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trying to stop, and in the other to arrest, a railway-trainat full speed with an infant’s finger ! Probably elaterium orcroton-oil would not increase the purging, nor all the astringentsof the materia medica arrest it. The remedies cannot get at,or into, the system while it is suffering from this scourge. The

thing most comparable to the collapse of cholera is the collapsewhich occurs after uterine haemorrhage.This brings me to the suggestion which is the main object of

the present letter. ZVhy not try mechanical ]JreS8/ti"e to theflooding bowel, on the same principle that we apply it tothe flocding uterus? The coeliac axis and the mesentericvessels might be compl’e8sed as effectually as the uterine. Iwould propose that, during the serous stage of cholera, abroad band should be placed round the abdomen, with asolid pad extending over it in front, similar to the appa-ratus recently applied to the arrest of flooding after de-

livery. To this a screw should be affixed in the same wayas in the ordinary tourniquet; and with such a power theabdominal pad might, I believe, be pressed upon the bowel tosuch an extent as to render the rapid loss through the vascularsystem of the intestines i7i?,possille! An abdominal tourniquet,in the absence of anything like the above, might be arrangedalmost extemporaneously by any person of ordinary ingenuity.There is, it must be remembered, no pain nor increased sensi-bility of the bowels, such as would contra-indicate the use ofabdominal pressure.

Trusting that you will approve of this suggestion, and thatsome of your readers will carry it into effect,

I am, Sir, your obedient servant,August, 1854. M.D.

TREATMENT OF CHOLERA BY TURPENTINE.To the Editor of THE LANCET.

SIR,-Knowing the value of giving, in some conditions ofthe mucous membrane of the intestinal tube, the rectified oilof turpentine, it occurs to me to be a remedy worth a trial,either alone or in combination with calomel and opium. Tur-

pentine will restore healthy secretion, and give more tone tothe whole membrane than any remedy I know of, as also astimulus to the secretion of urine. Admitting it to be a

nauseous dose, in conjunction with a grain pill of solid opiumit might be retained on the stomach. It must be consideredthat the whole tube is empty after several dejections, andturpentine might be brought in contact with it by the mouth,as also by injection per rectum. Again, its antispasmodiceffect is great, and, if of use externally, it should be wellrubbed over the whole surface of the abdomen, when it wouldbe quickly absorbed. Cholera has not shown itself around me,or I would very soon prove its effects. I quite think it de-serves a trial, in twenty or thirty drop doses, in conjunctionwith pills of calomel and opium.

Yours obediently,August, 1854. A COUNTRY SURGEON.

THE MEDICAL EXAMINERS OF THE EASTINDIA COMPANY.

To the Editor of THE LANCET.SiR,—Your strictures respecting the recent appointments of

Medical Examiners to the East India Company are exceedinglyjust, and have given much satisfaction to the profession. To

pass over experienced practitioners like Mr. Martin, Dr. JamesBird, Dr. Jackson, Dr. Goodeve, and a host of other eminentgentlemen who have creditably served the Company duringmany years, is very poor encouragement to any future medicalofficer, and constitutes a severe censure upon such proceedingsof the ruling authorities. I do not mean to allude personallyto the fortunate individuals said to have been nominated; butI do think no person filling the responsible appointments underdiscussion should be connected with, or have an interest in, anymedical pupil manufacturing establishment, whether school oruniversity. The examiners to the Indian Government shouldbe altogether independent of local influences, practically ex-perienced in the maladies incident to India, and also wellacquainted with the duties medical officers will be called uponto perform in that country. Besides these important qualifica-tions, the above officials ought to know something of opthal-mology, midwifery, and the diseases of women and children,not forgetting insanity, which now very properly forms one ofthe acquirements demanded in all candidates. Such essentialsare far more useful, and will prove of much greater real valueto Indian medical officers, than botany, zoology, microscopy,

