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7
of mortality from that disease. How is it that our
death-rate from Fever has been so moderate ? The
same causes which moderate the violence of one disease,
will, I trust, be found to offer an equally effective opposition
to any other which may present itself. Upon
that which has already been done, as I have stated,
I rely rather than upon hurried exertions made in the
presence of pestilence.
It must afford the public agreeable assurance to know
that, fearful as are the ravages of Cholera in the East, the
disease is eminently under the controlof sanitary exertion.
Eastern cities are notoriously deficient in those arrangements
for the preservation of the public health, of which
the smallest towns in Europe, but especially those in
England, can generally boast. It is not wonderful,
therefore, that disease of a zymotic kind should spread
rapidly during the hot season, with sanitary defects so
enormous that it is only surprising human existence can
at any time be properly maintained.
Ordinary rules for the promotion and maintenance of
health have been so repeatedly placed before the educated
portion of the public, that it is to be hoped and
expected they will, to a great extent, take care of
themselves, not only as matter of self-interest, but of
comtort. The windows of their houses are made to
open in some form or other, they have a free supply of
water, and it is any easy thing to cause the removal of
refuse from their own premises. But it is different in
the poorer localities. There the inhabitants have less
time, less means, and do not possess the knowledge of
the best methods of keeping them clear of febrile and
contagious disorders.