In times of distress it is only natural to look for the most efficient help. Our herds only have extensively suffered of late, but we ourselves may follow, and it is well to be prepared. Even with reference to the causes and treatment of the Epizootic, the reasonings, facts, and conclusions again brought forward in the following pages will apply. But should the worst fears become realized, and an extensive human epidemic follow, these writings will tell with greater force, and the nation will be better prepared to meet the danger, for having calmly considered beforehand the probability of its approach.
One ground of hope that we may escape a visitation of Cholera during the coming summer, may be afforded by the remarkably tempestuous weather which prevailed in December and January last.[[2]] The loss of the steam-ship “London,” which foundered in the Bay of Biscay, with 226 souls, on the 11th January, and the still more remarkable fact, that during the night of the 10th, out of 62 vessels riding at anchor in Torbay, 41 either foundered or were dashed to pieces on the rocks;—these were terrible calamities, and they were only the most striking examples of the numerous wrecks and disasters which occurred in the course of the late most tempestuous season;—but they afford a hope of escape from a worse peril, viz. nations prostrated by disease and premature death.
T. B.
Kingscote, Wokingham,
May, 1866.
CONTENTS.
EPIDEMICS—