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THE CHOLERA EPIDEMIC IN TENERIFFE.
112
CHOLERA.-THE CHOLERA. EPIDEMIC IN TENERIFFE.
The ports of the island of Teneriffe were declared to be infected by cholera on Nov. 21st, 1893. Though cases had been occurring for over a month prior to this date, it was not until Nov. 10th that specimens of dejecta &c. were forwarded The result of the to Madrid to be examined by experts. the direction of under which was carried out investigation, Dr. Mendoza of Madrid, was an official declaration that the the invalidings were 23. A solitary instance of yellow fever, disease was Asiatic cholera, and the ports were closed. Up to which proved fatal, occurred in the records of the irregular this date (Nov. 21st), from the lst of the same month, 249 force. There were 37 cases of dysentery shown in the cases and 92 deaths had been registered. ’’ The tracing of the origin of the cholera outbreak here ’returns, 5 of which’ only were on the home station, the remainder being abroad. Influenza appears to have been some- presents many difficulties. Few of the medical men now what prevalent and widely spread. There were 2429 cases practising in Santa Cruz had had any previous experience of and many cases occurred during October, and in all, of which 827 appear in the records of the home the which were then diagnosed and registered ’stations, the remainder being in those of stations abroad. Only even in seven cases of diphtheria are recorded, two of which proved as ’acute diarrhoea (non-choleraic),’ ’acute enteritis,’ ,fatal. Of malarial fevers 1412 cases were returned, 13 of ’spasmodic colic,’ but which are now said to have which ended fatally, and 178 were invalided. The highest been true cholera. Thus the exact date of the first case or ! number is reported from the West Coast of Africa and cases is unknown, and the proximate date is difficult to Cape of Good Hope station, which contributes 582 to the fix. One case, resulting in recovery, which presented .aggregate. Under the heading of venereal diseases there choleraic symptoms occurred in the third week of September, of these, 2773 were of primary and were 8636 returned ; in the following week. All through the syphilis, 1530 of secondary syphilis, and 4333 of summerships sailing from ports in which cholera had ,gonorrhoea and its sequelæ. As regards syphilis, the ratio appeared were rigidly quarantined here, and no cargo or -is 47’53 per 1000 for the primary form and 2623 per 1000 for were allowed to be disembarked ; Spanish ports, the secondary form of the disease. Both show a decreased however, were exempt from this rule, and vessels called prevalence on that of the previous year ; but while there is a and landed cargo and passengers from Barcelona, Malaga, ’diminution of 11 56 per 1000 under primary there is an Valencia, and Cadiz. In the first-named town cholera was increase of 2’71 per 1000 under secondary syphilis as com- believed to exist, and it may be that Spain was the original .pared with the ratios of the last five years. Under the heading source of the disease. ’° On the other hand, the general opinion here among the .of tuberculous diseases we find that 53 cases are returned, oj which 18 were invalided and 11 died. The ratio of cases fo people and the medical men is that an Italian ship brought ’the total force was 0 9 per 1000, of invaliding 0’3 per 1000, cholera to the island. During the second week in August :and of deaths 0 ’18 per 1000. The wounds in action occurrec the s.s. -Remo sailed from Genoa for Rio de Janeiro, un the forces landed for operations up the River Gambia. having on board a general cargo and Italian emigrants, While at sea, on a date which cannot be ascertained (To be concluded.) here, cholera and typhus fever broke out. On reaching Rio de Janeiro in the first week of September the port authorities refused to allow any communication between CHOLERA. the ship and the shore, and she set sail again for Europe. On Sept. 29th the Remo called at this port, Santa Cruz de ACCORDING to the latest intelligence, it appears that there Teneriffe, being short of coal and fresh water. The medical ’is very little cholera in Constantinople