LITERARY AND PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY
... The President called upon Dr. Kelsall to read a paper on ‟The connection between Magnetic Phenomena and Epidemic Disease.”
All are, I believe, agreed at the present day that the exciting cause of Asiatic cholera is a subtle poison or miasm inhaled by the lungs with the atmospheric air, or absorbed by water and taken into the stomach, and thence conveyed to the circulation. I assume this supposition to be true; and, indeed, any one who has witnessed the distressing scene of the stage of collapse in an unfortunate fellow creature suffering from cholera can scarcely fail to be struck with the thought that he must be labouring under the effects of some powerful poison. The object I have in view is to endeavour, if possible, to advance a step towards determining the source of this poison.
Now, defects in our sanitary arrangements, however numerous, are to account for the appearance of cholera, for though this epidemic is always most malignant in those localities where the atmosphere or water charged with putrid matters these things alone are quite inadequate to explain all the circumstances of its history; because, though they have all been in operation time immemorial, and well known to be the source of typhus fever, they failed to develope Asiatic cholera in England till A.D. 1832. In A.D. 1852, the town of Newcastle-on-Tyne was as filthy, and all the apparent causes of the disease were as abundant, as in A.D. 1853, yet in 1852 these sanitary defects were unproductive of cholera, which was fatal to so many in the following year. And while Newcastle was suffering from the visitation in 1853, there were numerous places in the United Kingdom which enjoyed perfect immunity, though quite as unfavourably circumstanced as Newcastle as respects filthiness and impurity of the water. There must, consequently, have been some additional and invisible agency at work during the prevalence of cholera in Newcastle to have converted the causes of typhus into causes of a new epidemic. The singular regularity of the march of cholera in its three migrations from the East is of itself a proof of the existence of some such additional agency, and that its progress is ruled by some physical law. The reported perturbations of magnetic power and electricity during the continuance of cholera in Russia seeming give force to the opinion of those who believe in the electrical cause, I was led to compare the history of its path with the chart of magnetic curves, published by Professor Barlow, in the expectation of finding some relation between the course of migratory cholera and the direction of these curves. An inspection of the chart seemed to confirm the idea, for it does appear as if the track of the disease has hitherto been regulated by the position and direction of these magnetic lines. If this can be satisfactorily shown, I think it advances us a step towards gaining some information respecting the cause of the pestilence. [The lecturer here directed attention to the chart of Professor Barlow, and after explaining the nature of the magnetic lines thereon delineated, proceeded.] It will be observed that one of the lines of no variation on Barlow’s chart describes a remarkable inflection around the peninsula of Hindostan, and on each side this are other lines running nearly parallel to it, indicating the amounts of increasing magnetic deviation, easterly and westerly. Another line of no variation extends from the magnetic pole, discovered or reached by Captain Ross, latitude N7O degrees, 5 minutes; longitude, W 96 degrees, 47 minutes, through the centre of Hudson’s Bay and parts of the American continent, to a south magnetic pole—the lines of increasing variation on each side of this one being seemingly a different series from the group that converges towards the eastern line of no variation. It was near the centre of the circle described by this remarkable line that cholera first became known. The following brief history of Asiatic cholera, and its invasion of Europe, is condensed from the narratives of several writers, who carefully noticed its progress, and who have accounted for it, each by a theory of his own, one attributing its spread entirely to contagion, another to the evolution of noxious vapours from the earth, and some to volcanic or electrical causes. The disease seems to have been unknown in India till A.D., 1781; at least there is no distinct record of its previous existence; but on the 22nd March, 1781, a corps of 5000 European troops were suddenly assailed at Ganjam, N 19 degrees, 28 minutes; E 85 degrees, 10 minutes, with intense virulence by the new disease, which at first was attributed to poison, till it was found that the native villages in the vicinity were also suffering from the disease. When it appeared at Ganjam, men in perfect health suddenly dropped down by dozens, and either died or were past recovery in less than an hour; and besides those who died, above 500 were admitted into hospital on that day. On the two following days, the disease continued unabated, and by that time more than one half of the army was suffering from it. Thus was spasmodic cholera first introduced to the notice of Europeans. In the following year, 1782, cholera appeared at Madras, and as these two places lie near the centre of the great curve described by the line of no variation, the influence accompanying the magnetic line would appear to have swept slowly from north to south in the direction