theoretical animal chemistry, minute, but often imaginaryanatomy, and even of delightful physiology-however transcen-dental. Considering it highly important that the new systemof competition for Indian medical appointments should worksatisfactorily, and be devoid of all suspicion, the Directors andBoard of Control ought to have placed the office of medicalexaminer either to be filled up by an open " concours ;" oradopted the plan followed at the London University, of firstadvertising for candidates, and then selecting-by the senate-from those who sent an application, the person considered bestqualified. This method would have been far better than thatrecently pursued; which, it is rumoured, has already producedwell-founded dissatisfaction in various quarters. WhenParliament meets next session, perhaps some independentmember may ask the Indian Minister, as happened to one ofhis colleagues, in reference to the cases of Stonor, Lawley, andO’Flaherty-On what grounds were these nominations made ?Or, to use the words of another medical journal, whilst alludinglast week to the subject:—IFei’e these sítuatiOJ/8 given as " t7ae}’eWCl’d8 of merit, and not the results of inti’i[J/le anclfaz’ouritism?"

I am, Sir, yours &c.,August, 1854. MEDICPS.

ELECTION OF MEDICAL OFFICER TO THECHARTER HOUSE.

WM. WALKER, F.R.C.S. & L.A.C.

To the Editor of THE LANCET.

SIR,-I was one of the twenty candidates for resident medicalofficer of the Charter House, and was requested to send in mytestimonials, accomanied with a ecinea; but having had earlyintimation from within the Charter House walls, how, and inwhat manner the office would be filled up, I declined to partwith the glittering coin. You are probably aware that theoffice was given to the usual medical attendant to the master.

I am, Sir, your obedient servant,WM. WALKER, F. R. C. S. & L. A. C.

St. John-street-road, Clerkenwell, Aug., 185jf.

i P.S.-My attention was directed to the Charter House, fromreading a letter from ‘‘ M. R. C. S. L. A. C.," in THE LANCETof July 29th.

THE CHOLERA.

IT is related of an eminent musical composer, (Haydn,)that he never could write without being en grand tenzce,and that he invariably dressed himself as if for a party ere hesat down to court " the tuneful Nine." It is the same with

many around us as respects the miseries and unhappiness aboutthem: unless they can meet the sufferings of their fellow-beingsin connexion with fashion, wealth, or respectability, theyendeavour to shut their eyes to their slightest recognition, andconsider them as quite excluded from their own privilegedacquaintance. A railroad accident may occur, and a few

"stokers and pokers" or third-class passengers be killed, andcomparatively little is thought of it; but let a noble lord orequestrian bishop tumble off his horse in the "ring," andbreak his collar-bone or head, and sad and doleful indeedis the lamentation. Such is the peculiarity, in fact, of someof our conventional rules, that half the time of the inhabitantsof Belgravia and Mayfair is taken up with making kindingitiries, and going through other analogous absurd andheartless formalities, on the one hand, and returning thanks for

their performance by their friends on the other. And yet thesesame condolers, in the least untoward contingencies of " births,deaths, and marriages" of patrician character, are blind, deaf,and senseless to plebeian misery and disaster of the most £forlorn and desperate description. A touch of the enchanter’s

wand, however, will often convert the most apathetic looker-on a scene or hearer of a story of misery, into the most

melancholy of sympathizers; but that enchanter must be-respectability. There is no less a difference W this point thanbetween the character of the places where respectability andcommonality have their birth. The one we have no necessityto delineate, as few feel repugnance in making acquaintancewith its locality; the other we may give a slight sketch of as

lately described by a correspondent to a daily paper, (Daily

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News, Aug. 16th,) who, in alluding to the low parts of consists of one room, eight feet square and seven feet high. InSt. Clements Danes as a "London fever hole," thus draws most of these cottages six or seven people sleep.-At 2,the abode of many Christian men and women of "Merrie Slater’s-court, Blue-anchor-yard, on the 8th of August, a coal-England" :— whipper, aged forty-six years, ’Asiatic cholera, (fourteen

