430 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
September 5. 
a large increase of these. The Society, of course, will 
be useful in proportion to the strength of its funds, and 
as it is to amateurs that its usefulness will be greatest, 
it is to these that we look for such aid. We look to the 
improvement of our hardy fruits as of the greatest 
national importance; yet none have been more 
neglected. The field has been but little cultivated, 
and we are confident the Society will gather a rich 
harvest. 
What we call a self-sown tree was formerly styled by 
the inspired writers, “ a tree that the Lord hath planted,” 
and we are now told by naturalists, that uncultivated 
plants, and those which are commonly said to grow of 
themselves, do not in reality do anything of the sort— 
but are sown and manured, take root, increase and 
multiply, according to pre-ordained laws. In addition to 
an appropriate soil, and a supply of food and moisture, 
a certain amount of heat is requisite for the due develop- 
| ment of the germs and seeds of wild plants. Humboldt 
has mapped out the globe by certain lines of equal heat, 
which do not precisely agree with the parallels of lati¬ 
tude, but are modified by the height of places, their 
nearness to the sea, and other causes. Between these 
lines of equal heat, certain classes of wild plants flourish 
in situations and under circumstances favourable to 
their growth. Beyond these proper bounds, their seeds 
never vegetate nor thrive, unless introduced and cstab- 
i lished by artificial cultivation. 
The laws which govern the spread of the “ materies 
1 morbi ” [disease-producing element] of cholera, bear some 
analogy to the laws of the spread of minute organised 
substances diffused throughout the atmosphere; and. 
accordingly, a certain degree of heat, amongst other 
things, is found to be absolutely requisite to the matura¬ 
tion and increase of this otherwise latent principle. 
The outbreak at Leeds, during winter, in a great, hot, 
mill (near a filthy canal, and with an accumulation of 
manure hard by), was an exceptional illustration of this; 
and it is found that even in northern climates the 
disease, once introduced, will establish itself inside the 
close, stoved, almost air-tight houses. In the Baltic fleet, 
it is the steamers alone which are notably affected. Tn 
general, it was found during the epidemics in Loudon 
and Berlin that the rise and fall of the thermometer 
constantly foreshadowed an increase, or diminution of 
mortality. This general law, and these apparent excep¬ 
tions, must surely be intelligible enough to our readers, 
who can understand Low Tiberius grew his Cucumbers 
in winter, and how little country lads in a village 
school can cultivate Melons by the help of a ther¬ 
mometer. 
The recent hot weather has brought with it another 
access of Cholera Morbus, which shews a disposition 
to assume an epidemic and very malignant form. Under 
these circumstances, and seeing the apparent paralysis j 
of Government, and the utter hopelessness of looking ! 
to Hercules for help, it behoves every individual to put ' 
his own shoulder to the wheel — be he magistrate, 
clergyman, guardian of the poor, policeman, surveyor of i 
highways, parochial officer, or medical officer, or member 
of a local Board of Health ; it behoves every individual 
whatever, on whom a certain amount of public respon 
sibility devolves, to see at once to the state of his own i 
neighbourhood. 
Let voluntary associations of all such persons be at 
once got together, even in remote places; let them 
collectively visit the district; let them make strong 
collective representations to owners of property respect¬ 
ing all bad sanitary arrangements; let them impress 
upon occupiers the importance of an almost ceremonial 
observance of all known laws of cleanliness and purifi¬ 
cation : such as cleansing twice-a-day all their premises 
with the aid of cheap absorbent substances, and re¬ 
moving far from their dwellings, and carefully covering 
over with earth and lime, all large accumulations of 
manure. Let all lingering and loitering at fairs, 
markets, feasts, and public assemblies, be put a stop to. 
The place of attack of the disease being the external 
skfn, and the mucous membranes, or internal skin, con¬ 
sidered as one whole surface, it is absolutely requisite to . 
keep these susceptible surfaces in a vigorous state by j 
dry and clean clothing, by personal cleauliness, by : 
proper food, by exercise, avoiding fatigue, and by venti¬ 
lation ; of which more hereafter. 
A general inspection once made, let each member 
of our Committee of Health have his proper duties 
assigned him. To the clergy, and opulent classes, it 
will be a duty to minister at once salutary personal 
advice, and something more; for this is not a time 
to merely say, Be clean ; be ye fed; be ye clothed. The 
local and parochial authorities must provide brushes, 
whitewash, chloride of lime and of zinc, an organised 
band of daily scavengers with proper carts, barrows, 
boxes, &c. They must do more. If an attack be really 
apprehended, and the neighbourhood be specially liable 
to an access of the disease ,* the means of timely flight 
must be arranged beforehand, and temporary places of 
refuge bespoke in case of need; a well-conducted retreat 
being often the best generalship. Not the least difficult 
of duties is that of public prosecutor; but some one, 
either the clerk to the Board of Guardians, or an active 
professional man, specially retained, must be set to bring 
into stringent operation all the powers of the Highway 
Act, or Local Act, or of the Public Health Act, or the 
Nuisances Removal Act. Lists of unhealthy places 
will be in the hands of the clerk to the Board of 
Guardians, and the necessary evidence will have to be 
procured from the poliae, and the medical officer of the 
poor, who must be paid for his services, and counte¬ 
nanced and supported in doing his duty. 
After all, our own experience says, we must look most 
to the clergy. If they consider these subjects scarcely 
* All private or public rooms are crowded where each inmate has not 
his 500 cubic feet of air. Any large town is crowded where there are 
more than 120 inhabitants on each acre of land, and where the streets 
i are not twice as wide as the houses are high. All greatly overcrowded 
I places are unhealthy which are raised less than thirty yards above the 
level of the sea, near the mouths of important tidal rivers whose waters 
1 “ carry out ” much more of filth than the incoming tide furnishes 
I chlorine, (salt) to deodorize. Let the cholera , or the choleraic 
diarrhoea once get established in such places, and there is no remedy but 
I clearing them out—by main force if needful. In the time of cholera, 
i the Habeas Corpus Act should be considered a dead letter.— * J. J. 