of the curve. A.D. 1783. Cholera appeared at Hurdwar, latitude N 30 degrees, longitude, E 78 degrees 7 minutes, and thence passed in a southerly direction through the centre of Hindostan, being thenceforward known as an endemic disease in India. A.D., in August, 1817, the disease burst forth at Jessore, and spread rapidly to Calcutta, which is situated about 100 miles to the south-west of Jessore, and then it was first observed to have taken a migratory character. From this centre the pestilence gradually travelled by three principal streams. —1st. One flowing south-west along the Coromandel coast to Madras, which it took about twelve months to reach; thence it went to Ceylon, where it arrived six mouths afterwards, and then passed on consecutively to Sumatra, Java, Borneo, and the Spice Islands, to Timor, which it reached in A.D., 1823, and thence probably proceeded onwards to the then unexplored northern part of Australia. Cholera also appeared at Bombay in August, 1818, and descended six months later to Tivandrum and the coasts of Cape Comorin; that is, in every case along the course of the curves which lie on the eastern side of the line of no variation. 2nd. Another stream, proceeding from the same centre, travelled southeast along the opposite coast of the Bay of Bengal to Arracan, which took twelve months to reach, and another year to traverse the Malay Peninsula; thence it swept over the Philippine Islands and Canton, where it arrived in A.D., 1820. It reached Pekin in 1821, probably passing also over Japan, all of which places lie nearly in order (as the disease appeared) on the remaining or northerly portion of the same curves— i.e. those influenced by the south-west current. 3rd. A third stream progressed westward (as if communicated by induction to other lines lying westward) along the valley of the Ganges to Bundelcund, and having reached Delhi, Saharampore, and Kotah, it stopped abruptly for about a year—that is, the choleraic influence reached only to a curve, which runs close to the line of variation, these towns, and also Hurdwar and Bombay, being situated nearly on the same curve. Hitherto, the disease had been confined almost within this great circle. A.D., in July, 1819, cholera broke out at Oudeypore, Ajmeer, and the adjacent places—viz., on points which lie on a curve, a little further westward of that on which Delhi, Kotah, Bombay, &c., are situated; and having arrived thus far, there was a pause of two years. These two groups of places, simultaneously affected in 1818 and 1819, it will be observed do not lie east and west of each other respectively, but nearly on the same magnetic line. A.D., In July, 1821, after a pause of two years, the disease appeared with tremendous violence at Muscat, Bushire, and Bussorah, on the Persian Gulf, and spread rapidly from Bussorah, at the mouth of the Tigris, to Bagdat, which it reached in a month, destroying many thousands, but subsided a little in the winter of 1821. It seems to have been taken for granted by the writers, who have described the track of this epidemic, that it generally followed the course of rivers in its transit towards the west; but whenever this was the case, I think it was a mere coincidence; because, as cholera passed down the Coromandel coast, it did not follow the course of the numerous streams, which empty themselves into the Bay of Bengal, it crossed them. When, therefore, the pestilence seemed to follow the course of the Ganges to the westward, the choleraic influence was in reality passing by a kind of induction from one line of magnetic variation to the next, in westerly order; and afterwards, when it progressed to the north-west, apparently along the banks of the Tigris and Euphrates, it was passing up the magnetic lines, which run in a direction somewhat parallel to the course of these rivers. The same reasoning applies to the progress of cholera up the Volga and Oural rivers. Again, during the pause between the years 1819 and 1821, the course of the disease is thought to have been arrested by the burning deserts lying westward of Hindostan. but it is more likely that the pestilential influence continued during those two years to be gradually imparted to more westerly curves lying on these deserts, and that it passed along them, north and south as before, until it reached by the same kind of induction the lines which pass through Muscat, Bushire, and Bussorah; this circumstance being unnoticed, because the northern ends of these lines penetrate into regions then little known to Europeans, and their southern extremities pass over the Indian ocean. A.D., 1822. In the summer, cholera resumed its march from Persia towards Europe, extending up the river Tigris to Erzeroum, in Armenia, and up the Euphrates to Aleppo, sweeping also along the western shore of the Caspian Sea, with the magnetic lines. A.D., 1823. The disease spread westward from Aleppo to Antioch, and several other ports on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean, and along the western coast of the Caspian, northward to Astrachan, at the month of the Wolga, where, seeming to exhaust itself, after causing the deaths of 144 persons, disappeared for the time. Six years then elapsed, the pestilence, as it were, pausing on the eastern skirts of Europe. A.D., 1829. In the summer it re-appeared with malignity at Orenberg on the Oural river (N 52 degrees 11 minutes, E 54 degrees 10 minutes), and devastated the surrounding province till the winter set in. A.D., 1830. In July, the