" A track through the heart of the Black Forest, or a pass hours. )’ The informant says the deceased was a coalwhipper,through the bowels of a mountain in Arabia Petrea, could not and was a sober, strong, healthy man; he had not a day’sbe more close and gloomy. You might walk here in a good illness before for eighteen years. He was at work till half-paststiff hurricane, and hardly know it; a summer shower might one o’clock, and died in twelve hours after. Taken withpass, and leave you dry. You are in the region of perpetual diarrhoea, and had medical attendance directly. Left a wifeshadow; and the women and children who sit or sprawl upon and five children, the eldest only thirteen years of age. Hethe door-steps are scarcely less in-doors than when languishing died on monday, the 7th, and was not buried till Sunday, thein their dark and fetid rooms. And no wonder; for, according 13th instant. Why kept so long? ? I think in the two lastto actual measurement, the courts vary in breadth from six to visitations of cholera I registered more deaths in this courttwelve feet.......Here are the holes in which our human fellow- than in any other of my district. Slater’s small court has onlycreatures swarm like vermin. According to a report published ten houses, (no yards and no back windows,) three rooms inin the Daily News of May 1st, no less than fifty inmates were each house, every room filled with a poor family, and eachfound to reside in one of the houses in Middle Serle’s-place, house has a cellar, and eight of these let to the poor to sleep in,(formerly Little Shire-lane;) and in Ship-yard many of the on straw, at 6d. and 8d. each a week. Plenty of water in thehouses are built back to back, entirely preventing thorough court, which is in a dreadfully filthy state with fish, cabbageventilation. The gentlemen who made the examination state leaves, &c.; the scavenger only comes once a week to re-that water-butts are kept in underground cellars, the walls and move it."

flooring of which are continually damp to the touch, and where The death of the noble lord alluded to above has giventhe water, imbibing the filthy exhalations of the place, acquires rise, as might be expected, to numerous letters in the newspapersa dreadful odour; that the ceilings of some of these cellars are upon various points relative to the event. From amongst themactually below the level of the roadways, so that the inhabitants we select the following paragraph from the letter of a corre.are obliged to burn candles through the whole day, with the spondent in the Daily liTems of August 16th:-exception of a few hours, and that terrier dogs are kept in many Permit me to say, that the case of Lord Jocelyn is no exof the houses as a protection against the rats. Yet out of ception to the rule laid down-that no individual in perfectthese hideous tenements considerable sums of money are drawn health, and free from diarrhoea, is ever at once struck down byevery year by letting and sub-letting....... Hideous women, foul cramps, vomiting, &c.,—by cholera, in fact; but that everyand slatternly, loll out of windows or lean against door-posts, -individual has, for a few hours, a few days, or a few weeks, aovercome with the terrible lassitude and indolence which cannot diarrhoea which warns him that he is about to be attacked withfail to arise from the influences by which they are surrounded; spasms, vomiting, &c.,-with all the surgent symptoms ofnot impudent and brazen, but oppressed with the hopeless cholera. "

burden of their lives. The children, sullen, dirty, and fierce, As a pendent to the above, we add the following memoranda- young tigers without their beauty or their health,-play or from the " Weekly Returns" of the Registrar-General for thefight in the roadways, amidst cabbage-stalks, potato-peelings, weeks ending August 5th and 12th.oyster-shells, and standing puddles. Men are very seldom "At John-street, Cambridge-heath, on the 2nd of August,seen. And over the young and the old tower the melancholy the wife of a labourer, aged thirty-two years, ’ cholera Asiatica,house fronts, shutting out the sky and the breeze, and black (thirteen hours.)’ )’ The medical attendant states: - Theand saturated with the pestilent vapours which, rising unseen patient was well at eight o’clock in the evening; was attackedaround them, at nine.’-At 45, Whittlebury-street, on the 3rd of August, the

Hang their poison wife of a painter, aged thirty-eight years, ’cholera, (thirtyIn the sick air." hours.)’ )’ Mr. Matthews, the registrar, writes :-‘ NO pre-

