ncement (_dated Berlin, Sept. 1_) of the
disease having made its appearance there!

To conclude, for the present: if there be one reason more than another
why the question of cholera should be scrutinized by the highest
tribunal--a parliamentary committee--it is, that in the "papers" just
issued by the Board of Health, the following passage occurs (page
36):--"But in the event of such removal not being practicable, on
account of extreme illness or otherwise, the prevention of all
intercourse with the sick, even of the family of the person attacked,
must be rigidly observed, unless," &c. There are some who can duly
appreciate all the consequences of this; but let us hope that the
question is still open to further evidence, in order to ascertain
whether it be really necessary that, in the event of a cholera epidemic,

"The living shall fly from
The sick they should cherish."

LETTER II.

In my last letter I adverted to the opinion forwarded to his Majesty's
Council on the 9th of June last from the College of Physicians, in which
the cholera, now so prevalent in many parts of Europe, was declared to
be communicable from person to person. We saw that they admitted in that
letter (see page 16 of the Parliamentary Papers on Cholera) the limited
nature of the proofs upon which their opinion was formed; but I had not
the reasons which I supposed I had for concluding, that because they
used the words "ready to reconsider," in their communication of the 18th
of same month to the Council, they intended to _reconsider_ the whole
question. Indeed this seems now obvious enough, as one of the Fellows of
the College who signed the Report from that body on the 9th of June
(Dr. Macmichael) has published a pamphlet in support of the opinion
already given, in the shape of a letter addressed to the President of the
College, whose views, Dr. Macmichael tells us, _entirely coincide_ with
his own; so that there is now too much reason to apprehend that in this
quarter the door is closed. Contagionist as I am, in regard to those
diseases where there is evidence of contagion, I find nothing in Dr.
Macmichael's letter which can make an impression on those who are at all
in the habit of investigating such subjects,[2] and who, dismissing such
inductions as those which he seems to consider legitimate, rely solely
on facts rigorously examined. He must surely be aware that most of the
points which he seems to think ought to have such influ