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Leader (1850-1860), 28th September 1850, Edition Town of 1, Page 628, Untitled Article

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      Untitled Article

      used . The peat is allowed to burn in the retort until the hydrogen has escaped , when a quantity of water is let in at the bottom of the retort , which flows about the charred peat , excluding the air , and preventing the carbon from evaporating . The peat , having taken two hours to burn , is about as long in cooling ; the water is then withdrawn , and the residuum of charcoal is removed to a grinding machine , where it is reduced to powder , and ultimately placed in bags for exportation . The coarsest kind is used for firing ; the next for deodorizing and sanitary purposes ; the third description for surgical operations ; and the fourth for metal castings .

      At the opening of the station , on September 19 , a great number of visitors were present , and some speeches made . The chief points elicited were , that there are three millions of acres of hitherto useless bog in Ireland , every portion of which , may be converted into charcoal of a far more generally available kind than that made from wood , and at a much less cost ; that the willingness of the Irish peasantry to -work under fair encouragement is proved by the beneficial change in their condition in the course of this experiment ; and that the demand for peatcharcoal is already very great , and must increase—an order from the Metropolitan Commissioners of Sewers for the supply of an immense quantity having been made , and an intimation given that two millions of tons yearly will be required for L » ondon alone .

      Untitled Article

      COMPETITION" AND COMBINATION . Another case of attempted reduction of wages , through the introduction of foreign artizans , has led to some illegal interference on the part of English ¦ workmen . A case arising out of the quarrel was decided at Marlborough-street Police-office on Tuesday . James Carnegie and George Piggott were charged with having assaulted William Aller , a German , and fellow-workmen , in the employment of Messrs . Erard and Co ., pianoforte and harp makers , whose principal manufactory is in Paris , but who have also one in London . It appears that an association was lately formed among the workmen , both

      British and foreign , to prevent a reduction ot wages , and that , in spite of this association , an attempt has been recently made to reduce wages , by employing foreign artizans . This naturally caused a great deal of ill-feeling , and had led to the assault of which the two men were charged . It did not appear to have been of a very serious nature , and the manager of the manufactory , after alluding to the combination amongst the men , said they had no -wish to press the charge . All they wanted was to convince the men of the folly and illegality of their conduct . Carnegie stated that Aller had joined the society , but that he afterwards , in an underhand way , introduced two of his countrymen to work at lower

      wages . " Mr . Hardwick said combinations of workmen against employers were not to be tolerated . The men had a right to seek to maintain a high rate of wages , but the masters had an equal right to get men to work at lower wages . " The defendants were then ordered to find sureties for three months , and thus the affair terminated . The men are told that they may do their best to maintain high wages , provided they do not break the law , while the masters are at equal liberty , in his estimation , to try every means in their power to reduce wages . Such is L . aissez-faire in our industrial system .

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      THE . TEACHINGS OF CHOLERA . The Commissioners constituting the Board of Health have r > resented their concluding report on the epidemic cholera of 1848 and 1819 , a document full of interesting information , and well worth the serious attention of all Sanitary Keformcrs . One of the most striking facts in it is the statement that the Metropolitan Sanitary Commissioners , from a consideration of the increased crowding of the metropolis , its filthy state and low sanitary condition , two years ago , predicted that the impending epidemic would be more severe than that of 1832 , and the event justified their prediction . With reference to the epidemic of 1832-3 , the report says : —

      " We must take the statement as we find it made to the Privy Council , from which it appears that , in London , the attacks were 11 , 114 , and the deaths C 729 ; the population of London then being l , G 81 , G 4 l . From data given in the appendix , it is estimated that , in 1818-9 , the attacks wore about . ' 50 , 000 , and the deaths It , 601 ; the population at that time being 2 , 200 , 070 , so that in the tnst , aa compared with the former epidemic , the deaths were more numerous than the attacks , while the attacks

      were more than double ; or , to state the result more precisely , in the epidemic of 1832-3 one person died in every 2 ;>() of the inhabitants , or ••! per cent . ; whereas in ISIS mill 1815 ) one person died in every 151 of the iuhabitiuits , or - ( JO per cent . ; the mortality , therefore , in lS : { ' 2-3 was about 2-oths less than in 18 ' 1 U ; which is the Rume as to say that , in proportion to the population , about ZiSOO more persons perished of this epidemic in London , in 18-10 , than in 183 * 2 .

