RAVAGES OF CHOLERA IN LONDON.

North Otago Times, Volume VII, Issue 158, 27 November 1866, Page 3

RAVAGES OF CHOLERA IN LONDON.

A letter addressed to the Lord Mayor of London and the Cholera Committee by some members of the Society of Friends, in Spitalfields, was read at a meeting last Saturday. The letter stated that the cholera had attacked that populous district, and especially the destitute parts of it. It appeared with virulence on the night of the 1st of August, and many here and there were struck down. A young Friend, they said, who visits among the people in connection with the committee of " the First-day Evening Meeting," which is held there, found, as she went her accustomed rounds, that out of the few who were in one way or othor under their care, some were already dead and others in great extremity. Up to " Firstday Evening," seven had died and eight more were Btruck down by the fuarful disease. Of the destitution and misery that prevail, and of the discouragement and consternation of the poor creatures who are thus, they said, sitting in the shadow of death, it was not possible to give an adequate idea. At 49, Gt-ray Eaglestreet, a house containing 43 persons, nine had been sick, of whom four had. died and frsro -were dying. Thia waa on Monday last. " 13, Great Pearl-street $ an old couple, the woman had been ill for two days ; utterly destitute, all the food she had taken was a half-penny herring. 70, Gray Eagle-street ; a poor woman without anything in the house remarked to the visitor, ' If it takes us, what chance havo we ? There is nothing inside us.' She fell ill that night, but by timely help and medicine was in a fair way of recovery." At 72 in the same street a Quakeress, well-known and respected, died after eight hours' illness. At a house in a court leading out of the same street lay a girl of 17, brought back from the London Hospital because there was no room. She was on a bedstead without any covering, the people about utterly paralysed, and no help given to the sufferer. Nothing but a bottle of medicine in the house. Necessaries were at once procured by the visitor, and there is good hope she may recover. There had been many e\en more aggravated cases which had been witnessed by others, and in this pressing emergency some young members of the Society of Friends had undertaken the management of an Invalid Kitchen, which had already commenced operations. There they are providing well-cooked, nourishing food, and are taking to tho sick ; visiting them from house to house as far as their means will allow. Since the Cholera Fund has been started in connection with the Metropolitan Visiting and Eelief Association, about three weeks ago, upwards of L10.000 has been received and is being ably and judiciously applied. The Bishop of London, who is president, remains in town and attends the committeo meeting daily. Certain members of the cornmittee take it in turn to attend at the office, 21, Kegent street, S.W., from 11 to 4 o'clock each day, to give information and to receive subscriptions. Grants have already been made to give reliof to the sutTering in some 60 of the parishes or districts visited by cholera.