at the present time. officer of the port visited her and ascertained that there had Some three or four cases are stated to have occurred daily, been 123 cases of cholera and 37 deaths, 26 deaths from ’common maladies,’ and 10 cases of typhus fever, resulting - :about half of which number were fatal. in 3 deaths, since her departure from Genoa. The ship was The epidemic at TeneriITe may now be spoken of as the immediately ordered to proceed to the quarantine station !late epidemic, as it is entirely at an end, no cases having four miles south of the town and anchor there. Coal and ’occurred since Dec. 22nd last. fresh water were supplied to her, with the strictest preWe learn from India that one of those sudden and severe cautions against possible infection. The coal was taken outbreaks of cholera on a limited scale, so frequently met on board in bags from barges alongside; each bag that reached the deck of the ship remained on board and was with in India, has occurred at Nowapara, on the Eastern carried away in her. The bags were slung on board at the Bengal State Railway, resulting in several fatal cases among end of an iron chain, which was the only article on board the railway native employes and villagers. the ship which was touched by those on the barges. The The cholera epidemic continues in St. Petersburg, the water was pumped from water barges, using their own hose, .number of patients under treatment for cholera in the into the ship’s tanks, and this hose, at the termination of the .Russian capital having risen in less than three weeks work, was cut off close to the barge and carried away by the like the coal bags. As an additional precaution the - from 15 to 166. The increase has been very steady between ship of the Remo was ordered to prevent any water, captain thedates of Dec. 12th and 27th, the statistics showing an refuse, or dejecta from being thrown overboard until he was increase of exactly 100 cases under treatment. From noon well out at sea, but it is doubtful whether this was done. At of Dec. 12th to noon of Dec. 13th there were 16 new cases, sundown all work was stopped and the Remo left at once. "Among the men engaged in the work described, one case of .5 deaths, and 66 under treatment. On the 28th there were cholera at least is known to have occurred on Oct. 2nd-that :21 new cases, 14 deaths, and 166 cases under treatment. is, within three days ; this man recovered, but the woman who This sudden revival in the activity of the cholera epidemic nursed him died from cholera two or three days later. These has not yet been fully accounted for, but it has been con- cases appeared in the south quarter of the town ; others sidered possible that it is associated with the increased quickly followed. When the news spread abroad that there cholera in the town all those who could do so went into consumption of salt-fish taking place in connexion with the was the country, and the disease was soon afterwards reported ’Christmas fast (Rvjdestvenski), which commences at the from nearly every village and town in the island. I have end of November. A commission of physicians does not, been unable to obtain any official statistics of an earlier date than Nov. lst ; from that date to the present (Dec. 24th), .however, endorse this view. when no cases have been declared for two days past, the figures are as follows :-
-occurred on the home station, leaving only 5 cases to be accounted for at the remaining stations. A single case of ’typhus fever is recorded in the reports of the home stations. There were 336 cases of dengue during the year, all of which ,occurred on the East Indies station. Simple continued fever shows 1576 cases, and there were at home and abroad 171 entries for enteric fever during the year. Of the latter, 42 were fatal;
disease, September,
and
several others
passengers
I
THE CHOLERA EPIDEMIC IN TENERIFFE. BY H. ATHILL CRUTTWELL.
WE have received the following communication from Mr. Cruttwell, who was sent in the month of December, on behalf of the Spanish Natioral Telegraph Company, to inquire into the alleged prevalence of cholera in the island of Teneriffe :-
THE LOCAL GOVERNMENT
(ENGLAND
AND
WALES)
BILL.