      " In Knglnnd and Wales in 1832-3 the attacks arc stated to have been 71 , (» 0 < J , and the deaths 10 , 437 . 11 l- ' rom the Registrar-General ' s rcturn . it appears that

      the total number of deaths in England and Wales in the year 1849 was , from—Cholera 53 , 293 Diarrhoea 18 , 887 Total ..... 72 , 180 " From the total absence of any registration whatever in Scotland , it is , of course , impossible to obtain similarly accurate data for estimating the extent of the epidemic seizure in that part of Great Britain . Whereever he felt it important to obtain approximate estimates of the amount of mortality , we were obliged to direct Dr .

      Sutherland to make a personal ex amination of the rude entries in the burial registers of the various places of interment likely to have received the dead of those affected districts whose condition we were desirous of ascertaining . The result of this kind of enquiry as to Glasgow was , that about 3800 persons had died of cholera , and from a consideration of the returns obtained , it appears probable that between 7000 and 8000 persons were cut off in Scotland during the course of the epidemic . It may not be far short of the truth to estimate the mortality from cholera , exclusive of that from diarrhoea , in the whole of Great Britain , at upwards of

      60 , 000 . " One very instructive fact connected with the late epidemic was its having visited so many localities where it had proved fatal sixteen years before . The first case that occurred in the town of Leith , in 1848 , took place in the same house and within a few feet of the very spot from which the epidemic of 1832 began its course . On its reappearance in the town of Pollockshaws its snatched its first victim from the same room and the very bed in which it broke out in 1832 . In Bermondsey also the same foul ditch which had given birth to the first cases of cholera in 1832 remained with all its reeking impurities to inflict upon the neighbouring inhabitants , in 1848 , that inevitable punishment which follows every neglect of the laws of health .

      " In numerous instances , medical officers , who have attended to the conditions which influence its localization , have pointed out , before its return , the particular courts and houses which it would attack . * Before cholera appeared in the district , ' says the medical officer of the Whitechapel Union , speaking of a small court in the hamlet , * I predicted that this would be one of its strongholds . ' Eighteen cases occurred in it . Before cholera appeared in the district the medical officer of Uxbridge stated that , if it should visit that town , it would be certain to break out in a particular house , to the dangerous

      condition of which he called the attention of the local authorities . The first cases that occurred broke out in that identical house . In a place called Swain ' s-lane , in the healthy village of Highgate , near London , there is a spot where the medical officer felt so confident that the disease would make its appearance that he repeatedly represented to the authorities the danger of allowing the place to remain in its existing condition , but in vain . In two houses on this spot six attacks and four deaths took place ; yet there was no other appearance of the disease during the whole epidemic in any other part of the village , containing 3000 inhabitants . at

      " In a place called the * Potteries' Kensington , where the causes of disease are so concentrated and intense that , during the three years ending December 31 , 1848 , there occurred 78 deaths out of a population of 1000 , the average age of all who died being under 12 years , and where , in the last year , the medical officer attended 32 cases of fever , 21 persons perished of cho ^ lera . These deaths took place in the same streets , houses , and rooms which had been again and again visited by fever ; and the medical officer pointed out rooms where some of these poor people had recovered from fever in the spring to fall victims to cholera in the summer . " With regard to the danger to be apprehended from open sewers and other sources of pollution , which might be abated by rigorous sanitary regulations , the

      commissioners say : — " One of the most severe outbreaks of cholera that occurred in the metropolis was at Albion-terrace , Wands-Avorth-road , a place consisting of seventeen houses , having the appearance of commodious , comfortable dwellings . About 200 yards in the rear of the terrace is an open black ditch , which receives the drainage from Clapham , Streatham , and Brixton-hill . The inhabitants of the houses complained of offensive effluvium in their gardens behind , whenever the wind blew in a particular direction ; the servants complained of a stench in different parts of the kitchen floor , more especially over the sink in the back kitchen . In the house in which the first case of cholera

      occurred , there was an enormous accumulation of most offensive rubbish , amounting to seven or eight cartloads . There is also reason to believe that the water supplied to some of the houses accidentally became contaminated with the contents of a sewer or cesspool . Within the space of a fortnight , out of an estimated population of 120 persons residing in this terrace , 42 persons were seized with cholera , of whom 30 died , or 71 per cent , of tho whole number attacked . •? In the ' Potteries , ' at Kensington , a place already

      noticed , there were kept 3000 pigs ; the process of fatboiling was carried on so extensively as to taint the atmosphere for half-a-mile round ; the dwellings , or rather hovels , in which the inhabitants lived , are stated to be unsurpassed , as to filth and misery , by anything known in Ireland ; the streets , courts , alleys , and yards are without a drop of clear water , all bein « charged with organic matter , and on the margin of a large stagnant piece of water , called the ' Ocean , ' which is covered with a filthy slime , and bubbling with a poisonous gas , caused by the drainage of pigsties and privies that flow into it ,

