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23
The Government has sent two medical men, one to
Russia and the other to North Germany, to report
on this disease. From their account published by
Mr. Simon, the Medical Officer of the Privy Council,
it appears that the diseases ravaging Russia are two,
both of which we are familiar with in this country,
that is Typhus and Relapsing Fever. These, the
fevers of over-crowded and starving populations, are
well known in this country. On these diseases I
have kept a watchful eye in this Parish; although
during the last year we have had more Typhus than
in any year since I have had the honor to hold the
office of Medical Officer of Health, it has shown no
tendency to become epidemic. Of Relapsing or
Famine Fever, I cannot discover that we have had
any cases; this fact, I ascribe to our population,
however over-crowded they may be, being well fed.
The great evil we have to contend with in St.
James's, Westminster, is over-crowding, and to this
I ascribe the largest amount of our removeable
causes of disease.
The disease which is afflicting the inhabitants of
the banks of the Vistula and the lower provinces of
Northern Germany, is a disease rarely seen in this
country, and apparently most contagious. From
the reports at present received, it does not appear
that there is any occasion for alarm as to the
introduction of any new forms of disease; but it
does appear that at present, in spite of all our
sanitary efforts, there is a tendency in the progress