474 The Board of Health, and the Cholera. fNov. 



ten, are the very class by whose negligence or avarice the contagion is 

 brought into countries. One of the most specious of these letters is ;" 

 from a Hamburgh merchant, detained in quarantine at Standgate Creek, **- 

 ■who, of course, is rather uneasy at his position, and thinks that national '' 

 hazard is no reason why he should be prevented from making his ap- ' 

 pearance on 'Change, disposing of his bills, and reloading Ms coffee and * 

 sugar in the usual mode. ' 



On the other hand, the chief part of the letters recommending pre- 

 caution, are from travellers and medical men, a rather higher authority 

 than the traders. The Board of Health, in the meanwhile, have pub- 

 lished a long and important document, pointing out the precautions 

 necessary to be adopted in case the contagion should actually exhibit 

 itself here. Whether the disease shall make its way here at all, or 

 whether, if it should, its symptoms may be not much lightened by the 

 better system of English medical science, and the better food and clothing 

 of our population ; there can be no doubt that the form in which it has 

 already shewn itself abroad, justifies the most extreme vigilance. It 

 seems to have been a horrible disease, with but the single palliative, that 

 its suffering soon ends one way or other. 



The subjoined description of the symptoms of the disease has been 

 published by the Board of Health, College of Physicians, dated October 

 20 : — " The following are the early symptoms of the disease in its most 

 marked form, as it occurred to the observation of Dr. Russell and Dr. 

 Barry, at St. Petersburgh, corroborated by the accounts from other 

 places where the disease has prevailed : — Giddiness, sick stomach, ner- 

 vous agitation, intermittent, slow, or small pulse, cramps beginning at 

 the tops of the fingers and toes, and rapidly approaching the trunk, give 

 the first warning. The features become sharp and contracted, the eye 

 sinks, the look is expressive of terror and wildness ; the lips, face, neck, 

 hands, and feet, and soon after the thighs, arms, and whole surface, 

 assume a leaden, blue, purple, black, or deep brown tint, according to 

 the complexion of the individual, varying in shade with the intensity of 

 the attack. The fingers and toes are reduced in size, the skin and soft 

 parts covering them are wrinkled, shrivelled, and folded ; the nails put 

 on a bluish pearly white ; the larger superficial veins are marked by 

 flat lines of a deeper black ; the pulse becomes either small as a thread, 

 and scarcely vibrating, or else totally extinct. The skin is deadly cold, 

 and often damp, the tongue always moist, often white and loaded, but 

 flabby and chilled, like a piece of dead flesh. The voice is nearly gone; 

 the respiration quick, irregular, and imperfectly performed. The pa- 

 tient speaks in a whisper. He struggles for breath, and often lays his 

 hand on his heart, to point out the seat of his distress." 



After this we are not to listen to the nonsense of any trader, eager to 

 carry on his traffic at the risk of human life, or tourist, tired of the con- 

 finement of the quarantine. The very mention that the contagion was 

 once in England, would produce more evil, even to trade, than the delay 

 of every trafficker that could lie at Standgate Creek for half a century. 

 Nothing can be more obvious than that it would break up the whole 

 intercourse of English life, and put a stop to all commerce, from the 

 moment that it was clearly ascertained to be among us ; and in its pro- 

 gress involve every description of trade and business in difficulties, 

 '. equivalent to little less than national bankruptcy. 

 r This we must guajrd against by all possible expedientSj and we 'can- 