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      THE LAST SHOW IN FRANCE . No sooner has Louis Napoleon ceased to furnish gossip for the Parisians , by his sayings and doings in the provinces , than the Nepaulese Ambassador makes his appearance on the stage , and instantly becomes quite as much the favourite as the President was . It is hardly possible to take up a French paper without finding some story in it regarding the great Oriental lion . Galignani gives an amusing account of Jung Bahadoor ' s visit to the Opera : —

      " The Ambassador having expressed a wish to go * behind the scenes , ' the director , M . Roqueplan , intimated that he should be most happy to receive him , and Saturday was the day fixed for the visit . At about eleven o ' clock the Prince and his suite arrived in several carriages , their splendid jewels glittering in the sunshine . The distinguished visitors were first taken to the great dancing-room , in which the members of the corps de ballet were taking a lesson . A gilded arm-chair was prepared for the Prince , and he watched the lesson with the greatest interest . After sitting nearly an hour , he was asked if he did not feel some ennui , but he replied that

      he could remain till nightfall with pleasure . The director , however , in order not to weary him , conducted him ¦ with great ceremony to the stage , and he was there placed under the canopy which serves for the Emperor in the third act of La Juive . Mademoiselle Fanny Cerito stood by his side , and the corps de ballet danced the divertissemens of the Enfans Trouvd , the new opera of M . Auber , which is about to be brought out . The Prince was delighted , and requested that ail the persons of the ballet should be presented to him . The presentation took place in the great foyer , and , when it was concluded , the ambassador delivered a little speech ,

      which was translated into English by his interpreter , and then from English into French . The speech was to the effect that never any women appeared to him so enchanting as those of the Opera , and that he would never forget what he had seen , however distant he might be and however long Heaven might allow him to live . The director having sent out for the finest fruits that could be procured , invited the prince to partake of them The prince replied that , if a refusal would offend tho director , he would partake of them , notwithstanding the ordinances of his religion would be violated by his eating in the presence of strangers ; but that he would greatly nrefer that the voune beauties who surrounded him

      should be invited to take the fruits . To this the director acceded , and the young ladies emptied the baskets , and devoured the fruit with an alacrity which appeared greatly to amuse the prince . Before leaving the Ambassador expressed his thanks to M . Roqueplan , and shook him warmly by the hand . As he did so , he left in M . Roqueplan ' s hand a costly pocket handkerchief containing £ 100 in English sovereigns . The money was immediately divided , and each member of the corps de ballet received GOf . —each scene-shifter and pupil 30 f . " At the grand review at Versailles , on Monday , the Nepaulese Prince was much more the object of regard

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      is placed St . James ' s National School , with about 130 children . It has already been stated that , in this place , out of a population of 1000 persons , there occurred , within the first ten months of 1849 , fifty deaths ; that is at the rate of six per cent , per annum ; and that of these 29 were from fever and other causes , and 21 from cholera and diarrhoea . " The monstrous neglect of the ordinary laws oj health exhibited in placing a school on the very brink of

      a pestilence-nursery is almost incredible , and yet it is quite of a piece with the conduct of the people of London in almost all questions relating to the public health . What with their insane idolatry of property ' , as if it were , under all possible circumstances , the most valuable product of society , what with their incessant cry of Laissez faire , as if that should override every consideration of health and humanity , thev seem , at times to be totally devoid of

      common sense . As a proof of what might be done to lessen the mortality from such epidemics the Commissioners dwell at some length upon the importance of improving the dwellings of the working classes . In proof of this they call attention to the very remarkable immunity from cholera enjoyed by the inmates of those buildings which have lately been erected by the society for improving the houses of the poor . Nor is it merely as regards exemption from the attacks of cholera that the health of the inmates of

      those places has improved . Compared with the inhabitants of the old , wretched , ill-ventilated , illdrained houses in the same neighbourhood , it appears that the mortality of the inmates of the improved dwellings has , for the last eighteen months , diminished two-thirds ; while its infant mortality , the most delicate test of sanitary condition , has not been more than one-fifth of that of the worst parts of the metropolis .

      In the conclusion of their report the Commissioners , after expressing their expectation that a material improvement in the physical , moral , and social condition of the people will ultimately flow from the operation of the Public Health Act , strongly urge how essential it is to the protection of the public health " That adequate legislative powers should be given for dealing effectually with those extraordinay and formidable states of disease ^ the occasional occurrence of which must be expected , until these sanitary works have been completed and have been introduced into all the towns of the kingdom . "

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      628 &t > V 3 Lea % et + [ Saturday ,

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Sept. 28, 1850, page 628, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1854/page/4/