smouldering pestilence, as if gathering fresh power, broke out again in Persia, and crept northward, chiefly along the western shore of the Caspian Sea, visiting Bakout, Salain, at the mouth of the Kour, Astrachan, the mouth of the Volga, and many intermediate towns (extending westward to Mecca), Tiflis in Georgia, and crossing the Caucasian range of mountains to Saratoff, N 51 degrees 30 minutes, E 45 degrees 59 minutes. Then it proceeded northwards till it arrived at Moscow, N 55 degrees 42 minutes, E 37 degrees 30 minutes, where, on September 14th, 1830, two or three cases were reported. In six weeks above 3000 persons died, and notwithstanding a cordon sanitaire thrown around Moscow by the Emperor Nicholas, the disease continued to ascend to the north, till it reached Saint Petersburgh, N 59 degrees 54 minutes, E 30 degrees 21 minutes, and passed on to Archangel on the White Sea, following throughout its course the lines of magnetic variation, and then as if again propagated by the induction I have previously surmised, it extended westward, and passed down the lines which extend from Riga, on the Baltic, N 56 degrees, 56 minutes; E 24 degrees, 17 minutes, to the mouths of the Dannbe and Odessa, on the Black Sea, N 46 degrees, 27 minutes; E 30 degrees, 55 minutes, i.e. through about 630 miles of latitude. A.D. 1831 The disease appeared this year at Constantinople, and two months afterwards in Egypt, having in twelve months reached a line somewhat more to the westward. It also broke out at Warsaw, Cracow, Berlin, and Vienna, a line extending from Egypt to the Baltic being thus almost simultaneously affected. The influence reached Hamburg early in October, 1831, and on October 26, the disease appeared in London and at Sunderland on the eastern coast England, as if the cause (whatever it be) had passed to a new group of magnetic Iines, viz., those which converge towards the north magnetic pole, discovered by Captain Ross. A.D. 1832. In February it reached the lines which curve in a south westerly direction, between Edinburgh and Dublin and these two places were attacked by the disease, in the same order of time as was observed in its progress elsewhere; Dublin being visited by the pestilence a few weeks later than Edinburgh, but it did not approach France until the influence had been communicated to several fresh magnetic curves, lying further westward, and then, in March, the disease appeared almost simultaneously at Paris and Calais, and spread through France from town to town, setting quarantine restrictions at defiance. June, 1832, that is, three months after it appeared in France. Cholera broke out at Quebec!! as if the influence had been conveyed along the lines which pass through France, and after descending towards the south west, rise in a north westerly direction towards Canada on their way to Captain Ross’s north magnetic pole. In the same month (June, 1832) cholera reached New York, and ravaged this part of the American continent, while a reflex current returned back to Europe on the curves which connect North America with Spain and Portugal—Lisbon and Madrid being attacked in 1833, and the choleraic influence still communicating itself to the next adjacent lines southward—Gibraltar suffered in 1834, Marseilles, Toulon, Piedmont, Genoa, and Florence in 1835, Naples in 1836, Algiers and Malta in 1837, and here the pestilence died out twenty years after it began to migrate from Jessore. The epidemic took the same route, when it passed over Europe the second time 1848-49, but on its second visitation, after reaching America it extended to the West Indies in 1851. Having thus as I think demonstrated that Asiatic cholera passed from region to region, through every variety climate, along the lines of magnetic variation as traced on Professor Barlow’s chart; the influence (whatever it be) imparting itself to the next adjacent lines, and traversing these north and south, again progressing further and further westward until the curves belonging to another magnetic pole were reached, and then following the direction of this new group until the disease had been conveyed over the greater part of the habitable earth; I may add, that I observed on several occasions the same character in the progress of the epidemic, on a small scale, when cholera prevailed, on the south side of the river Thames, in September, 1849, from two to four cases of malignant cholera occurring within a few hours of each other along a particular street, or running across a street, to houses in an adjoining parallel street, the points where these cases happened, lying in respect of each other, in a line bearing about NNE that is, in the direction of the magnetic curve. By applying the rule I have supposed, to reports of the apparently capricious movements cholera—it’s running occasionally through nearly all the houses on one side of a street, and sparing those on the opposite side; or decimating a regiment encamped on one side of a road, and not touching the men of another regiment encamped on the other side, the course of the disease will perhaps not appear to be so capricious. Pepys, in his diary, relates the same apparent inconsistency of the great Plague of A.D. 1665 which he says caused so many deaths on one side of the main street of Petersfield (Hants) that the shutters of all the houses were closed, while those of the shops on the opposite side of the street remained opened as usual, the inmates having suffered little from the pestilence. Why migratory cholera should follow the course of the magnetic curves remains to be ascertained. There is obviously something more than mere coincidence in the path of the influence following the direction of these lines, and I therefore deferentially offer some speculative suggestions, in the endeavour to approach a theory of the cause of cholera. 