COPPER AN ANTIDOTE AGAINST CHOLERA. 
297 
intemperance, he could not vote for the expulsion of Mr. Stearns. Mr. Memminger 
stated that, however that might be, still he did not believe ‘ that two wrongs could make 
a right.’ If there was any virtue in this association, a violation of its ethical code called 
for expulsion. 
“Mr. Stearns said that he wished to be understood that he only was to be judged for 
the past. He had no promises to make for the future. He might have resigned, but 
he was no such coward. He wished the convention to act on the past, the future would 
take care of itself. 
“ Several members then proceeded to speak in favour of Mr. Stearns ; one said that 
his was no error at all, as he sold a weaker preparation at a cheap rate. Another wished 
to have the further consideration of the matter postponed until the next annual meet¬ 
ing. Still another said that Mr. Stearns himself wished this matter disposed of now. 
“Dr. Squibb said that if he had no higher motive in the introduction of those resolu¬ 
tions than the punishment of Mr. Stearns, they would never have been introduced. If 
the effect w r as to begin and end there, he would withdraw them at once. 
“ The question was again called for, and the secretary proceeded to read the substitute, 
and then the chair put the question. The vote was taken by delegations, each member 
answering aye or no. The substitute favoured a vote of censure, and was lost—the vote 
standing, nays, 64 ; yeas, 30. 
“The question then arose on the original resolution. 
“ It was moved to postpone the question until next year, in order to allow Mr. Stearns 
time to prepare himself, and to give him opportunity to stop the business altogether. 
Lost, by a vote of 24 to 56. 
“The original resolution was then given another reading, and passed by a vote of 63 
ayes to 22 noes. 
“ The chair said that it therefore became its painful duty to announce that the reso¬ 
lution had been carried, and that therefore Mr. Frederick Stearns was expelled. 
“Mr. Stearns came forward, gave up his card of invitation, and, with a voice choked 
with emotion, said, ‘I have been expelled hastily, and without cause. I have been ex¬ 
pelled for the past; you can judge of my future by what I do.’ He then withdrew from 
the convention.” 
COPPER AN ANTIDOTE AGAINST CHOLERA. 
At a meeting of the Academie des Sciences, M. Dumas gave a brief analysis of Dr. 
Burg’s report on the preservation from cholera of men engaged in working with copper. 
He said, in effect, statistics clearly prove that wherever the manipulation of copper was 
carried on, the men engaged in it have almost invariably escaped harmless. The inves¬ 
tigations into the subject were conducted under the supervision and control of the com- 
missaires of police, and may, therefore, be implicitly relied on. The number of men 
who died of the epidemic in 1865 was eight, three of whom were engravers, one opti¬ 
cian, one polisher, or burnisher, and one turner. In 1866 the mortality among them 
from the same cause was exactly the same. According to M. Burg, several of these 
deaths appeared to result from exceptional circumstances ; they were either out of work 
®r under bad sanitary conditions. To enable it to be clearly understood what propor¬ 
tion these numbers bore to the great body of workmen engaged in copper works, it 
must be stated that the census of 1866 showed that there were in the department in 
which Paris is situate 122,838 workers in metal, and it is putting it below the mark to 
say that of this number at least one-fourth—that is to say, nearly 31,000—are engaged 
in working copper in some form or another. Deducting boys under twelve years of age 
employed in the same work, there remained upwards of 26,000 adults really workmen, 
consequently the number of deaths in the years specified was in the proportion of three 
to every 10,000. Further inquiries were made with the view of ascertaining if the pre¬ 
servation varied in accordance with the degree in which the metal was handled by the 
operatives. The result of this branch of the inquiry, it is said, proved the correctness 
of the theory. Among gold and silversmiths and watchmakers, the total number of 
whom was 11,500, there were sixteen cases, and there died one of every 719 employed. 
Among makers of metallic spectacle frames, engravers on copper, men engaged in 
plating copper, polishers, rollers, and coiners, the total of whom was 6000, there w ere 
YOL. XI. X 
