Report on the mortality of cholera in England, 1848-49.
- General Register Office Northern Ireland
- Date:
- 1852
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Report on the mortality of cholera in England, 1848-49. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by King’s College London. The original may be consulted at King’s College London.
118/510
![If an army had been marched through or encamped on the low streets of Southwark south of the Thames, in August 1849, it would no doubt have suffered severely from cholera ; while it might have been moved down the high roads north or south of London with impunity. The danger from pestilence of every kind is diminished by keeping troops on high ground : they often lose their strength, and perhaps some of their courage as well as health, on low ground near rivers and marshes ; which, judging-by the event, notwithstanding some advantages, make as bad lines of defence for armies as they do places of refuge for feeble nations, who only survive and permanently resist in the hills. The Walcheren expedition is an illustration of the fate of military operations on the deltas of great rivers, or on the low islands at their mouths.* * The Peninsular war offers an example of a different kind : our troops suffered severely on the Guadiana: but the earth fought for the English on the high lines of Torres Vedras; and against Massena in the humid plains below until he retired to Santarem, and finally retreated with the loss of 40000 veterans. The French army remained starving for five winter months, in the midst of marshes; and the disastrous incidents of the retreat showed that they there lost many of their finest qualities.f They began the retreat with 10000 sick. (6.) Travellers in unexplored countries should not rest on low, swampy spots; they have the best chance of preserving their health and the health of their horses and cattle by passing the nights on high ground, in the neighbourhood of springs, or near small rapid rivers. The two Landers, after Captain Clapperton, by adopting this course, landing at Badagry, and, as their map and journal show, keeping on the high grounds, arrived at Yaouri, and both succeeded in descending the Niger alive.ij; An attentive examination of journals of travels establishes the value of this rule. (7.) Intercommunication. It does not appear that the Quarantine has been of any avail in cholera. But the arrangements of all the lower classes ol vessels are far from satisfactory; and the circulation of dirty pestilential ships like the “ Eclair,” from low port to low port is not unattended with danger to the health of the community. A sanatory maritime police is therefore indispensable ; into which it would be advantageous to convert all the quarantine officers of Europe. The futile, superstitious practices of the lazarettos are as contemptible in the eyes of science as they are injurious to c®mmerce.§ Vagrants are the pestilential ships of the land ; and they carry diseases and zymotic stations in 1845, an<i was 3‘b Algiers, 3*7 in Mostaganem, 4*2 in Oran, 5*5 in llulippi ville, 6*6 in Dlidah, and 14*1 in El-Arouch. The following order, addressed by Marshal Pugeaud, in 1847, to his Generals, shows that the French had become alive to the danger of encamping on low grounds :— “ J’ai remarque que MM. les commandants de colonne choisissent lenr eampement an bold des cours d’eau, dans l’intention louable sans doute d'eviter a leurs troupes des corvees pour aller a l ean. Mais l’experience a demontre que celto maniere de camper donne un nombre considerable de nralades.— live seule mat passe'e dans un bus-fond stiff t quelquefois pour donner tine ceutaine de v abides stir un effect if de. 3000 homines. On comprend avec quelle rapidite une colonne serait fondue si cette maniere de camper se renouvelait. “ Je recommande done de la maniere la plus formelle a tous les commandants de colonne de choisir toujours leurs campements sur des hauteurs et des coteaux, toutc-s les fois que le terrain le permettra.— Pourvu que I on puisse bien se garder dans la position que l’on choisif, peu imporle la forme donnee an canqi si Ton est dans un endroit salubro. 11 vaut inliniment mieux imposer quelques corvees aux homines pour aller a l’eau et pour meuer les chevaux et mulets a l’abreuvoir. La saute des soldats en souflrira beaucoup moins que de camper dans un endroit souniis a des influences morbides.” * “ Select Dissertations,’- by Sir Gilbert Blane, Dis. III. He notices that those who slept in the upper stories of houses were less liable to the Walcheren fever, and had it in a milder form, than those who slept on the ground floors. Dr. Ferguson remarked in St. Domingo, that two-thirds more men were taken ill on the ground floors than on the upper stories. The celebrate I Dr. Cullen observed the same thing in the sickness which he witnessed in Porto Delhi in the year 1740. p. 91. f Dispatches of the Duke of Wellington, vol. vii., pp. 256, 270, 448. “ I never saw an army so healthy as this [the English], Indeed I may say that we have scarcely any sick, excepting in the Walcheren regiments.’— 16 Feb., 1811. “ 'I he enemy’s loss in this expedition to Portugal is immense ; I should think not less titan 45000 men, including the sick and wounded; and 1 think that, including the 9th corps, they may have 40000 on this frontier.”—9til April, 1811. Napier, Peninsular War, vol. iii., Hook xii. Alison, History of Europe, c. 63. £ Landers’ Niger Expedition. See the details in the French Deport on Quarantine.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21308251_0118.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