113
no person shall be disand the period of service shall be one year. The powers and duties imposed on the parish council are considerable. They include the appointment of overseers of the poor, and the power and duties of the vestry and the churchwardens, except so far as they relate to the affairs of the Church or to ecclesiastical charities. The parish council will have the same power of making’ any complaint or representation as to unhealthy dwellings or obstructive buildings as is conferred on inhabitant householders by the Housing of the Working Classes Act, 1890, but without prejudice to the powers of such householders-that is to say, they may complain or represent, irrespectively of anything the parish council may do. Other powers conferred’ on the parish council are the acquisition of land for recreation grounds and public walks, the use of wells, springs, andl streams in certain circumstances for obtaining water for the parish, and the treatment of "any pond, pool, open ditch, drain, or place containing or used for the collection of any drainage, filth, stagnant water, or matter likely to be prejudicial to health) by draining, cleansing, covering it, or otherwise preventing it from being prejudicial to health, but without interfering with any private right or the sewage or drainage works of any local authority." It is, however, expressly stipulated that nothing in this connexion shall derogate from the obligation; of a district council with respect to the supply of water orthe execution of sanitary works. Powers are also given in. regard to the acquisition of land by voluntary arrangement and compulsion and the hiring of allotments. A number of restrictions upon expenditure are imposed. For instance, a. council shall not, without the consent of a parish meeting and the approval of the county council, incur any expense or liability which involves a loan, and, again, the rate levied by a parish council for its expenses, other than expenses under any of the adoptive Acts-such, for example,. as the Baths and Washhouses Acts or the Public Libraries. Acts-shall not exceed 6d. in the pound for any local financial year. In the very heart of the Bill are to be found a numberTHE LOCAL GOVERNMENT of important provisions as to the election and qualifications. AND BILL. of boards of guardians, provisions the discussion of which occupied a very large part of the committee stage. One of THIS is the correct title of the measure commonly described these lays it down in a single sentence that there shall no. longer be ex-officio or nominated guardians, while anotheras the Parish Councils Bill, which has engaged almost exenacts that "each elector may give one vote and no more for clusively the attention of the House of Commons since it each of any number of persons, not exceeding the number to, began its extra session in the first week of November. To be elected "-this latter abolishing what is known as the. speak of it as a parish councils bill is obviously a mistake, plural vote. The arrangements as to district councils can be stated very for it does a great deal more than create parish councils, and having regard to the fact that the measure is now briefly. The Bill simply says, that in future urban sanitary authorities shall be called urban district councils, and their through the committee stage it may be of advantage to give districts urban districts ; and later on provides that for every some account of what its provisions exactly are. In its rural sanitary district there shall be a rural district council, original form the bill consisted of seventy-one clauses, but whose district shall be called a rural district. Distinction is. the committee stage has added slightly to its bulk. It is given to the chairman of a district council by making him, by divided into five parts, one dealing with parish meetings and virtue of his office, a justice of the peace for the county in which his district is situate. If the chair should happen parish councils, the second with guardians and district to have a lady for its occupant, she will not share this discouncils, the third with areas and boundaries, the fourth tinction, words having been inserted during the committee with supplemental provisions, and the fifth with what are stage to debar her. In addition to the duties and powers of’ described as transitory provisions. In addition there are the sanitary authority the rural district council takes over two sets of schedules, which naturally come in at the end those of the highway board, unless the county council proof the Bill. When in the month of March Mr. Henry cure the latter a respite, the utmost limit of which is three As to the further powers of district councils generally Fowler, President of the Local Government Board, made the years. include the preservation of rights of way, the prevention they motion for leave to introduce the Bill, he explained that his of encroachment upon roadside wastes, the licensing of thescheme was to have a parish council for every rural parish various small traders, and the fixing of fairs. Several long with a population of 300, but at the same time he let it be debates took place on the question of "the appointed day, "’ known that he was not tied to any particular figure. The that is to say, the day when the Act should come into operaresult of the proceedings in committee has been to give a tion. Mr. Fowler explained that the hope of the Government council to every paiish with a population of 200, this change had been to pass themeasure in the course of the month of’ bringing in a very large number of parishes which, according August last, and thus permit of the different elections necesto the original plan, would have been excluded from this sary for the appointment of parish and district councils taking advantage. For the parishes below the limit of 200 arrange- place in the month of April. Under the altered circumments are made either for exceptional treatment or for stances such a thing was, of course, impossible, and it was groupir:g tcoether; but whether the population be great or ultimately arranged that for the first elections the date should small provision is made for a parish meeting as distinguished be Nov. 8th of the present year. Another point whichfrom a parish council in every rural parish. This meeting, to occupied a good deal of time was the qualification or diswhich all parochial electors are eligible, is to assemble at qualification of women. The result of its discussion was a least once in every year, and the proceedings are not to be clause providing that a woman shall not be disqualified by begun before six o’clock in the evening. The arrangements marriage from being on any local government register of for the constitution of the parish council are mainly electors, or from being an elector of any local authority, prothese: it shall be chosen from among the parochial vided that a husband and wife shall not both be quaiiied in electors, the members shall not be less than five orrespect of the same property.
