382 Original Articles. [July, 



Whilst we are writing, the tidings reach our shores that a fearful 

 epidemic is committing ravages in Russia, and anxious voices are 

 raised in our deliberative assemblies inquiring into the nature of the 

 plague, and whether it is likely to reach our sea-girt isle. 



The nature of the disease is not clearly defined, but those who are 

 the best acquainted with modern forms of epidemic maladies, pro 3 

 nounce it to be typhus and relapsing fever. In olden times, and even 

 at present, in Eastern countries, this " formidable complication of 

 typhus fever " was accompanied by " carbuncles " and " pestilential 

 buboes," and the Russian epidemic, which is also characterized by 

 these symptoms, is believed by the authority we are quoting * to be 

 the modern form of the ancient plague. Not only, however, have 

 these concomitant symptoms been found to present themselves in the 

 Russian typhus, but inquiries have led to the ascertainment of the 

 fact, that they are also sometimes present in the English form of the 

 disease, which has been very prevalent of late years, and that not less 

 than 150 cases of typhus in the London Fever Hospital have, during 

 the last three years, been accompanied by these inflammatory swell- 

 ings. The same excellent authority tells us that the Continental 

 epidemic is almost entirely confined to the poorer classes ; that it 

 arises partly from a want of sufficient nourishment, and that its 

 virulence and alarming spread are due to the fact that thousands of 

 labourers are flocking into^ the large cities, overcrowding the pauper 

 population to an inordinate degree ; and thus " as this crowding 

 increases, the fever which results from crowding (typhus) is gradually 

 superadded to that which is more immediately the result of destitution 

 (relapsing fever)." The same disease (typhus), we are further told, 

 is also confined to the poorer classes here, and to clergymen and 

 medical men who come in contact with them, and we need therefore 

 not apprehend " the importation of the Russian epidemic." We con- 

 fess our inability to appreciate the full force of this reasoning, which 

 appears to be that as the worst form of the disease already exists in 

 England, we need not apprehend its extension through the importation 

 of the milder phase, but we must give the writer of the article from 

 which we have quoted the benefit of the most important lesson that it 

 inculcates, namely, that "we should not allow the Russian epidemic 

 to create a panic, by encouraging the popular fear as to the invasion 

 of these shores by a new disease," but "should endeavour to expel. an 

 unwelcome guest which for years has been spreading, far and wide, 

 misery and death, but which with proper precautions ought no longer 

 to exist amongst us." 



But, we shall be asked, " What precautions are here referred to ? 

 What are the causes of the existence in England of a plague, the full 

 danger of which is not made manifest until we hear of its raging 

 abroad, and threatening to become more virulent through an imported 

 accession of strength ? Are, then, the conditions in which the poorer 

 classes live in our own country chronically the same as those which 

 have temporarily ignited this pestilential conflagration in large 



* ' The Lancet.' 