We have been led to these remarks from observation of the monitory symptoms.’-At 2, Nelson-street, on the 5th of.sympathy which the no doubt lamentable enough demise of August, the wife of a shipwright, aged twenty-eight years,the late Lord Jocelyn, from cholera, has excited amongst the ’mania, (two hours,) cholera, (two days;)’ which came oninhabitants of the "far West," and, indeed, of less fashionable suddenly, (Dr. Richardson states,) without any previousquarters. But alas! should it be that deep-felt, or at least warning.-At 4, Staple-street, Long-lane, on the 6th ofstrongly-expressed, sorrow at the devastation of a pestilence is August, the son of a journeyman hatter, aged three years,only to be perceived as it affects those of " purple and fine Asiatic cholera, (twelve hours,) not any previous diarrhoea.’linen" in the land ? Is it only when our gardens and our The medical attendant adds upon his certificate : -’ Thesquares, our terraces and crescents, feel the sword of the premises at No. 4 are in a bad state; a cesspool immediatelyavenging angel, that lamentation will arise? May our courts in front of the back-door; water-closet without pan, and abe hot-beds of pestilence, and our alleys sinks of plague-may constant smell from it; the cesspool not in connexion with theour working men die by hundreds of cholera, and our poor sink common sewer. The adjacent houses in a similar condition.’-by thousands into an unhonoured grave, and yet scarcely a At 58, Lucas-street, on the 6th of August, the widow of asense of sympathetic feeling make known its existence, save coachman, aged fifty-seven years, cholera (thirty-six hours.)’what may express the fear of "catching the disease"? How The certificate further adds, that there was no previouslong, may it be asked, will the reports of the Registrar-General diarrhoea; the deceased had been to attend a friend at Stratfordbe permitted to record such testimony as the following:- that had died of cholera on the 2nd instant.---At 26, Peter-

" At 4, Church-crescent, Kennington, on the 5th of August, street, on the 7th of August, the daughter of a workman in athe son of a carman, aged one year, ’cholera, (twelve hours.)’ foundry, aged two years, ’Asiatic cholera, (twenty-four hours,)Mr. Rugg, the medical attendant of this case, says:-’ An open no premonitory diarrhoea.’ Second death in this house in two.ditch is at the back of the premises, into which nearly all the days. Child healthy, and ate heartily up to the time of theprivies of the neighbourhood are drained, and into which for first death.-At 3, St. John’s-terrace, on the 8th of August, athe last few days the rain has been constantly pouring and servant, aged seventeen years, ’Asiatic cholera (eleven hours.)’stirring up its contents. Several children have lost their lives The medical attendant in this case states that the deceased,by falling into this open ditch; but nobody can tell how many a servant, was taken ill in Guildford-street, Russell-square,deaths from cholera, fever, &c., owe their origin to this and was removed to St. John’s-terrace; that he had lived well,abominable nuisance.’-At 9, Patriot-street, on the 8th of and had no premonitory diarrhoea.’-At 22, Everard-street, onAugust, a painter, aged twenty-five years, diarrhoea., (one the 9th of August, son of a mariner, aged four years, ’cholera,week, ) cholera, (eleven hours.)’ Informant and other neighbonr s (five days,) no premonitory diarrhoea, secondary fever, (threestated that this house is in a shameful condition. The soil days.)’ )’ Privies for two rows of houses run into a small drain,from the closet has saturated the ground all over the yard. which is very frequently overcharged, when the yards areOne family lives in the kitchen, another on the ground floor, flooded with the contents. A second child ill, and the fatherwhere a man lies ill with fever; a third did live on the floor recovering from an attack of cholera.-At 30, Mint-street, onabove, where this case occurred, and whence the wife of the the 9th of August, widow, age unknown, ’ cholera, (twelvedeceased has been removed, also ill with cholera. Diarrhoea hours. )’ Came from France a few days before, had walkedhad been neglected. Some hours after being attacked, a fourteen miles on Tuesday, returned to her lodgings at fourvender of Dr. Coffin’s medicines was called in, and administered o’clock in the afternoon much exhausted, was immediatelyhis preparations. - At 2, Somerset-cottages, on the 8th of seized with cholera, and died between three and four o’clockAugust, the daughter of a potman, aged eighteen years, next morning.-At 15, Smith’s-arms-place, on the llth of’cholera, (sixteen hours.)’ This house is one of a nest of August, wife of a gunstocker, aged forty-eight years, ’cholera,cottages built at the edge of the common sewer; the house (eleven hours,)’ no premonitory diarrhoea. No medical