2 cases, and on the 22nd 4 cases and no deaths. The highest number of cases registered in oce day was 83 on Nov. 26th, and the highest number of deaths, 14, was reached on two days in the same week-viz, on Nov. 25th and 28th. The population of the town during the past three months is officially Since Nov. lst there have been 1559 estimated as 15,000. cases and 275 deaths. During the whole period of the outbreak the disease has been confined almost entirely to the poorest of the inhabitants ; scarcely any cases have occurred The lower classes, for the most among the well-to-do. part, live in single-room dwellings absolutely devoid of any sanitary arrangements. All refuse is thrown into the streets or on to the sea-shore, night-soil fouls every street in the place, cesspools abound, and many of them during the recent scare were found to be very defective and leaking into wells and drains. The chief water-supply is brought from a spring rising in a small forest among the hills seven miles inland and some 2000 ft. above the sea level. The stream is conducted through a brick-and-stone cemented culvert into the town and distributed to the various public fountains and private houses. This culvert is, the greater part of the way from the source, covered in, but in a few places it is left uncovered for the convenience of the inhabitants of a series of scattered huts near which it passes. These openings have been strictly guarded by armed police during the presence of cholera and the supply has been uncontaminated. Each village and town has so strictly isolated itself from the rest of the island that it has been impossible for me to visit any of them, or, indeed, to leave the capital, so that I am unable to give any details as to the ravages of cholera except in Santa Cruz. The epidemic was officially declared to be at an end on Dec. 27th, and no cases have been reported since the 22nd inst. Santa Cruz de Teneriffe, Dec. 30th, 1893." 11
(ENGLAND
WALES)
more
than fifteen in
qualified by
parish
sex
or
number,
marriage,
CHOLERA.-THE CHOLERA. EPIDEMIC IN TENERIFFE.
The ports of the island of Teneriffe were declared to be infected by cholera on Nov. 21st, 1893. Though cases had been occurring for over a month prior to this date, it was not until Nov. 10th that specimens of dejecta &c. were forwarded The result of the to Madrid to be examined by experts. the direction of under which was carried out investigation, Dr. Mendoza of Madrid, was an official declaration that the the invalidings were 23. A solitary instance of yellow fever, disease was Asiatic cholera, and the ports were closed. Up to which proved fatal, occurred in the records of the irregular this date (Nov. 21st), from the lst of the same month, 249 force. There were 37 cases of dysentery shown in the cases and 92 deaths had been registered. ’’ The tracing of the origin of the cholera outbreak here ’returns, 5 of which’ only were on the home station, the remainder being abroad. Influenza appears to have been some- presents many difficulties. Few of the medical men now what prevalent and widely spread. There were 2429 cases practising in Santa Cruz had had any previous experience of and many cases occurred during October, and in all, of which 827 appear in the records of the home the which were then diagnosed and registered ’stations, the remainder being in those of stations abroad. Only even in seven cases of diphtheria are recorded, two of which proved as ’acute diarrhoea (non-choleraic),’ ’acute enteritis,’ ,fatal. Of malarial fevers 1412 cases were returned, 13 of ’spasmodic colic,’ but which are now said to have which ended fatally, and 178 were invalided. The highest been true cholera. Thus the exact date of the first case or ! number is reported from the West Coast of Africa and cases is unknown, and the proximate date is difficult to Cape of Good Hope station, which contributes 582 to the fix. One case, resulting in recovery, which presented .aggregate. Under the heading of venereal diseases there choleraic symptoms occurred in the third week of September, of these, 2773 were of primary and were 8636 returned ; in the following week. All through the syphilis, 1530 of secondary syphilis, and 4333 of summerships sailing from ports in which cholera had ,gonorrhoea and its sequelæ. As regards syphilis, the ratio appeared were rigidly quarantined here, and no cargo or -is 47’53 per 1000 for the primary form and 2623 per 1000 for were allowed to be disembarked ; Spanish ports, the secondary form of the disease. Both show a decreased however, were exempt from this rule, and vessels called prevalence on that of the previous year ; but while there is a and landed cargo and passengers from Barcelona, Malaga, ’diminution of 11 56 per 1000 under primary there is an Valencia, and Cadiz. In the first-named town cholera was increase of 2’71 per 1000 under secondary syphilis as com- believed to exist, and it may be that Spain was the original .pared with the ratios of the last five years. Under the heading source