cretion of urine was totally
suspended. Death took place often in ten or twelve, and generally in
eighteen or twenty hours after the appearance of well-founded symptoms.
Many were the thousands who perished by this visitation in India; the
cities of Decca and Patna, the towns of Balasore, Burrishol, Burdavan,
and Malda suffered greatly, and throughout the Gangetic Delta the
population was sensibly diminished. The scourge was extended eastward
along the coast of the Asiatic continent, and through the islands of
the Indian Ocean, to China and to Timor. Before the end of 1827, it had
traversed the Molucca islands, and the island of Timor, and continuing
for several years to ravage the interior of China, it had, by 1827,
passed to the north of the great wall, and had desolated some places
in Mongolia. In the meantime, also, it extended to the west. Bombay,
Persia, Asiatic Turkey, Russia, Poland, Austria, and Prussia, all
experienced the dreadful visitation, from 1818 to 1831. Precautions had
been taken in England, by enforcing quarantine regulations, to protect
the country from the malady; but notwithstanding, in the month of
October of this year, it made its appearance in Sunderland. Before the
close of the year, it found its way from Sunderland and Newcastle to the
suburbs of the metropolis. At first its outrages were generally confined
to the victims of intemperance; but it soon began to attack patients
of all descriptions, and to spread from the capital into the provinces.
Scarcely any part in the empire, eventually, escaped the fearful
scourge, but its inflictions, probably by reason of the habits of the
people, and the nature of the climate, were less violent than in the
other nations which it had visited. A board of health was established,
which made a daily report of cases. Concerning the disease, there was
great contrariety of opinion among medical men. The main points on which
they differed were as to whether the disease was contagious or not;
whether it was the Asiatic cholera or a new complaint; whether it was
imported or indigenous; and whether it partook of the properties of
the plague, or was to be regarded as a transient scourge. The ratio of
deaths in England was found to be about one to three. Some places were
entirely free from its ravages, although it was raging near, which gave
rise to an opinion that its propagation was extended by currents in the
air.

"God proclaims His hot displeasure against f