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attendant. As in the ease of the painter, at the request of thEdeceased, no medical attendance was applied for, and she wa!subjected to similar nostrums. Her husband was in thEcountry at the time."In 1849, some 570 cases passed under the review of Dr,

Hearne. He divides them into five classes, and remarks-"A fourth class of cases, about ten in number, was met with.in which there was no vomiting or purging, but cramps, grealprostration, &c. In a fifth class of cases, numbering about thesame as the last, the patients were seized suddenly, as if shot.’- (p. 11.) Dr. Wilson, of Haslar,t thus writes-‘ Soon aftereating a hearty meal, in perfect health, the subject has beerobliged to be relieved from duty in the ranks or on deck,becoming in an instant faint and giddy, with a rush of fluidfrom the stomach and bowels, the features being collapsed, thepulse fluttering, and the surface, tongue, and breath cold.These cases," he adds, " were invariably more fatal than wherethere had been precursory diarrhoea." Bellt writes-" Aman, in high health and spirits, accompanies his companions tobathe; he is seized while in the water with vomiting andpurging or with spasm; is brought immediately to a surgeon,and is found in what I have called the second stage of the dis-ease. Or a man goes to bed perfectly well, and is roused atthree o’clock with a call to stool; animal heat has alreadyfailed, and in three hours he is dying." Mr. Lawson statesthat in 1849 he "attended upwards of 3000 cases of theseverest species of diarrhoea without one becoming cholera,"and that out of " upwards of 100 cases of genuine Asiaticcholera," not one had been preceded by diarrhcea.Further evidence like the above might be here brought for-

ward ; sufficient, however, has been adduced to negative theapodictic law before laid down in the previous quotation re-spective of the diarrhoeal prodromata of cholera. That in this

country the general rule is that such premonitions shall exist,is freely admitted. It appears also to be more universally sothe case here than in India, particularly with the dark races.The reader, nevertheless, may be referred for a different viewthan we have taken- to Dr. Macloughlin’s " Inquiry. " §

Relative to the progress of cholera in the metropolis, wecondense the following from the last Weekly Return" of theRegistrar-General (August 19th):—

The "Report" observes that the " cholera has prevailedwith great irregularity over London, and that in several sub-districts the ravages of the epidemic are inconsiderable. Im-

perfect drainage, proximity to the dirtiest parts of the Thames,bad water, and poverty are still, as they were in 1849, thechief circumstances that make cholera fatal. It is on thebanks of the polluted Thames in the lower parts of the Londonbasin that the people die in large numbers; for on ground noton an average 10 feet above the Trinity high-water mark, 1212of the deaths from cholera have happened out of 595,119people; while on the next terrace of 10 feet and under 40 feetof elevation, 493 in 648,619 have died; and on the highergrounds above St. James’s-square and the Strand only 213have died of cholera out of 1,070,372 inhabitants. The mor-tality at the three elevations, commencing at the lowest, hasbeen at the rate of 204 and 76 and 20 to every 100,000 inhabi-tants. The people on the low grounds have suffered ten timesas much as the people living on the grounds of a moderateelevation. "

We have to announce with regret the death of Captain R.* Thoughts on Cholera. London. 1853.

† Report of College of Physicians, second part, page 127. London. 1854.‡ The Nature of Cholera Investigated. By John George French, F.R.C.S.

London. 1854. Other authorities for the same are also given in this work.§ Result of an Inquiry into the Invariable Existence of a Premonitory

Diarrhoea in Cholera, in a series of Communications to the Registrar-General.London. 1854.