of the disease. ’° On the other hand, the general opinion here among the .of tuberculous diseases we find that 53 cases are returned, oj which 18 were invalided and 11 died. The ratio of cases fo people and the medical men is that an Italian ship brought ’the total force was 0 9 per 1000, of invaliding 0’3 per 1000, cholera to the island. During the second week in August :and of deaths 0 ’18 per 1000. The wounds in action occurrec the s.s. -Remo sailed from Genoa for Rio de Janeiro, un the forces landed for operations up the River Gambia. having on board a general cargo and Italian emigrants, While at sea, on a date which cannot be ascertained (To be concluded.) here, cholera and typhus fever broke out. On reaching Rio de Janeiro in the first week of September the port authorities refused to allow any communication between CHOLERA. the ship and the shore, and she set sail again for Europe. On Sept. 29th the Remo called at this port, Santa Cruz de ACCORDING to the latest intelligence, it appears that there Teneriffe, being short of coal and fresh water. The medical ’is very little cholera in Constantinople at the present time. officer of the port visited her and ascertained that there had Some three or four cases are stated to have occurred daily, been 123 cases of cholera and 37 deaths, 26 deaths from ’common maladies,’ and 10 cases of typhus fever, resulting - :about half of which number were fatal. in 3 deaths, since her departure from Genoa. The ship was The epidemic at TeneriITe may now be spoken of as the immediately ordered to proceed to the quarantine station !late epidemic, as it is entirely at an end, no cases having four miles south of the town and anchor there. Coal and ’occurred since Dec. 22nd last. fresh water were supplied to her, with the strictest preWe learn from India that one of those sudden and severe cautions against possible infection. The coal was taken outbreaks of cholera on a limited scale, so frequently met on board in bags from barges alongside; each bag that reached the deck of the ship remained on board and was with in India, has occurred at Nowapara, on the Eastern carried away in her. The bags were slung on board at the Bengal State Railway, resulting in several fatal cases among end of an iron chain, which was the only article on board the railway native employes and villagers. the ship which was touched by those on the barges. The The cholera epidemic continues in St. Petersburg, the water was pumped from water barges, using their own hose, .number of patients under treatment for cholera in the into the ship’s tanks, and this hose, at the termination of the .Russian capital having risen in less than three weeks work, was cut off close to the barge and carried away by the like the coal bags. As an additional precaution the - from 15 to 166. The increase has been very steady between ship of the Remo was ordered to prevent any water, captain thedates of Dec. 12th and 27th, the statistics showing an refuse, or dejecta from being thrown overboard until he was increase of exactly 100 cases under treatment. From noon well out at sea, but it is doubtful whether this was done. At of Dec. 12th to noon of Dec. 13th there were 16 new cases, sundown all work was stopped and the Remo left at once. "Among the men engaged in the work described, one case of .5 deaths, and 66 under treatment. On the 28th there were cholera at least is known to have occurred on Oct. 2nd-that :21 new cases, 14 deaths, and 166 cases under treatment. is, within three days ; this man recovered, but the woman who This sudden revival in the activity of the cholera epidemic nursed him died from cholera two or three days later. These has not yet been fully accounted for, but it has been con- cases appeared in the south quarter of the town ; others sidered possible that it is associated with the increased quickly followed. When the news spread abroad that there cholera in the town all those who could do so went into consumption of salt-fish taking place in connexion with the was the country, and the disease was soon afterwards reported ’Christmas fast (Rvjdestvenski), which commences at the from nearly every village and town in the island. I have end of November. A commission of physicians does not, been unable to obtain any official statistics of an earlier date than Nov. lst ; from that date to the present (Dec. 24th), .however, endorse this view. when no cases have been declared for two days past, the figures are as follows :-
-occurred on the home station, leaving only 5 cases to be accounted for at the remaining stations. A single case of ’typhus fever is recorded in the reports of the home stations. There were 336 cases of dengue during the year, all of which ,occurred on the East Indies station. Simple continued fever shows 1576 cases, and there were at home and abroad 171 entries for enteric fever during the year. Of the latter, 42 were fatal;
disease, September,
and
several others
passengers
I
THE CHOLERA EPIDEMIC IN TENERIFFE. BY H. ATHILL CRUTTWELL.
