THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
are personal and household cleanliness, and the freest 
ventilation of living and sleeping rooms with pure air; the 
purity of the air we breathe being even more essential than 
the wholesomeness of food and drink. When the disease 
has actually broken out and become epidemic in any dis¬ 
trict or locality, then the one essential precaution is not to 
neglect, for a single hour, any degree of looseness of 
bowels. This symptom being commonly without pain, 
and so slight, that it is difficult to conceive that it can be of 
the smallest consequence, naturally leads to neglect; and 
this neglect has cost the lives of thousands. Were any 
additional proof of this required, it would be found in 
the events that are now occurring at Newcastle and Gates¬ 
head : all the medical men there bear testimony that pre¬ 
monitory diarrhoea is all but universal, and that life depends 
on instant attention to this symptom. Thus, one physician 
says, ‘ He has never seen a case without premonitory symp¬ 
toms ;’ another states, ‘ He has found, in a great number of 
instances, where the men said they had been first seized 
with collapse, there had been neglected diarrhoea for twenty- 
four hours, or even forty-eight hours, or longer;’ another 
declares, ‘ In all cases of collapse investigated, it is found 
there had been neglected diarrhoea.’ Even in the cases in 
which death takes place with the greatest rapidity, the sud¬ 
denness is apparent only, not real; for the fatal collapse is 
the final but gradual result of diarrhoea neglected for several 
hours, and sometimes entire days. It must then be re¬ 
peated, that in any district in which cholera is epidemic, 
life may depend on obtaining prompt and proper relief for 
painless and apparently trifling looseness of the bowels. 
The measure of precaution next, in importance relates to the 
proper regulation of the diet. Great moderation, both of 
food and drink, is absolutely essential to safety during the 
whole duration of the epidemic period; an act of indiscretion 
has been often followed by a severe attack; intemperance at 
such a time is fraught with the most extreme danger. 
During the epidemic of 1819, sudden and fatal attacks of 
the disease followed immediately on the indulgence of 
habits of drinking after the receipt of weekly wages. The 
intervals between the meals should not be long, cholera 
being uniformly found to prevail with extraordinary intensity 
among the classes that observe the protracted fasts common 
in Eastern and some European countries. The'’utmost 
practicable care should be taken against fatigue, which is 
a very powerful predisposing cause of the disease. Em¬ 
ployers, and persons engaged in laborious occupations, should 
endeavour, as far as possible, so to arrange the amount and 
time of work as to avoid physical exhaustion. Warm cloth¬ 
ing is of great importance. During the present epidemic in 
Hamburgh, it has been found that incautious exposure to 
cold aud damp has brought on an attack as rapidly as 
improper food or excess. This precaution against damp is 
rendered doubly important by the peculiarity of the present 
season. Long continued and excessive rains have, in many 
places, surcharged the ground with moisture, especially 
undrained and low-lying districts,placing, in many instances, 
the land contiguous to towns, and beyond the usual range of 
town drainage, almost in the condition of marshes. The 
exhalations arising from a surface thus saturated often with 
water, holding decomposed matter in solution, spread to the 
towns and affect the inhabitants, however well drained the 
immediate sites of the towns may be. The General Board 
were so apprehensive that disease would be extensively pro¬ 
duced by this unusual and dangerous state of a large por¬ 
tion of the country (an apprehension which was subsequently 
realised by the breaking out of disease, allied in character to 
cholera, in 00 towns), that in their Notification, issued in 
December, 1852, they represented to local authorities that 
this calamity afforded a special occasion for administering 
extraordinary assistance to the poor, to enable them to keep 
large fires in their rooms, to protect themselves from cold 
and damp by warm clothing, to sustain their strength by a 
solid and nutritive diet, and to counteract the predisposition 
to disease induced under these peculiar circumstances by 
suitable tonics and other remedies, under medical direction. 
This representation was made when there was a threatening 
of the return of cholera; it is now among us, and the 
General Board would remind the affluent that the oppor¬ 
tune supply to their poorer neighbours and dependents of 
wholesome food, warm clothing, and bedding, and even such 
October (>. 
remedies (to be always in readiness) as their medical atten¬ 
dant may recommend for looseness of bowels, is charity in 
the truest sense, and may be the means of saving many 
lives. It is also much to be desired, and the General Board 
would strongly recommend, that the higher classes should 
co-operate with the clergy, who have done so much to pro¬ 
mote the object of the Legislature under the Public Health 
Act, in making frequent visits among the poor, and im¬ 
pressing upon them the importance of following the instruc¬ 
tions here laid down, with reference to which there is a 
perfect accordance between the College of Physicians and 
the General Board of Health. In conclusion, after the large 
experience of this disease which has been obtained since the 
General Board of Health issued their first Notification (1848), 
they can now repeat with greater confidence what they then 
urged—that, formidable as this malady is in its intense form 
and developed stage, there is no disease against which it is 
in our power to take such effectual precaution, both as 
collective communities aud private individuals, by attention 
to it in its first or premonitory stage, and by the removal of 
those agencies which are known to propagate the spread of 
all epidemic diseases, or, where that may be impracticable, 
by removal from them. Though, therefore, the issues of 
events are not in our hands, there is ground for hope, and 
even confidence, in the sustained and resolute employment 
of the means of protection which experience and science 
have now placed within our reach.” 
The Prize List of the “ Bedfordshire Annual Exhibi¬ 
tion of Poultry" announces that Wednesday the 30th of 
November next, aud the two following days, have been 
appointed for that meeting. 
The limitation of chickens to their own classes, for¬ 
bidding their competition with the older birds, has been 
wisely adopted ; but we should have preferred seeing the 
prize for a “cockerel and three pullets” wherever a 
“cock and two hens” are shown in the senior class. 
Under any circumstances, it is desirable that words 
should he always used in their proper meaning and 
acceptation, and few will question that, by the term 
“ cockerel,” a bird of less than one year’s growth is 
denoted. “Three” pullets also serve as a distinguishing 
mark between the old and the young pens, which, not¬ 
withstanding the care of Secretaries in numbering the 
classes, are too often confounded. It may often be a 
matter of difficulty to match three old birds, but where 
pullets are concerned the task is far easier. 
Black Shanghaes are omitted, and wisely too, as we 
think ; for considering that “ permanent varieties” only 
should be honoured by distinct classes, these have no 
just claim for admission, permanency of colour being 
the last property that could possibly be predicated to 
them. 
Oame Fowls are reduced to three classes, “ White and 
Piles,” “ Black-breasted and other Reds,” and “ other 
Varieties;” this latter class, including Blacks, Brassy¬ 
winged, Greys, Blues, Duckwings, and the rest. The 
two last classes of the four, in the Birmingham list, have 
been often confused, and the present arrangement, 
strongly as we have always argued for separate classes 
for distinct varieties, is probably the best, if no greater 
number of classes can be allowed. 
But when we come to “ Polands," a grave remon¬ 
strance must be uttered. Why, we must ask, select the 
“ Golden,” and consign the “ White-crested Black,” 