! F. Rowley, (1830,) which event lately took place at Wood-, lands, of cholera. The gallant officer was the fourthson of the late Admiral Sir Charles Rowley, Bart., G.C.B.,G.C.H., and was a well-known and warm supporter of thedifferent professional charities. We may also remark that, onSunday morning a feeling of gloom prevailed in the congre-gation of St. John’s Church, Notting-hill, in consequence of anannouncement made by the senior curate, that the cholera hadtaken off the Rev. Edwin Proctor Denniss, B.C.L., the incum-bent minister of the district. Notting-hill does not appear tohave been visited with many severe cases of cholera; but, not-withstanding its reputed healthfulness, it is very liable tosevere attacks, being situated immediately above the filthyKensington potteries, so frequently made the subject of com-plaint in sanitary reports. Mr. Bryant, the proprietor of thewell-known Horns Tavern, Kennington, has likewise been avictim to the disease.The master of the ship Lima, of Dundee, which put into

Falmouth with several cases of cholera on board, has publisheda letter, in which he states: " It appears to be my duty tostrongly urge on the Government to adopt some immediatemeasures to provide for a similar case, (or cases,) should suchagain occur at this port, to arm the magistrates with sufficientauthority (should they not already have it) to compel a properlocation to be provided on shore; or the Admiralty should havehere, and appropriate, a hulk for the reception of individualswho may from similar circumstances be driven into this port,and not that in such a benevolent country as England crewsand passengers are to be left to their own fate, unassisted, tomeet with and encounter so dire a foe as cholera."At the Lambeth police-court, the magistrate has been in-

formed that at all the station-houses of the L, or Lambethdivision of police, an abundance of medicine is provided, andcould be had there by all persons seized with premonitorysymptoms of the disease.

- . - - -...

Notwithstanding the remonstrances made in the public printsand in this journal, the doings at St. James’s, Bermondsey, areas bad as ever. A correspondent writes,-" On Sunday morninglast, a scene presented itself as the congregation came to church,unparalleled, I believe, in the annals of intramural interments.Although during the week as many as sixty-two burials hadtaken place in this ground, lo, thirty-eight open graves appearedyawning before us. In the afternoon, as the hour drew nearfor the funerals to be taken, no pen can describe the spectaclethis churchyard presented. If a battle had been fought in ourstreets, and the slain inhabitants consigned to burial in thechurchyards of their respective parishes, the slaughter musthave been fearful indeed if the numbers to be brought herecould have exceeded the aggregate burials of that eventful day."Accounts from Belfast of Saturday’s date state, that since

Tuesday last no fewer than thirteen cases of cholera, five ofwhich proved fatal, have occurred in the small town of Antrim.Every exertion is being made by the inhabitants to stay theprogress of the malady. There has been only one case of cholera.reported in Lisburn during the week. The number of cases inthe town since the first appearance of the epidemic has been120, of which 50 proved fatal. It is also stated that the pesti-lence has shown itself in the town of Larne, and that duringthe last week four cases have appeared there.The Northern Whig has the following on the progress of

cholera in Belfast :-"We regret to state that this dreadfuldisease is not manifesting any evidence of cessation, but ratherthe reverse. Since Wednesday last, when 53 cases were re-ported as having occurred in Belfast during the precedingweek, 47 new cases had taken place up to last evening. The

type of the disease is very aggravated, death supervening inthe proportion of 60 per cent. of those attacked, after periodsvarying from six hours to three days."Mr. French (surgeon to the Infirmary of St. James’, West-

minster) has addressed the following observations to TheTimes:-" Twenty-two years since I pointed out the fact thatcold water was useful in the treatment of cholera; at that timea general opinion existed that it was positively injurious.That prejudice has entirely disappeared, and there is now butone opinion-namely, that it is bene’eial. I believe, however,that all the other prejudices to which I so long since directedattention are still entertained with all their original force.For example, it is still a prejudice to suppose that the use ofastringents of any kind exert an influence on the cessation ofepidemic diarrhoea ; the fact being that their omission from anyprescription will in no degree lessen its efficacy. It is still a,prejudice to suppose that vomiting is an unfavourable symptomin the case of a patient with an imperceptible pulse ; the factbeing that vomiting directly tends to restore the circulation.It is still a prejudice to suppose that the stomach and bowels

