XXIX. 1832. ferent places at the same time, clearly demonstrates CHAP. that it is at first epidemic, and not merely transmitted, like the plague, by contact: yet subsequent experience. has everywhere brought to light many facts which lead to the conclusion that it is, in its later stages at least, contagious. It is not surprising that a pestilence attended with such strange and contradictory symptoms should for long baffle medical skill, and give rise to more than even the usual amount of difference of opinion among medical men. They have at length, however, it is believed, very generally united in the opinion that it is first induced by an atmospheric influence, though rather one connected with electricity than what is inhaled by the lungs; that it is both epidemic and contagious; that filth and insalubrious air aggravate the disease, by weakening the frames of those exposed to its influence, not producing itself; that mental depression, or the reaction of intoxication, powerfully predisposes for its reception ; and that medical skill, though all-powerful in arresting it in its commencement, has very little influence in its later stages, and is efficacious rather by aiding the patient to survive the malady than by subduing itself. 34. sions in When this terrible pestilence first made its appearance in Moscow, St Petersburg, and Berlin, the suddenness of Commisits spread, and the symptoms of violent bowel-complaint Paris on the with which it always commenced, gave rise to imme- subject. diate suspicion of the food or water used having been poisoned, and serious disturbances took place in consequence. The same thing took place on its first appearance in Paris. To increase the panic occasioned by the natural symptoms of the disease, and pervert it to political purposes, some abandoned wretches there were said to have put poison into the public wells and fountains, and a police magistrate in Paris had the infatuation to publish April 2. a proclamation on the subject. The consequences might easily have been foreseen. The populace rose in crowds in the thickly-peopled quarters of the city, seized upon XXIX. 1832. the persons whom they suspected of being implicated in these atrocities, and proceeded to execute what they deemed justice upon them with their own hands. Two men, suspected of being poisoners, having been arrested in the Faubourg St Antoine, and sent under a guard to the Hôtel de Ville, the mob defied the police, seized the supposed offenders, and threw one into the Seine. Two others were only rescued from death by the courageous efforts of the Municipal Guard, which extricated them out of the hands of the populace as they were stringing them up to the street lamps. The horrors of the Revolution iii. 223,225. seemed to be recommencing through the effects of one of the most awful visitations of Providence.1 1 Ann. Hist. vi. 86, 89; L. Blanc, Yet were the terrors of that mournful time really so great as to require no addition at the hands of man. In the densely-peopled quarters of the city, where the ravages of the pestilence were greatest, the appearances which Boccaccio has immortalised in Italy, and Defoe in England, were again exhibited. The deaths increased with frightful rapidity, and by the 9th April they had risen to 864 a-day, of whom nearly a half were in public hospitals. So great a mortality, which was in a great part produced in limited quarters of the city, diffused universal consternation. Terror seized upon every one; the most ordinary and harmless occupations of life became suspected, and were prohibited. A rumour got up that the scavengers spread the epidemic from their frequent contact with filth; they were chased in consequence from the worst parts of the city, and the streets were choked with dunghills, which no one ventured to remove. The theatres, by public command, remained open; but the actors, a thing unheard of in Paris, played to empty benches. The usual litters for carrying patients to the public hospitals could no longer suffice, and seven hundred men were employed in constructing new ones; but none could be found to carry them. The artillery waggons upon this were put in XXIX. 1832. requisition to collect the dead, and remove the living to CHAP. their places of treatment; but the mournful sound of the wheels froze every heart with horror, as they passed along at night through the deserted streets, and the jolting of the wheels caused the dead bodies to burst, and a frightful line of putrid matter marked the track of the wheels. At last the terror became such that no one was to be seen in the streets but those who were engaged in tending the living or burying the dead. Funerals, even of the most respected persons, were conducted without pomp or attendants, generally at daybreak. The dead among the poor were thrown into the graves with their clothes on without ceremony of any sort, as on the field of battle. In the general danger, as in all similar emergencies, selfish-Cap, vi ness prevailed in the generality of men over the generous affections; and the great majority, in terror for their own Aun. Hist. lives, became callous to the sufferings of others, or failed 146. in the ordinary duties of humanity and domestic life.1* 87, 89; L. Blanc, iii. 224, 225; xv. 144, stances of and bene Yet were there some noble exceptions, and which, in 36. the extremity of danger, vindicated the character of Noble inhuman nature. The King and royal family set an fortitude honourable example. Unlike too many of the higher volence. ranks, they did not leave Paris on the outbreak of the epidemic, but remained at their post, assuaging suffering by their cares, lessening terror by their example. The * The deaths in Paris, in the first fortnight of the epidemic, were as follows: -CAPEFIGUE, vi. 882. Moniteur, April 15, 1832. In April, 12,700 persons died. The epidemic lasted one hundred and eightynine days in Paris, during which the reported deaths were 18,402, but the real number was probably a half greater. The population of Paris at this period was 960,000.