476 Ths Board of Health, and the Cholera. fNi^; 



•when they attempt to reason. They should never step beyond their 

 registers. The accumulation of crime in England is the consequence of 

 the wealth of England, the exposure of that wealth, and the general 

 habits of popular indulgence. There are more bank-notes plundered in 

 a month out of mails and letters, than would make the circulation of a 

 German kingdom. There is more pilfering from the London shops 

 than would make the finery of many a German court. There is more 

 gin drunk by the populace than would make a German revenue. 



If France exhibits less crime, it is because she is almost wholly agri- 

 cultural, and men cannot steal waggons as they can watches. If America 

 exhibit more ^apparent honesty, it certainly is not for want of a super- 

 abundance of rogues, as long as America continues to be the common 

 refuge of all the swindlers of Europe. The truth is, that the English 

 jail is the natural result of the English manufactory, the English shop, 

 and the English mansion. But there are at this hour not less than one 

 hundred thousand people passing yearly through the English jail ; and 

 no argument can be required to shew how much this influx and efflux 

 increases the natural hazards of contagious disease. To this let the 

 authorities look without delay. 



The report issued by the Board of Health proceeds to state the steps 

 proper to arrest the progress of the disease in the first moments of 

 seizure : — " All means tending to restore the circulation, and maintain 

 the warmth of the body, should be had recourse to without delay. The 

 patients should always immediately be put to bed, wrapped up in hot 

 blankets, and warmth should be sustained by other external applications, 

 such as repeated frictions with flannels and camphorated spirits ; poul- 

 tices of mustard and linseed (equal parts) to the stomach, particularly 

 where pain and vomiting exist ; similar poultices to the feet and legs, to 

 restore their warmth. The returning heat of the body may be promoted by 

 bags containing hot salt or bran applied to different parts of it. For the 

 same purpose of restoring and sustaining>the circulation, white wine whey, 

 with spice, hot brandy and water, or sal volatile, in the dose of a tea- 

 spoonful in hot water, frequently repeated, or from five to twenty drops 

 of some of the essential oils, as peppermint, cloves, or cajeput, in a wine 

 glass of water, may be administered ; with the same view, where the 

 stomach will bear it, warm broth with spice may be employed. In very 

 severe cases, or where medical aid is difficult to be obtained, from twenty 

 to forty drops of laudanum may be given in any of the warm drinks 

 previously recommended." 



This treatment is simple enough, and is almost within every one's 

 power. To restore the heat of the circulation is evidently the first 

 point. That done, there may be room for the physician, who should be 

 called in as soon as possible. The vigilance of government, however, 

 seems fully alive to the emergency; and on the local authorities on the 

 coast, by preventing the intercourse of the villagers with smugglers and 

 other illicit arrivals from the continent — and in the towns, by dividing 

 them into districts, and instantly detecting every symptom of disease, 

 must now depend, humanly speaking, the protection of England from 

 this formidable visitation. 



