NOTES ON THE CHOLERA SEASONS OF 1832-4. 23 



subject to such great and sudden fluctuations, for the same result is 

 produced by a series of uniform temperatures, or high extremes bal- 

 ancing one another. Therefore in considering the actual season of 

 cholera, a reference will be made to other and minuter calculations. 

 Meanwhile it will be sufficient to say of the earlier part of 1832, that 

 the spring was remarkably cold, dry, and backward, and unfavorable 

 to vegetation. 



The month of June, in which the cholera commenced, exhibited no 

 very remarkable anomalies, although there were sudden variations of 

 temperature, as e.g. from 78° on the 17th to 57^ 53°, 57*, on the 

 three following days. In July and August the ravages of the disease 

 ■were the most severe. 



The first nine days of July were hot, succeeded by five below the 

 mean, with northerly winds and showers. The character of the month 

 was cool and variable, rain fell on twelve days, and the diurnal range 

 exceeded 20. In August the thermometer was once at 49° 84m., and 

 once only above 80°. As to electric phenomena, there were few 

 thunderstorms, and none of peculiar severity. So that upon a review 

 of the season of 1832 we should say, that the spring was backward, 

 the summer cool, and thermic anomalies, as the phrase goes, by no 

 means uncommon. 



In September the pestilence gradually abated, and by the end of the 

 month disappeared, leaving behind it traces of its desolating career 

 which were not likely to be forgotten. Many a valuable life was 

 sacrificed, " there was truly a great cry in the land," of the widow 

 and the orphan thrown destitute on the world. To instance one case 

 out of thousands. In one family, by the death of two biothers and 

 a brother-in-law, mechanics in good employment, seventeen children 

 •vyere left orphans entirely without the means of support. In Quebec 

 alone there were supposed to be at least 1000 of these unfortunate, 

 destitute objects. The sympathy, however, of the charitable was not 

 wanting, and in York a liberal contribution was raised for the widows 

 and orphans of cholera victims, and public and private benevolence 

 was actively employed in alleviating the calamities which every where 

 met the eye. So passed the year 1832, the most disastrous in the 

 annals of Canada. 



In 1833 there was a freedom from disease, and the Province began 

 to recover from the blow which had paralyzed its energies. Trade 

 revived, and the stream of emigration again set in upon our shores. 