-L. BLANO, iii. 237; and Satistique de la France (Population), 87. XXIX. 1832. CHAP. Duke of Orléans, accompanied by M. Casimir Périer, visited in person the cholera hospitals, and the latter there contracted the malady of which he afterwards died. Immense were the sums expended by the public bodies and the affluent classes in arresting the progress of the malady. The police expended in less than a month 19,915 francs (£795) in carriages, for the conveyance of medical men from one sick-bed to another. Five thousand rations of rice were distributed a-day among the convalescent at the expense of the Duke of Orléans. Numerous splendid gifts were bestowed by individuals on the hospitals, to enable them to accommodate the sick; the medical profession of all ages evinced that generous zeal and courageous devotion which its members never fail to evince on similar occasions; and the Sisters of Charity, whose numbers seemed to multiply with the demand for their services, were everywhere to be seen aiding the recovery of the convalescent, or smoothing the pillow of the dying. Only two unworthy acts signalised that period of general beneficence. The Archbishop of Paris had offered his country house of Conflans as an hospital for the use of the convalescent; it was refused by the Council-General of the Department, because that prelate had said that the cholera was a visitation of Heaven on Paris for the Revolution of July. The Duchess de Berri, through M. de Chateaubriand, had sent 12,000 francs (£480) for the relief of the poor of Paris, but it was refused by order of M. Montalivet, the Minister of the Interior Conscience makes cowards of us all; and so did it shake the mind of Louis Philippe, that he saw a political move in the offer of an aged archbishop, worthy of St Charles Boromeo, and in the gift of a young princess to the suffering poor of a city, where she had formerly appeared as a vision of felicity, adorned with flowers, and surrounded by admiration.1 * 1 Cap. vi. 88, 93; L. Blanc, iii. 225, 227; Ann. Hist. xv. 147, 149. * M. de Chateaubriand, in an admirable pamphlet on this strange refusal, made these remarks, as just as they are eloquent :-" Ce qu'a fait Madame la "Tell ΧΧΙΧ. 1832. 37. Casimir Cuvier. The period of alarm felt for the cholera at Paris was CHAP. signalised by the death of two very eminent men, who, however, were not carried off by that pestilence, M. Casimir Périer, and M. Cuvier the immortal naturalist. The former Death of of these persons, who was of a very nervous and excitable Périer and temperament, had never recovered the dolorous impression which the visit to the cholera hospital with the Duke of Orléans had produced. He had been in feeble health before; and the anxieties consequent on his situation as Prime Minister had preyed upon his mind, and, like Mr Canning, brought on a febrile irritable state of the system, which proved fatal. Shortly before his death he had an interview with M. Pozzo di Borgo, the Russian ambassador, who having made use of the expression, "The emperor, my master, does not wish your master," said he, interrupting him, "that France has no orders to receive, and that as long as Casimir Périer lives she will take counsel only of her honour." These words were pronounced with extreme animation and a flushed countenance. He sunk down immediately after exhausted, in his arm-chair, and, looking at his feeble limbs, he exclaimed, "Ah! I am gone; they have killed me." His malady appearing hopeless, M. de Montalivet was, by an ordonnance dated 17th April, April 17. appointed, ad interim, Minister of the Interior and President of the Council; and on the 16th May he breathed his last. On the same day Cuvier expired. A splendid funeral was accorded to the Prime Minister, at which May 16. M. Royer Collard pronounced an eloquent eloge on the departed Premier. M. Cuvier sunk almost unnoticed 1 L. Blanc, into the grave; no political passions or selfish interests iii. 240,243. celebrated his funeral obsequies. To which tomb will Duchesse de Berri est français, ce que j'ai fait en son nom est français, tout de grand jour et la tête haute. Le nom de la veuve que ses ennemis n'ont prononcé que pour le honnir de leurs calomnies, éclate enfin publiquement d'une manière digne d'elle. La première fois que la Mère du Duc de Bordeaux fait entendre la voix depuis qu'elle est bannie ce n'est pas pour réclamer un Trône, c'est pour offrir quelques secours à des Infortunés."-CHATEAUBRIAND, Œuvres, xviii. 297. |