18 
Resuming our notes relative to the Cholera, we will 
observe, that the Registrar-General's returns do not 
establish any direct connexion between cholera and 
indifferent Water; at least, unless the latter be noto¬ 
riously bad, offensive to the sight, the smell, and the 
taste, it can hardly he set down as a direct cause of this 
disease. Here, with all due respect, we may take our 
leave, for the present, of microscopic and chemical 
analysis—a standard of four and-a-half degrees of hard¬ 
ness, and prospectuses of new water-works. The purer 
the water is, the better; hut to have it perfectly pure, is 
hardly to be looked for in this corrupted old world of 
ours ; neither is it essential to health and long life. The 
human (like the English) constitution is a very into¬ 
lerant one though gross ; palpable, wanton aggression, 
it is certain to resist. To those who make themselves 
miserable because they can get no water in their neigh¬ 
bourhood of very great purity, we would say—a common, 
cheap filter, and a quire of blotting-paper, are not very 
difficult things to obtain 
Anything likely to be swallowed in the beverages we 
drink is far less dangerous than damp, and exhalations 
from filthy, stagnant water, as these afford the means 
of diffusing pestilent miasms, unaccompanied with the 
unlimited power of washing or driving them quite 
away. 
We are right in attributing restorative influences to 
the sea, and to running streams; they appear to give 
off, fresh and fresh, continuous supplies of balmy, 
health-renewing particles; and it is found that these 
particles consist of loosely-combined oxygen, or of 
oxgen and its allies, chlorine, bromine, &c., in some¬ 
what larger proportion than in common air. 
Where a sluggish river all but comes to a staud still 
in a vast swampy plain, the moist air still acts upon 
and changes every thing within its reach; but here we 
have no rapid current to- remove the results of the 
changes thus effected, and to supply perfectly fresh 
particles every instant. The stream itself grows muddy, 
and the air is no longer eminently pure and invigor¬ 
ating, but depressing and damp. 
The well-dammed hanks of a great commercial river 
admit but a small portion (comparatively speaking) of 
sea-water twice a-day, whilst into it unmeasured quan¬ 
tities of corrupt animal and vegetable remains are 
hourly poured, all to be oxidized, cliloridized, or purified 
and reduced, a thing physicially impossible, for when 
the salt in the tide “ hath lost its savour,” the river 
begins to approach the sanitary condition of the hold 
of a water-logged ship (and putrid holds and over¬ 
crowded berths foster cholera and yellow fever, even out 
at sea). 
No wonder that one-half of the cholera in all England 
occurred at eight great sea-ports, and had its chief seat, 
in each case, within the infiueuces of the polluted tidal 
atmosphere. 
During its recent progress in Asia, this pest posted 
from place to place on relays of vapours stationed by 
swampy rivers and low maritime places. Generally 
this is the case, the exceptions only proving the rule; as 
Octoeeb 13. 
when a fog rising from a marsh settles itself again on 
high ground. 
After our heavy floods, last year, fevers of all kinds 
spread rapidly along the reeking surface of the earth. 
A bottleful of ink thrown into a running brook will 
only stain its course a very little way for a few moments; 
but one drop of ink will diffuse itself at once through a 
decanter full of water, staining the whole. Thus it may 
be, that stagnant moisture spreads infection, as the 
word itself implies. 
Caution is required in the free use of water for carry¬ 
ing oft’ all offending matters from about our premises. 
An immense quantity of liquid sullage thus produced 
may become a great nuisance, unless extraordinary care 
is taken to have it carried rapidly away, far from human 
abodes; a thing impossible in many places near the 
level of the sea. This impossibility is in no ways 
diminished by washing into sewers, not only fluids but 
solid refuse, suspended in water, with street and court 
sweepings, and valuable manuring matters capable of 
being carted off. 
Unswept gutters, foul ditches, and pools of water; 
marshes, undrained fields, with a heavy top-dressing of 
manure; irrigated meadows; are much worse tilings 
than unsightly manure-heaps, which last should be 
roofed over with a few boards, or have a few shovelfuls 
of earth thrown over them, and they should be removed 
frequently, and with care. 
Surface-drains, as of farm buildings, or of outhouses 
and yards, are easily repaired, and with the pavement 
and flags should be put into order. I confess to a 
pristine faith in the venerable institution of the cow- 
rake, besom, and wheelbarrow, for lustration, night and 
morning. After/juo diligent scraping and sweeping up, 
some absorbent substance, as sawdust, chaff, straw, 
charred clay, sand, or ashes, may be scattered over the 
surface, and the besom applied a second time, or 
gypsum, lime, chloride of lime, or dried salt may be 
used, or there is peat mull, and peat charcoal. These 
dry hints are good, not only against cholera, but also 
against the small pox, scarlatina, and even the pleuro- 
peripneumony, or disease amongst cattle. J. J. 
(To be continued.) 
In the formation of a Poultry Society, the first steps to 
be taken by the promoters should be with reference to 
the probable amount of subscriptions and other funds, 
according to which their prize-list must be constructed. 
It is manifestly unwise to select certain members of the 
Poultry Yard, and honour these by the offer of pre¬ 
miums, while others equally distinct, and generally 
regarded as equally meritorious, are either passed by 
unnoticed, or jumbled together in some strange medley. 
Far better, indeed, to give smaller prizes, and let all 
have their chance for them, than to create dissatis¬ 
faction by the partial arrangement against which our 
remembrance on more than one occasion has been 
directed. 
One main object of these institutions being to afford 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
