face of the country,
even within the first few days, considering the wonderful degree of
intercourse kept up between all parts. But we find that, as in Austria
and Prussia, "_la maladie de la terre_" is not disposed here to
accommodate itself to vain speculations. _Now_ the matter may be
reduced to the simple rules of arithmetic, viz.:--if, as "contagionists
_par metier_" say, the poison from the body of one individual be, in
the twinkling of an eye, and in more ways than one, transmitted to
the bodies of a certain number who have been near him, &c., how many
thousands, or tens of thousands, in every direction, should, in a
multiplied series of communications and transmissions, be now affected?

Those who have watched the course of matters connected with cholera in
this country, have not failed to perceive, for some time past, the
intent and purport of the assertion so industriously put forth--that the
disease might be introduced by people in perfect health; and we have
just seen how this _ruse_ has been attempted to be played off at
Sunderland, as the history of such matters informs us has been done
before in other instances, and public vengeance invoked most _foully and
unjustly_ upon the heads of guiltless persons in the Custom House or
Quarantine Department, for "permitting a breach of regulations;" but the
several pure cases of spasmodic cholera, in many parts of England
besides Sunderland, long before--months before--the arrival of _the_
ship (as shewn in a former letter) leave no pretence for any supposition
of this kind.

I request that the public may particularly remark, that, frequently as
those cases have been cited as proofs of the absurdity of _expecting the
arrival_ of the disease by a ship, THEIR IDENTITY HAS NEVER ONCE BEEN
DISPUTED BY THOSE MOST ANXIOUS TO PROVE THEIR CASE. No; the point has,
in common parlance, been always _shirked_; for whoever should doubt it,
would only hold himself up to the ridicule of the profession, and to
admit it would be to give up the importation farce.

Others have remarked before me that, though a very common, it is a very
erroneous mode of expression, to say of cholera, that _it has travelled_
to such or such a place, _or has arrived_ at such or such places, for it
is _the cause_ of the malady which is found to prevail, for a longer or
shorter time, at those different points. It cannot be expected that
people should explain such matters, for, with regard to them, our
k