even if let alone, is probable from the history of former Epidemics, none of which, we believe, have lasted much beyond three years, and few quite so long: but what extent of mischief might previously be inflicted, is quite beyond the reach of calculation. It is therefore highly necessary that public measures of prevention should be adopted with all speed and vigour.

We would recommend, then, for the general welfare (what has already been so far done in Ireland, Glasgow and Edinburgh), that certain individuals in every town or county should erect themselves into an Association for the Suppression of Fever. Their number should be proportioned to the size or populousness of the district which their exertions are meant to protect; and, in other respects, they should be men of diligence and intelligence. It is essential to the object of the Institution, that the members should consist of those who, from their rank, intellect or influence, have the confidence of the lower orders: we have no doubt that, in every town, a sufficient number of such individuals would be found, public-spirited enough to volunteer their services in this benevolent cause. In fact, it is obviously the self-interest of every one to assist, to the utmost of his power, in extinguishing a disease that, if left to itself, must involve every Class of Society.

This Association should comprise one or more magistrates of the place to which it belongs, so that its suggestions may have more weight, and its operations be aided occasionally by compulsatory civil power. Above all, it should comprehend the Clergy of all denominations; because, from their character and station, they generally have great influence over the poor: It should also comprehend a sufficient number of the Faculty, for the purpose of examining the habitat of the disease, ascertaining its extent, and the means of eradication. Such an Association, it is evident, should have the power of collecting voluntary subscriptions, or even of imposing assessments to provide funds for executing the object of its establishment. It would be well if government or parliamentary grants, for the latter purpose, were given to such districts as have suffered long and extensively from the Epidemic.

These previous matters being duly arranged, every town or county should be parted off by parishes, or other more convenient divisions; and two inspectors, one of whom should be a medical man, appointed to each. It should be the duty of the inspectors to visit and minutely examine the state of health of every family in their division once a week, or oftener, if circumstances require it: and if any cases of fever are found, they must have them removed to a hospital as soon as possible, and after

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wards take upon themselves the charge of having the infected dwellings cleaned and fumigated. The poor should be required to lodge with the President of the Association, or with the inspectors of their district, information of any new case, as soon as it appears. Dr Haygarth, to whom the world is indebted for many judicious directions for the extinction of contagious diseases, has proposed that persons should be incited by some small pecuniary rewards to give the information in question: but we believe that the mere solicitude of neighbours for their own safety will be a sufficient inducement to them to make known any infected house in their quarter to the proper authority, as soon as they know that a proper authority is expressly provided for the purpose of remedying the evil.

The Association should next proceed to procure tenements to be converted into temporary Fever-hospitals. Barracks are, generally speaking, well adapted to the purpose; and at the present time, when so many of them must be unoccupied with troops, their temporary appropriation in this way would be productive of very great benefit. In Edinburgh, the grant of Queensberry barracks has greatly facilitated the disposal of the numerous cases. Prison-depôts might also be occupied for a similar purpose: but where neither these nor barracks are to be had, a warehouse, storehouse, granary, or the like, may be made to answer the intention, Architectural requisites are of no consequence, provided the premises be but large, dry, and well ventilated. Indeed their internal fitting up cannot be too simple: we have often been struck by the injudiciousness of multiplying closets and wooden partitions, which only tend to lodge contagious matter, and obstruct the free circulation of air, in large hospitals.

The number of these Receiving-houses must be multiplied according to the emergency; but if the measures are promptly pursued, and patients removed during the first days of illness, it will speedily be found that we have choked up the fountainhead of the disease, and that the necessity for multiplying hospitals is entirely obviated. If, on the other hand, we allow the mischief to get greatly ahead; or if only half measures are pursued, the consequence will be, that a treble expense will be incurred; and even then, in all probability, the object will be not accomplished.

When patients are removed to the hospital, they must be stripped, and well washed with warm water and soap; taking care to cut off their hair, and remove all their ordinary clothes, These, after being carefully washed and dried, must be put apide in a store-room for the purpose, until the patient goes out

of the hospital. During his stay in the Establishment, when not confined to bed, he should be accommodated with a hospital-dress, consisting of double flannel or fleecy hosiery.

Although it be a anatter of primary importance to have the sick conveyed from their own houses during the first days of fever, as it incalculably lessens the danger of diffusing the disease, still in the ulterior stages, or even in the last stage, such removal is by no means without use. But on such occasions the Inspectors must be prepared to encounter a great deal of obloquy and opposition from the relatives of the patient: for no popular prejudice is more strong than that which holds it dangerous to move a patient under such circumstances. The certainty of catching cold,' and many other casualties, will be prophetically announced as the result of such an unheard-of measure, We can, nevertheless, assure our readers that such a removal, even in the last stage of fevers, may, in general, be effected with perfect safety: nay, free exposure to the air will be often salutary. The only consideration that can make the measure at all questionable is, the debility of the patient-not the risk of exposing him. That debility, for instance, may be so great as to render him unable to bear the erect posture in a sedan chair; but even then, he may be laid on a mattress, or truckle-bed, in the horizontal posture, and in this way carried to the hospital. There is most respectable authority to prove that gestation, as a remedy in fever, has been repeatedly successful in cases where the extreme prostration of the powers of life, and signs of putrescency, had defied all other means; and would, in all probability, but for this simple, though unusual expedient, have ended in death. We would, therefore, recommend this subject to the serious attention of medical men during the present epidemic. We presume almost every military surgeon that has served in the late campaigns, must have witnessed the safety-not to say utility-of gestation in all stages of Typhous Fever, and must be able to confirm what we have now brought forward.