WE have received the following communication from Mr. Cruttwell, who was sent in the month of December, on behalf of the Spanish Natioral Telegraph Company, to inquire into the alleged prevalence of cholera in the island of Teneriffe :-
THE LOCAL GOVERNMENT
(ENGLAND
AND
WALES)
BILL.
113
no person shall be disand the period of service shall be one year. The powers and duties imposed on the parish council are considerable. They include the appointment of overseers of the poor, and the power and duties of the vestry and the churchwardens, except so far as they relate to the affairs of the Church or to ecclesiastical charities. The parish council will have the same power of making’ any complaint or representation as to unhealthy dwellings or obstructive buildings as is conferred on inhabitant householders by the Housing of the Working Classes Act, 1890, but without prejudice to the powers of such householders-that is to say, they may complain or represent, irrespectively of anything the parish council may do. Other powers conferred’ on the parish council are the acquisition of land for recreation grounds and public walks, the use of wells, springs, andl streams in certain circumstances for obtaining water for the parish, and the treatment of "any pond, pool, open ditch, drain, or place containing or used for the collection of any drainage, filth, stagnant water, or matter likely to be prejudicial to health) by draining, cleansing, covering it, or otherwise preventing it from being prejudicial to health, but without interfering with any private right or the sewage or drainage works of any local authority." It is, however, expressly stipulated that nothing in this connexion shall derogate from the obligation; of a district council with respect to the supply of water orthe execution of sanitary works. Powers are also given in. regard to the acquisition of land by voluntary arrangement and compulsion and the hiring of allotments. A number of restrictions upon expenditure are imposed. For instance, a. council shall not, without the consent of a parish meeting and the approval of the county council, incur any expense or liability which involves a loan, and, again, the rate levied by a parish council for its expenses, other than expenses under any of the adoptive Acts-such, for example,. as the Baths and Washhouses Acts or the Public Libraries. Acts-shall not exceed 6d. in the pound for any local financial year. In the very heart of the Bill are to be found a numberTHE LOCAL GOVERNMENT of important provisions as to the election and qualifications. AND BILL. of boards of guardians, provisions the discussion of which occupied a very large part of the committee stage. One of THIS is the correct title of the measure commonly described these lays it down in a single sentence that there shall no. longer be ex-officio or nominated guardians, while anotheras the Parish Councils Bill, which has engaged almost exenacts that "each elector may give one vote and no more for clusively the attention of the House of Commons since it each of any number of persons, not exceeding the number to, began its extra session in the first week of November. To be elected "-this latter abolishing what is known as the. speak of it as a parish councils bill is obviously a mistake, plural vote. The arrangements as to district councils can be stated very for it does a great deal more than create parish councils, and having regard to the fact that the measure is now briefly. The Bill simply says, that in future urban sanitary authorities shall be called urban district councils, and their through the committee stage it may be of advantage to give districts urban districts ; and later on provides that for every some account of what its provisions exactly are. In its rural sanitary district there shall be a rural district council, original form the bill consisted of seventy-one clauses, but whose district shall be called a rural district. Distinction is. the committee stage has added slightly to its bulk. It is given to the chairman of a district council by making him, by divided into five parts, one dealing with parish meetings and virtue of his office, a justice of the peace for the county in which his district is situate. If the chair should happen parish councils, the second with guardians and district to have a lady for its occupant, she will not share this discouncils, the third with areas and boundaries, the fourth tinction, words having been inserted during the committee with supplemental provisions, and the fifth with what are stage to debar her. In addition to the duties and powers of’ described as transitory provisions. In addition there are the sanitary