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are suffering from irritation during cholera; the fact being thatthey are performing a serviceable eliminative function, for theseorgans are engaged in the office of throwing off a poison fromthe system, instead of supplying fresh material to the blood.Although ice is a very useful remedy in cholera for certaindefinite objects, I venture to predict that the opinion advancedas to the advantage of freezing the stomach and bowels ofcholera patients will be of short duration; but I think it ismuch to be feared that the prejudices which I have named willcontinue to exist for at least another quarter of a century."The Dutilia Evening Packet, writing upon the "potato

disease," has the following trite remarks, which another journalbelieves apply with equal force to the empiricism which prevailswith regard to a more fearful visitation of Providence :-‘ Asto remedies, all that is written on this subject is absolutenonsense, and founded upon notions of the disease purelyempirical. The amount of information which has been acquiredis just sufficient to show us that the causes of, and remediesagainst, this wonderful disease are alike inexplicable ; andwhen applying supposed remedies we are, in fact, often doinga certain and defined amount of injury for the sake of a purelyspeculative advantage."

THE WAR.

(FROM OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT.)VARNA, AUG. 8TH, 1854.

REPORT says that we march from this place in two or

three days, in order to embark-for where I fancy but fewknow, though many persons, who say their information iscorrect, state it is to Sebastopol; but I believe it is quitecertain we go to sea, and most probably do a little work thisautumn-perhaps take Odessa or Anapa, and winter there; butI can give you no authentic information, as it is naturally keptvery quiet. I hardly think Sebastopol, as we have talked somuch about it of late, and though it has been said that it wasquite determined upon, it may be a blind for the Russians,who seem to have heard of it, as some of our ships have arrivedat Varna, and reported that about 10,000 men were seenthrowing up entrenchments on the plains of Sebastopol. Thisis to-day’s news, (8th.) Now I come to the health of the men,which I am sorry to say is bad. The Heavy Brigade have eabout 100 sick in each regiment-that is, counting convalescentswho still attend hospital. Many deaths have occurred fromcholera. The Grenadier Guards seem to have suffered themost; they have had about twenty-five deaths; Fusiliers aboutten or twelve; Coldstreams about the same; and now theHighlanders are coming in for their share. Calomel, opium,mustard emetics and sinapisms, are the remedies chieflyused; but some of the cases are very rapid and sudden; otherslast for twenty-four hours and upwards, and baffle all theremedies. Some of the cases recover from their state of col-lapse, and give you great hope; but soon fever of a typhoidcharacter seizes and carries them off. There have been manycases of fever, both simple and typhoid, in camp, and a fewdeaths but intermittent is rare as yet.

Captain Levinge, VH.1 Artillery, is dead-it is said from an Ioverdose of laudanum. He was very ill, and requested hisservant to pour some out for him, which he did, and it provedfatal; some say it was in the dark. Assist.-Surg. Blenkins,Grenadier Guards, returns home ill, having had intermittentfever-a great loss on account of his anatomical knowledge,and in the hospital he would have been of great service as anoperator. The other divisions, the 2nd and the Light, haveand are still suffering a good deal more than the HeavyBrigade, cholera being the enemy. Report says that the 50thRegiment have 300 in hospital, but I cannot vouch for thecorrectness of the statement. These last two or three days,there is an apparent improvement in the men, both in theirspirits and health. All seemed at one time to be very lowon account of sickness, but now they have heard there is achance of a movement against the Russians, all have put on abright face, except, of course, the poor fellows in hospital,who are very ill.

They do say, before now the cholera was not known here,but in 1828 the Russians lost in the valley close to Varnasome thousands from fever and plague; hence it is called theValley of the Plague. We are on the top of a hill, lookingdown upon this valley, having a lake running up for aboutfifteen miles along it. The loss of the French has been mostfrightful from the same disease. The expedition of about,7000 men that went up to Vrus-badji they say lost 1700 men.When they got there, they found the water poisoned with

animal matter, no doubt placed there by the Russians. Comingfrom there, they say 400 died on board one steamer, fromcholera. I tell you this as I have just heard it from Varna.Some of the ships have returned with the bad news.