We must also allude to another popular prejudice, which tends greatly to counteract or defeat any exertions made to exterminate an epidemic:-we mean the reluctance which many of the poorer classes evince at being sent to public hospitals. In some instances, perhaps, this repugnance arises froin a manly feeling of independence, inciting them to decline the aid of charity; but, in by far the greater number, it springs from a very general, though most erroneous impression, that in public hos pitals medical experiments are tried' upon the patients. This charge is, of course, too absurd to deserve any serious refuta

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tion: and we are certain, from personal knowledge, that the prejudice has no foundation except in the vulgar and suspicious folly of those who entertain it-entertain it, too, against a profession which gives more gratuitous aid to the poor than any other, and which-to say nothing of it as a science-ranks at least as the noblest of the arts. Yet, however unfounded, this prejudice must be combated and argued down, as it stands materially in the way. Indeed the prejudices of the poor, no less than their diseases, will claim much attention from the Association: and here, in particular, the aid of the Clergy may be most beneficially exerted.

On the subject of these Hospitals, we have only further to remark, that all visits of relations to patients, unless in cases of approaching death, should be steadily interdicted; as contagion has very often been traced to such imprudent communications, Again, those who have recovered should not be too speedily sent home among their friends, but should be kept in a separate ward until all danger of their infecting others is gone by. The establishment of a convalescents' ward will have a further advantage--it will prevent relapses; for most of these troublesome, and other fatal occurrences, owe their existence either to premature indulgences in diet, premature exposure to cold; or else to the patient's being exposed, while still feeble, to a strong contagion from a newly received patient, often injudiciously placed in the next bed to him,

Though the appointment of Fever Infirmaries is an object of such real consequence, the Association will find they have but half accomplished their duty if they neglect cleansing those hotbeds of contagion, the dirty and infected hovels of the poor. Too much care cannot be bestowed on this great object; because, without it, we may multiply houses of recovery to no purpose. The Inspectors, therefore, as soon as the sick are removed, should cause the house to be carefully swept; every neglected corner must be emptied, and all useless rubbish burnt or buried. Every apartment must then be fumigated with nitric or muriatic acid in a state of vapour. The next step is to wash the floor and furniture with soap and water, and to whitewash the walls with lime. After this, fires must be lighted, and the doors and windows thrown open for a few hours, so as to ensure a thorough perflation of air. Articles of bedding, after being exposed to the acid fumes, should be hung up to the breeze. The fumigation should be performed under the direction of the Medical Inspector, and repeated if he deem it necessary. With regard to the acid to be employed, we have only to remark, that the muriatic, though weaker than the nitric, has a strong

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er chemical affinity for animal matter: and as it is at the same time more diffusible, it should in general be preferred. Besides, it is cheaply and easily obtained; the only necessary articles being sulphuric acid and some common kitchen-salt. By pouring the former upon the latter, a sufficient quantity of acid vapour will be speedily disengaged; and we may increase it at pleasure by the application of moderate heat. The oxymuriatic acid gas (chlorine of Sir H. Davy) has also a remarkable power in destroying infectious matter; and is readily obtained by pouring sulphuric acid upon a mixture of pulverized per-oxyd (black) of manganese, water, and common salt.

There are other objects that must engage the attention of the Association, (but into the details of these our limits will not permit us to enter),-such as, the suppression of mendicity; the establishment of general washing-houses for cleansing gratuitously the clothes of the poor, and other minute local regulations; placarding infected houses so as to guard strangers from entering them; directing domiciliary visits to obscure and dirty lodging-houses, and placing them and their inmates under a strict surveillance of the Inspectors. The suppression of beggars is a measure of primary importance; for it is certain that this class of persons have been greatly instrumental in spreading the discase both in Ireland and in this country. Often, indeed, the breath which was expended in benedictions, and thanks to those who bestowed charity, has been found to blast with infection the persons it was meant to bless!—Dr Stokes's treatise very judiciously points out the evils of mendicity at the present crisis.

Before concluding, we may remark that contagion often lurks for a considerable time in the system before it excites fever. The length of this latent period has been variously estimated. Dr Haygarth reckons its maximum as high as seventy-two days, and Dr Bancroft extends it to five or six months. The latter appears to us quite an extravagant computation, and has not a single analogy in its favour, save the remote and feeble one of the hydrophobic poison. Nevertheless, there is little doubt that the seeds of fever often remain concealed for several days, and sometimes, though rarely, for two or three weeks, ere they manifest themselves in actual symptoms. The knowledge of such occurrences is valuable, not only as throwing light on the laws of contagion, but as guiding us to extend our means of precaution. These occurrences, also, explain how fever, in many instances, should break forth in isolated situations where no contagion can be traced; because they show that, betwixt his receiving the infection and the appearance of the disease, a pergon might travel from the most distant parts of the empire. In