1st. with respect to magnetic variation. Previous to the year 1657, the north pole of the needle pointed to the eastward of north at London, and was then observed to be rapidly approaching every year to the point of no variation. A. D. 1657, it was observed by Bond to point due north at London, and from that year to A.D. 1814, it gradually deviated towards the west, till it attained its extreme westerly variation—24 degrees, 21 minutes, 10 seconds. Since 1814 the magnet has been slowly receding back, towards the east, and still annually continues to decrease its westerly deviation. As it occupied 157 years to decline from true north to its greatest westerly deviation, it may be inferred that it will be 157 years in returning to the same point, which would be A.D. 1971, from thence the same number of years arriving at its maximum easterly variation, and that 157 years is the cycle of these changes. If so, they appear to have coincided with the times of several migratory pestilences of different characters, for example, A. D. 1814, year maximum westerly variation, followed by Asiatic cholera, A.D. 1817; A. D. 1657, about the year of no variation, followed by the Great Plague, A. D. 1665; A. D. 1500, year of greatest easterly variation, followed by sweating sickness from 1485 to 1551; A. D. 1343, year of no variation, followed by the black death rom 1333 to 1351. Thus, in 1817, three years after the time of maximum westerly variation, cholera began to move from the east towards Europe, and reached London in fifteen years. In 1665, eight years after the magnet had begun to vary westward, London was visited by the great Plague. About A.D. 1500 the magnet had probably attained its greatest easterly variation at London; and of the numerous plagues that devastated Europe from the close of the fifteenth to the middle of the sixteenth century, the most remarkable was the English sweat, or sweating sickness, which has been so well and systematically described by Dr. Hecker.* ;There were five distinct visitations of this epidemic in England, extending through a period of 66 years. A.D. 1485. The sweating sickness appeared for the first time on the banks of the Severn, in the month of August, and passing eastward to London it ceased in England on January 1st, 1486 (having continued five months). Then, after an interval of 21 years, A.D. 1506, it reappeared London during the summer, and continued till the autumn —this being about the time when the magnetic needle was at the maximum easterly variation. Then there was another interval of 11 years. In July, A.D. 1517, the disease again broke out in London, and thence spread all over the kingdom till December (six months). Then another pause of 11 years. A.D. 1528. In May the sweating sickness appeared again in London, and spread all over England, till the winter set in (eight months). A.D., 1529, sweating sickness appeared in Hamburg, July 25th; Lübeck, July 29th; Twickau, August 29th; Strasburg, August 24th; Stettin, August 31st, and continued nine days. In September, the disease spread all over Germany. It reached Danzig, September 1st, and continued seven days. Cologne, Augsburg, and Frankfurt-on-the-Maine, on the 5th, 6th, and 7th September; Vienna, September 20th; Amsterdam, September 27th; and the disease ceased simultaneously in the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, and Norway, on the 1st of October, 1529. A.D., 1551, April 15th, after an absence from England of 23 years, sweating sickness suddenly revisited Shrewsbury, and thence in ‟stinking mists” extended Eastward, reaching London about July 9th, and spread all over England. This final irruption of the disease terminated September 30th, having continued 6½ months. It is remarkable that the first and last outbreaks of this epidemic commenced on the banks of the Severn, and spread Eastward; for if some epidemics bear any relation to terrestial magnetism and electricity, their migrations may be regulated like those of cholera, by the direction of the magnetic curves. Those delineated by Professor Barlow, for the purpose of showing the places of magnetic variation at the present time, are no doubt nearly exact, but as there are no means of constructing such a chart for previous ages, it is impossible to conjecture the figure of these curves at the time when sweating sickness prevailed. If the course of migratory epidemics is regulated by the magnetic curves, it is reasonable to conjecture that the generation of their specific miasmata is connected with perturbations of terrestrial electricity; because there is no doubt that magnetism and electricity mutually depend one on the other; bar of soft iron is converted into a temporary magnet when an electric current is made to invest it—and conversely, current of electricity is obtained by rotating two helices of copper wire against the poles of a permanent steel magnet, and the deviation of the magnet itself may be caused by some such means as the following:—The voltaic current and the magnet are well known to have the character of deflecting each other, in proportion to their relative strengths, and the direction which this deflection takes place follows a certain known