the disease." He stated further, that "he thought it would be better to leave the matter in the hands of the local authorities, as there was a general objection throughout the country to Government interference;" and also, that "the best security against the disease was for the local authorities to supply their towns with pure water, and to thoroughly clean and drain their houses."* "The Times' newspaper reviewed the subject in a leader on the day when these remarks were reported in its columns, and thus disposed of the whole question: "Better stop the imports " (of emigrants) "at Hull." Before we state briefly to our readers what is known to science of the march of cholera, we will just extract from the preceding observations the opinions of the Legislature and of the Press on the subject: 1. They believe that it is impossible to enforce quarantine; and if it were, the disease is so capricious in making its appearence in individuals that it would be useless to do so.-In other words, it is impossible to prevent the importation of cases of continental cholera. 2. The local authorities object to Government interference; and it is for them, by the employment of sanitary measures, to render it innocuous when it touches our shores. 3. Nevertheless 'The Times,' which may be said on such a question to reflect public opinion, recommends the stoppage of the passenger traffic, and by that means the exclusion of the cholera. From this summary our readers will be able to form their own opinion as to the amount and value of the advice and assistance likely to be afforded by the State in case of an outbreak of epidemic disease more virulent than that which already exists in the country! Now it happens, fortunately for those who like to avail themselves of that channel for information, that Dr. Francis E. Anstie, the senior assistant-physician to the Westminster Hospital, has just published a most valuable little book on Epidemics, intended "for the use of the public," in which the whole question is concisely and ably reviewed, and we have marked the following observations for extract, as they will convey to our readers all that will be requisite for our consideration at the present time. First, as regards Typhus : "Typhus first makes its nest,' to use a cant word which is dismally prevalent just now, in the courts and alleys inhabited by the very poor. Unlike relapsing fever, it is a very mortal disease; and, moreover, the contagion is much stronger than that of relapsing fever."+ *Times,' May 15, 1866. + 'Notes on Epidemics.' By F. E. Anstie, M.D., F.R.C.P. Walford, & Hodder, 1866. + Ibid., p. 44. Jackson, Again" If famine be the great predisposing cause of typhus, over-crowding is something more; for there is much evidence to show that it can actually excite the disease in destitute persons. In regard to this, the various synonyms under which typhus has been described at different times are highly suggestive: the old terms-jail distemper,'' camp fever,' 'hospital fever,' and the like, point to instances in some of which, no doubt, the disease was only fostered by crowding and deficient ventilation, but in great numbers of which typhus was probably actually bred from the circumstances of the time and place." Secondly, concerning Cholera : "No doubt the disease is still an opprobrium medicina," (which we may venture to translate-Medical men know nothing of the nature of cholera; and in a popular work such as Dr. Anstie's, they elect to acknowledge their ignorance in Latin!) "Yet something seems to have been learned, not merely guessed, about this mysterious pestilence in recent years."† The following is amongst the information thus acquired: "Neither climate, nor season, nor earth, nor ocean seem to have arrested its course, or to have altered its features. It was equally destructive at St. Petersburgh and Moscow as it was in India; as fierce and irresistible amongst the snows of Russia as in the sunburnt regions of India; as destructive in the vapoury districts of Burmah as in the parched provinces of Hindostan.' (Goodeve). 'The most that can be said is, that the places in which the air is most vitiated from drains, decaying animal matter, and vegetable refuse, or overcrowding and concentration of human emanations, are those in which cholera has generally been most fatal and most widely spread.' (Goodeve.)" + "It is indisputable that cholera originates in places without its being possible to trace any previous communication with infected persons.' "Either the outbreaks which occur in this remarkable way may be instances of the generation of cholera de novo from insanitary conditions, or we may suppose the poison to have been carried by currents of wind."§ The author shows that there is good reason for believing it to have arisen in this country from both causes; but, says Dr. Anstie "There can be no doubt that, in the majority of cases, the march of the disease follows closely the lines of most frequent human communication : thus it always appears first, in any country, at the sea-port towns, and these places form the first centres of infection."|| He recommends not only that vestries *Notes on Epidemics,' pp. 45-46. should be empowered, Ibid, pp. 94 and 95. § Ibid., p. 106. || Ibid., p. 105. |