In many of these and similar instances not merely has the epidemic attained its greatest degree of intensity in different spots at different times, but it has even seemed to have a migratory character, as if it were shifting its place from one part of a town to another part.

The same character of the epidemic has appeared likewise in several of the lunatic asylums which it visited; namely, in the Hull Boro' Asylum, Grove Hall Asylum, Bow, Peckham House, Camberwell House, and Bethnal Green Asylums, the Bristol Asylum, and the Wakefield County Asylum. The outbreaks in these asylums will be described more particularly hereafter; and it will then be shown that in each of them the disease commenced in one ward, and, after attacking several patients there, passed some days later to another part of the establishment. In several instances it

was confined for a time to the patients of one sex, and ceased among them before it attacked those of the other sex, who, of course, were confined in a different part of the building.

Lastly, in Milbank Prison the same character of the epidemic was to a certain extent apparent. In this building there are six divisions or "pentagons," each confining from about 100 to 300 prisoners-men in five of them, women in the remaining one. Now during the winter of 1848-49, the men alone suffered; and 9 out of 12 deaths occurred in two contiguous pentagons. During June and July, when the second period of the epidemic was being developed, 25 deaths occurred, all but one amongst the men, and 21 in three of the pentagons. But in August and September, while only 4 deaths occurred amongst the men, who, though reduced in number, were still threefold the more numerous class, 7 deaths occurred among the women.

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been communicated to the Cholera Committee by Mr. T. Allen, Dr. Strange, Dr. Plomley, Dr. Fearnside, Mr. Warwick, and Mr. Field, respecting the progress of the epidemic at Oxford, Bridgenorth, Maidstone, Preston, Southend, and Margate.

however this fact may be explained, it offers another example of the most severe effects of the epidemic being manifested in different localities within a limited sphere at different times.

These facts relating to the manner in which different parts of towns or of large public establishments fell successively under the influence of the epidemic have the same import as some of those before stated relative to counties and entire towns, inasmuch as they infer the existence of an agency which is capable of determining the appearance of the disease in different localities at various times, and which is at least in a great measure independent of the influence bringing about the general climax. It is not certain, however, that the agency producing the phenomena is the same in the two cases; and it will be necessary to examine both series of facts again at a subsequent page, to ascertain their bearing on theories of the cause and mode of diffusion of the disease.

The question how far the cessation of the epidemic throughout England, or throughout parts of the country, was simultaneous, or occurred at divers times in different localities, remains to be examined.

The facts may be stated briefly. In London the epidemic became extinct in November; 8 of the 35 counties which

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Names of the Counties in which Cholera ceased in the several

suffered a mortality of 5 deaths or upwards in 10,000 inhabitants, were freed from it in October; 14 in November, and 13 in December. In the course of these three months the epidemic disappeared from all parts of England. And the reason why it left some counties sooner than others is in a measure elucidated by obvious differences between those it first quitted and those in which it remained longest.

The former are nearly all counties of small extent and small population. But a more important fact is, that the counties in which the disease remained to the end of the year, include most of those which have a very dense population, a large town population, and a very active traffic, and which are traversed by large rivers; that they have, in fact, the same characteristics which distinguish the parts of the country most severely affected by the epidemic. Accordingly it is found when the different counties in which the epidemic was decidedly prevalent, are compared and regarded from this point of view, that while those first freed from the epidemic suffered in all but one instance the lowest, those which experienced its ravages to the latest period, in a large proportion of cases, suffered the highest rate of mortality. The mere relation of the counties to the sea-coast seems to have influenced the time of cessation of the epidemic less than it did its time of commencement.

There was, as might be expected, more diversity in the time of cessation of the epidemic in towns than in counties. In about half of the whole number of towns distinctly attacked, the last deaths occurred in October, and in a very large proportion of instances, namely, 309 out of 371, the last deaths occurred in the course of the months September, October, and November. But in 34 instances the disease continued to be fatal in December; while in 21 it ceased to be so in June; and in 4, in July. Even in the same "Cholera field" and in the same county, some towns were freed from the epidemic several months earlier than others.

The conditions determining the late persistence of the epidemic in certain towns, or sub-districts of the country

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were apparently in part the same as those that occasioned the early appearance or development of the disease in particular localities. For, as a general rule, the towns in which the disease tarried latest had all the obvious characters of site, density of population, and sanitary condition which distinguished the towns earliest and most severely visited; and in a large number of instances, the places that suffered longest were those which had been earliest attacked. There are, however, many exceptions to this rule-or, at all events, many facts relating to the time of cessation of the epidemic in different places, which cannot be thus entirely explained.

The most remarkable instances of the late persistence of the epidemic are the following::

In the Northumberland and Durham "Cholera field" 16 deaths from Cholera and 2 from diarrhoea occurred amongst miners at Longbenton in December; although no death at that place had been ascribed to either disease during the two previous months, and although the epidemic had very nearly ceased in the whole "Cholera field," the number of deaths from Cholera and diarrhoea together, during December, being in Northumberland 4, and in Durham 29.

In the Staffordshire and Worcestershire "Cholera field," the mortality from the epidemic continued in December in Dudley and Stourbridge, and in a less degree in two or three neighbouring towns, while in the northern part of Staffordshire, and in Shropshire, it had almost entirely ceased as early as November.

In the South-Wales, Gloucestershire, and Somersetshire "Cholera field," the epidemic was still severe at Taunton and Bridgewater, and in the neighbourhood of Bath, in November, when it had subsided in the "Cholera field" generally, and even in the mining districts of South-Wales; and it was fatal still later in Midsummer Norton, and in Poulton, near Bath-in the latter place 13 deaths occurring in December, when it had virtually ceased throughout the "Cholera field."

In the London "Cholera field" the epidemic generally

subsided in October; even in London only 22 deaths were recorded as due to Cholera in November and December; and the only place in which any remarkable mortality occurred in November was Baldock, with Weston and Norton in Hertfordshire, where the first death took place in October, and where, after 30 deaths in that month, 13 occurred in November.

The instances of the opposite kind-of the early cessation of the epidemic in particular localities, while it still prevailed in the country generally, and even in the same "Cholera field" or county-are numerous among the smaller towns, but few among the larger and more densely populated

towns.

In several towns in Shropshire, namely, Shrewsbury, Condover, Madely, and Bridgenorth, the epidemic ceased in September; but the deaths caused by it after that month in any part of the county were few, and it was rapidly subsiding in other neighbouring counties. The same remark does not apply to the instance of Keynsham in Somersetshire, Woottonunder-Edge in Gloucestershire, and Devizes in North Wiltshire; in the first of which places the disease ceased to cause deaths in July, and in the latter two in September, though in neighbouring places it still continued to be fatal two months later. In several places in South-Wales, too, the epidemic, after causing many deaths, ceased in August or September. In Dorsetshire the epidemic produced no deaths in Poole after July. In many places in Essex there were no deaths after September. The mortality ceased at Boston, in Lincolnshire, in August; and at Wisbeach, in Cambridgeshire, in September; although in most places in both these counties it continued a month later.

On the whole these cases are less remarkable than those of the long persistence of the disease. But both series of instances present decided exceptions to the rule that the early cessation or late persistence of the epidemic in different places was determined by the degrees in which they seve