These reports cannot be believed, but there is no doubtthere has been great loss amongst them. The surgeons herehave a good deal to do now, both day and night work, but Ihave not heard of a very great many being laid up. Dr.Mackenzie, of Edinburgh, is here, seeing what is to be seen.He went up to see the wounded at Silistria, but gained noinformation, and found the poor Turks much neglected, andtheir medical men very ignorant. Many patients died where anoperation would have saved them, in all human probability.The second time he went up he sprained his ankle, andreturned, as he could not proceed.

It is very hot now. They say this is the wa,rmest month.Thermometer in tent averages from 91° to 96°. The nights vary- sometimes very hot, at other times very cold, and generallya very heavy dew. We must expect a good deal of sicknessnow the unhealthy months have set in, and it must berecollected how long the men have been in tent, and sincethey have left England have not laid on a bed-merely havehad their cloaks and blankets. For the sick, palliasses havebeen obtained.

DISEASE AMONGST THE TROOPS IN THE EAST.-The cholerastill continues its ravages, but I rejoice to say that the viru-lence of the cases is on the decline. Up to the present datethe British army has lost about 260 men from this fatal disease.Of these deaths about 100 were in the Light Division. Sincethe movement of our camp out to Monastir, the division hasbecome healthier. Our troops are at present losing 30 men aday. Amongst the victims to the Devna pestilence were Dr.Jenkins, 23rd Regiment; Mr. Newberry, Rifle Brigade; andCaptain (Major) Levinge, R.H.A. The French losses fromcholera are frightful. The disease is not much on the wane

amongst them, and there are divisions in which they die atthe rate of 70 and 80 a day. In the French general hospital,since the 14th of July, 720 men have died of cholera, and only78 men have been sent out cured. Convinced that there issomething radically wrong in the air of the place, the Frenchare clearing out of the hospital altogether to-day, and willhenceforth treat their cases in the field. The hospital wasformerly used as a Turkish barrack. It is a huge quadrangularbuilding, like the barracks at Scutari, with a courtyard in thecentre. The sides of the square are about 150 feet long, andeach of them contains three iloors, consisting of spacious cor-ridors, with numerous rooms off them of fair height and goodproportions. About one-third of the building is reserved forour use ; the remainder was occupied by the French. Althoughnot very old, the building is far from being in thorough repair.The windows are broken, the walls in parts are cracked andshaky, and the floors are mouldering and rotten. Since thesickness broke out, it has been perceived that there is some-thing or other radically unwholesome about this building.Like all places which have been inhabited by Turkish soldiersfor any time, the smell of the buildings is abominable. Mensent in there with fevers and other disorders were frequentlyattacked with the cholera in its worst form, and died withunusual rapidity, in spite of all that could be done to savethem. The French have become so persuaded of this, thatthey are, as I have said, taking to the field in preference tothis pest-house. I rode up there at twelve o’clock the othernight for medicine for an officer, a friend of mine, who wastaken suddenly ill in the evening. Along two sides of thehospital was drawn up a long train of araba carts, and by themoonlight I tould see that some of them were filled with sicksoldiers. I counted thirty-five carts, with three or four men ineach. These were sick French soldiers sent in from the camps,and waiting till room could be found for them in the hospitalOne of the medical gentlemen in attendance, who was justgoing to his quarters for the night, was kind enough to comewith me to see my sick friend, and I had an opportunity ofseeing the miserable way in which the surgical staff were

lodged. They are penned up, two or three together, in smallunfurnished rooms, open to every wind that blows throughwall, floor, ceiling, and window. Some of these gentlemenhave no rooms at all, and one I know sleeps in a passage.-l’he " Tirtes"’ Correspondent, Varna, Aug. 9th.

. FRENCH GOVERNMENT SANITARY INSPECTOR. - Dr.’ Melson, Member of the Academy of Medicine and the Board of

Health, has been nominated by Government to be SanitaryInspector at Marseilles.