law; —being to the right or left, according as the direction of the electric current is varied; if the current pass from below upward, the North Pole of the needle will deflected towards the left, —if it pass downward, the North Pole of the needle will he deflected towards the right hand. Then, if voltaic currents ascend from the centre of the earth into the atmosphere in certain parts of the globe, these would deflect the magnet to the left, and occasion Westerly variation; —and if other places currents descend from the atmosphere towards the centre of the earth, would deflect the North Pole of the magnet to the right hand, and cause Easterly variation, in which case there would always be constant currents of electricity on the whole surface of the earth, when in its normal condition. The observations of Colonel Beaufoy, Professor Barlow, and Mr. Christie have demonstrated that there also a small diurnal variation of the magnetic needle, amounting in quantity from 2 minutes to nearly 13 minutes of a degree, which constantly arrives at its maximum daily variation Westerly, a little before noon, and then recedes till it attains its greatest Easterly variation, about 7 a.m. To account for this daily variation, Professor Barlow suggests that the Sun possesses a certain magnetic action on the needle. During the prevalence of asiatic cholera, it has been asserted that great perturbations of magnetism had been observed during short periods time, when that epidemic was at its height. It is said tbat at St Petersburg, in 1831, while the disease continued, magnets lost their attractive power, and electrical machines could not be made to act. But in 1849, when cholera visited Plymouth, an ingenious instrument was constructed by Mr. Roberts, a watchmaker, of Union-street, Stonehouse, which showed that diminution of magnetic power bore a constant relation to the number of malignant cases, which were daily reported. The instrument consists of two steel horse shoe magnets, the north pole of one being connected by a binge with the south pole of the other. The attraction of the opposite pair of poles counteracted by a weighted pendulum, provided with a point, which indicates the force of the magnetic attraction on the arc of a circle divided into degrees. With this apparatus (of which he kept a daily register) he observed that while the epidemic continued at Plymouth, the index marked a diminution of magnetism on the arc attached to the instrument; and on one particular occasion, when a great number of malignant cases were reported in the town, the index fell nearly 3 degrees, denoting a great diminution of attractive power in the two horse shoe magnets. When cholera ceased altogether, the index returned to the extreme end of the arc, and there it has remained ever since. Thus, I think I have adduced two tolerably good reasons for attributing the origin of asiatic cholera to the influence of terrestrial electricity,—1st, by the coincidence of the path of the epidemic with the magnetic carves, and 2nd, the disturbance and diminution of magnetic force during the continuance of the pestilence. To explain how the absence of electricity can give rise to disease, I offer this hypothesis. It is well known that the voltaic current is a decomposing agent,—that its property to overcome the elective affinity of bodies through which it passes,—to keep them as it were asunder. I suppose that when a locality is healthy, there must exist a continued electric current, passing from below upwards in our part of the earth, and from above downwards in the Pacific Ocean, the tendency of which is to prevent the formation of deleterious compounds that would otherwise take place by the chemical union of gases, which are to be every where found in greater or less abundance on the surface of the ground, and that the various pestilential miasmata may have their origin in varying conditions of these electric currents, (i.e.) as to tension and quantity ;—modified by temperature and other accidents—at one time engendering the invisible miasmata of typhus, influenza, or cholera; at other times, ‟the stinking mists” as they were called by the writers of the middle ages—those palpable clouds of vapour which accompanied the path of the awful ‟Black Death” and of the ‟Sweating Sickness.” It is well known that the localities most favourable to the developement of malignant epidemics, are those where the level is low and damp, and the air and water are polluted by the effluvia of cesspools, drains, graveyards, and the like. These effluvia consist of about six elements: oxygen, hydrogen, carbon, nitrogen, sulphur, and phosphorus, in the state carburetted, sulphuretted, and phosphuretted hydrogen—carbonic acid, and ammonia. The inhalation of most of these gases quickly productive of pernicious consequences, but in their separate state they have never been known to occasion epidemics; but supposing the temporary absence of the power which overcomes the affinity of the elements of these gases, I conceive that they might chemically combine in new formulæ or compounds, and form any variety of disease—producing miasmata, by a very small difference in proportions of the elements of each new combination. To exemplify my meaning, I may instance the variety of effects that result from the varying proportions of only four of these elements, when united in certain active vegetable principles,—viv„ aconitine, quinine, morphine, and strychine, the composition of which is—
Aconitine ... O.14, H. 47, C. 60, N.