authority the rural district council takes over two sets of schedules, which naturally come in at the end those of the highway board, unless the county council proof the Bill. When in the month of March Mr. Henry cure the latter a respite, the utmost limit of which is three As to the further powers of district councils generally Fowler, President of the Local Government Board, made the years. include the preservation of rights of way, the prevention they motion for leave to introduce the Bill, he explained that his of encroachment upon roadside wastes, the licensing of thescheme was to have a parish council for every rural parish various small traders, and the fixing of fairs. Several long with a population of 300, but at the same time he let it be debates took place on the question of "the appointed day, "’ known that he was not tied to any particular figure. The that is to say, the day when the Act should come into operaresult of the proceedings in committee has been to give a tion. Mr. Fowler explained that the hope of the Government council to every paiish with a population of 200, this change had been to pass themeasure in the course of the month of’ bringing in a very large number of parishes which, according August last, and thus permit of the different elections necesto the original plan, would have been excluded from this sary for the appointment of parish and district councils taking advantage. For the parishes below the limit of 200 arrange- place in the month of April. Under the altered circumments are made either for exceptional treatment or for stances such a thing was, of course, impossible, and it was groupir:g tcoether; but whether the population be great or ultimately arranged that for the first elections the date should small provision is made for a parish meeting as distinguished be Nov. 8th of the present year. Another point whichfrom a parish council in every rural parish. This meeting, to occupied a good deal of time was the qualification or diswhich all parochial electors are eligible, is to assemble at qualification of women. The result of its discussion was a least once in every year, and the proceedings are not to be clause providing that a woman shall not be disqualified by begun before six o’clock in the evening. The arrangements marriage from being on any local government register of for the constitution of the parish council are mainly electors, or from being an elector of any local authority, prothese: it shall be chosen from among the parochial vided that a husband and wife shall not both be quaiiied in electors, the members shall not be less than five orrespect of the same property.
2 cases, and on the 22nd 4 cases and no deaths. The highest number of cases registered in oce day was 83 on Nov. 26th, and the highest number of deaths, 14, was reached on two days in the same week-viz, on Nov. 25th and 28th. The population of the town during the past three months is officially Since Nov. lst there have been 1559 estimated as 15,000. cases and 275 deaths. During the whole period of the outbreak the disease has been confined almost entirely to the poorest of the inhabitants ; scarcely any cases have occurred The lower classes, for the most among the well-to-do. part, live in single-room dwellings absolutely devoid of any sanitary arrangements. All refuse is thrown into the streets or on to the sea-shore, night-soil fouls every street in the place, cesspools abound, and many of them during the recent scare were found to be very defective and leaking into wells and drains. The chief water-supply is brought from a spring rising in a small forest among the hills seven miles inland and some 2000 ft. above the sea level. The stream is conducted through a brick-and-stone cemented culvert into the town and distributed to the various public fountains and private houses. This culvert is, the greater part of the way from the source, covered in, but in a few places it is left uncovered for the convenience of the inhabitants of a series of scattered huts near which it passes. These openings have been strictly guarded by armed police during the presence of cholera and the supply has been uncontaminated. Each village and town has so strictly isolated itself from the rest of the island that it has been impossible for me to visit any of them, or, indeed, to leave the capital, so that I am unable to give any details as to the ravages of cholera except in Santa Cruz. The epidemic was officially declared to be at an end on Dec. 27th, and no cases have been reported since the 22nd inst. Santa Cruz de Teneriffe, Dec. 30th, 1893." 11
(ENGLAND
WALES)
more
than fifteen in
qualified by
parish
sex
or
number,
marriage,