Page:Blackwood's Magazine volume 137.djvu/536

532 ney, and driven off to the old tower (followed, as was promised, by some of the corporation), and there decorously interred.

So ended the tumult. There was not another case of cholera in the healthy old borough; and the little emeuté soon ceased to be a prominent topic of conversation. If the inhabitants generally of that borough were not to be put from their domestic jealousies by fear of disease, I am able to state that one individual could be quite alive to the danger of an epidemic. This was proved at a time when, not cholera, but typhus fever was the scare. An old lady of the place having heard that typhus was in the neighbourhood, declared that she would take it and die of it. She had not the faith in her own prediction that would have made her passively await its fulfilment, but, hopeless as she declared her case to be, made vigorous efforts to turn the fate aside. Being a person of some means, she had not much difficulty in taking her measures. She hired a house several miles in the country, shut herself therein with one servant, and established a stringent system of interdicting communication, except of the most sparing and necessary kind. Her quarantine was kept up for a week or two; but alas! by the end of that time there was an end of precaution, for she had died of typhus. It was remarkable that there was not another case of the disease for many miles round her.

If I have not a very intimate acquaintance with cholera, I cannot say the same of yellow fever, for of this last I have witnessed the ravages in different parts of the world; I have also felt its grip. It is a question not yet, as I think, decided, whether yellow fever is conveyed by infection or not. Certain it is that some persons believe it to be so; and I remember a diabolical attempt to introduce it into a healthy region by means of infected clothing. It happened at Bermuda during the period when North and South were flying at each other's throats in the American States, and when, by reason of the blockade-running, a good many Southerners were collected in the Bermuda group. There had been a bad outbreak of yellow fever while the war was being waged; and before the disease had quite subsided, a discovery was made of a box, the passage of which had been provided for to the Northern States so that it might arrive in the hottest part of summer. It was found to contain the bedclothes and body-linen (as was evident from the condition of the articles) of persons who had been afflicted with the epidemic. The intention, no doubt, was to introduce and spread the pestilence in the Northern towns and districts. I quite forget how the attempt was first brought to light; but very little doubt was at the time entertained that it was deliberately planned, and was to have been mercilessly carried out.

It is a not uncommon belief that the free use of intoxicating liquors, so common in warm climates, renders one very susceptible of the fever, and takes largely from the chances of recovery if the disease be once induced. In its general, unmodified form, this belief is certainly incorrect; conditionally, it is probably true. As facts in support of my assertions I adduce: 1st, That in the visitation at Bermuda to which I have referred, several men, known to be steady and hard drinkers, enjoyed complete immunity from the attacks of fever; 2d, That, in the same epidemic, occasional inebriates – men who