Morphine ... O.18, H. 6, C. 34, N.
Quinine ... O. 2, H. 12, C. 20, N
Strychine ... O. 3, H. 16, C. 30, N.
Each of these bodies composed of the very same elements, the only difference among them being the proportionate number of equivalents or atoms of the elements of which they are composed. I have selected these few as examples. The number might be greatly multiplied, but if only four of the elements of which noxious effluvia consist are susceptible of such a variety of combinations, and effects on the animal body, when united in vegetable matter. I imagine that an atom of sulphur or phosphorus entering into composition with two or more of these same elements, may form a new product, yet undetected by the chemist, inodorous, volatile, perhaps capable of being absorbed by water, and when applied to the human lungs or stomach productive of powerful or fatal effects, which most likely are malignant, in proportion to the greater or less concentration of the poison imbibed. The only practical deduction I wish now to draw from these remarks is, that though I believe it to be impossible to arrest the course of cholera or any other epidemic, the malignity of the disease may be greatly modified and diminished by withdrawing to the best of our ability the materials of which the concentrated poison is formed, by the action of this mysterious, or, as I believe, this electrical influence, and this must consist in some effectual method of cleansing our towns of filth, and ceasing to make common sewers of the rivers on which they are built.
Dr. Shaw, in rising to propose a vote of thanks to the lecturer, said that whether the theory just advanced was true not, he did not think the doctor had altogether proved it, for it was true that cholera did follow the magnetic curves, he should desire to know why the disease paused when it visited Australia. He believed that it arose from certain conditions of the atmosphere, as he had ample proof of that, by experiment which he had tried. He quite agreed with Dr. K. with respect to cholera not being altogether curable, for it was well known that persons of cleanly habits, although they suffered less than others, still felt its effects in a slight way. Whether it followed the magnetic curves, he was not prepared to say. It might be true, but he thought the Dr. had rather overthrown his theory, when he made some remark concerning the progress of disease in the middle ages. It might be owing to the difficulty of getting accurate information concerning those times. He thought cholera was contagious in a certain stage such as in fever, but not so in an ordinary sense. For while the cholera attacked the northern and the southern counties of England, it wholly avoided the midland counties, inasmuch as while it attacked Sunderland in a day or two afterwards it made its appearance in Manchester, without injuring any of the towns between. Its stay in the latter locality was wholly confined to the alleys and filthier parts of the city, thus showing, as he thought, it was not entirely owing to the lines of the magnetic variation. He apologised for making the remarks he had done, and said it only remained for him to express his satisfaction with a paper which he regarded as a highly philosophical one.
The motion was seconded by Mr. J. H. Stallard (in rather a lengthy speech, but we have not space to give the details), and carried unanimously.
After a few words from Mr. F. T. Mott, the President rose and said he had great pleasure in submitting a vote of thanks to Dr. Kelsall, and the few remarks he should say, were more for the purpose of filling up the time than for any benefits that would be derived from them. With respect to the theory laid down by the learned doctor, he thought it was not altogether true, although in some respects it was. He gave two or three illustrations of what he thought the truth of the doctor’s theory. With regard to the electrical condition of the atmosphere during the visitation of cholera, he considered it to be true, for he had read of persons feeling a curious sensation in the visitation of cholera, the same as precedes a thunder storm. The paper, he thought, to be one that was capable of being worked out, and from which a useful lesson might be learnt of the necessity of cleanliness as a promoter of health. He made reference to Leicester, a town which he (the President) considered was being put into as good a sanitary condition as any in England. In conclusion, he said the best thanks of the Society was due to Dr. K., and he hoped he should have the pleasure of hearing him read another paper at some future period.
After a few words from Dr. Kelsall in reply, the chairman announced that at the next and last meeting, Dr. Noble would read a paper on the subject ‟Remarks on Art.” Part 2.