EPIDEMICS. 



285 



entered and demanded of a man whom he met 

 there, whose flag it was; the man, who was 

 really the proprietor of the house, professed 

 not to know, saying lie was only a lodger ; and 

 Ellsworth, with two companions, ascended to 

 the roof and took it down, wrapping it around 

 Ins body. As he descended, the proprietor, 

 (Jackson,) who had concealed himself in a dark 

 passage, tired, and killed him instantly, and the 

 next moment himself fell dead, from the bullet 

 of one of Ellsworth's companions, Francis E. 

 Brownell. The body was borne sadly, back to 

 Washington, and the funeral services performed 

 at the White House, with the President as 

 chief monrner. From thence it was brought 

 to his birthplace, (Mechanicsville.) A noble 

 regiment, made up of one man from a town, in 

 his native State, was raised as his fittest, though 

 not his only monument. 



EPIDEMICS. The following papers upon 

 these subjects were read before a recent meet- 

 ing of the Epidemiological Society of London. 

 The first, by Dr. M'William, the Secretary of. 

 the Society, is a resume of the principal epi- 

 demics that prevailed in various quarters of the 

 world during the year 1861 ; and the second, 

 prepared by Herbert Chalmers Miles, Surgeon 

 Royal Artillery, Halifax, Nova Scotia, brings 

 forward an Indian remedy for small-pox. 



1. We have no epidemics of any magnitude to 

 record as having occurred either in England or 

 on the continent during the last twelve months. 



Cholera, which in 1860 and the early months 

 of the past year was prevailing at St. Peters- 

 burg and other ports in the Gulf of Finland, 

 ceased with the return of spring. The same 

 disease also disappeared about the same time 

 at Ceuta and other stations in the empire of 

 Morocco. Typhus fever had raged to a disas- 

 trous extent in the beleaguered fortress of 

 Gaeta, and afterwards amongst the Neapolitan 

 and Sardinian troops at Naples. Typhus had 

 also been prevalent to some extent, but in a 

 mild form, in some of the rural districts of Eng- 

 land. In the northwest provinces of India, 

 cholera had swept over extensive tracts of 

 country with appalling force. Preceded by a 

 desolating famine, the pestilence found in the 

 starving population an easy prey to its ravages ; 

 and even amongst the European soldiery the 

 percentage of deaths to attacks had been al- 

 most unprecedentedly great. 



The West Indies, more especially the island 

 of Cuba, had been visited by yellow fever in 

 the course of the year, with more than usual 

 virulence. Several of her Majesty's ships had 

 been infected wi f .h yellow fever at Havanna , 

 and merchant ships had not only suffered from 

 the disease while in that port, but some of them 

 had lost part of their crews in the passage 

 thence to England and other ports of Europe. 

 Yellow fever had been actually introduced into 

 St. Xazaire, at the mouth of the Loire, in the 

 month of September last, by a ship from the 

 Havanna : and within the past week cases of 

 the same disorder were reported on board of a 



ship at Bordeaux. These facts were justly con- 

 sidered as highly important, and suggestive of 

 the desirability of some authorized declaration 

 of opinion, by a society like the Epidemiologi- 

 cal, as to the vexed question of the infectious 

 or non-infectious character of this terrible mal- 

 ady, which has on several occasions of late years 

 extended beyond its usual recognized limits, and 

 attained elevations and latitudes long considered 

 incapable of maintaining its existence. 



Eear- Admiral Sir Alexander Milne, K. C. B., 

 Commander-in-Chief on the West India and 

 North American Station, who is fully alive to 

 the infectious character of yellow fever, and 

 duly appreciates the value of preventive meas- 

 ures, had issued an order, to the effect that the 

 ships of the squadron under his command were, 

 unless under urgent necessity, to avoid anchor- 

 age in ports where yellow fever was known to 

 prevail, and were not to remain in close har- 

 bors for more than ten days at a time ; and, 

 moreover, that in the event of a ship being in- 

 vaded by yellow fever, she was at once to pro- 

 ceed to the northward for change of climate. 



Small-pox had continued to prevail in many 

 parts of England, and in some districts, from the 

 previous neglect of vaccination, had proved 

 very fatal, more especially in the southwestern 

 counties, in parts of Derbyshire and in North- 

 amptonshire. The whole circumstances of the 

 present epidemy of small-pox, which', since its 

 commencement in 1857, had destroyed in Eng- 

 land little short of 20,000 persons, had abun- 

 dantly borne out the allegation as to the neglect 

 and imperfection of vaccination, made by the 

 Small-pox and Vaccination Committee of the 

 Epidemiological Society in their Report of 1853 

 and Memorial of 1855. 



Sanitary reform had made very satisfactory 

 progress, not only at home, but also in the col- 

 onies, and in some foreign countries which had 

 long been remarkable for a disregard of the 

 laws of health. In the colony of Victoria, Aus- 

 tralia, at Alexandria, in Egypt, and in the em- 

 pire of Brazil, sanitary improvement had con- 

 siderably advanced, as well by private exertion 

 as by legislative enactments. 



The census of the population of Jamaica had 

 been taken in the course of last summer, the 

 previous census having been taken in 1844. 

 There had been an increase during the last 

 seventeen years of 63,000 inhabitants, the pop- 

 ulation in 1844 having been 377,433, and in 

 1861, 441,264. Amongst the population there 

 were 5,986 cripples, 1,294 blind persons, 1,512 

 persons afflicted with yaws, 776 with leprosy, 

 650 dumb, and 461 insane ; or altogether be- 

 tween 10.000 and 12,000- permanent, and, to a 

 large extent, incurable invalids in a population 

 much tinder 500,000. 



A representation had been made in the early 

 part of the year by Dr. Armstrong, Deputy In- 

 spector-General, in charge of the Royal Naval 

 Hospital at Malta, to Sir W. F. Martin, K. C. B., 

 the Naval Commander-in-Chief in the Mediter- 

 ranean, submitting that, in consequence of the 



