§ Mr. Wakleywas very desirous of putting a question to the President of the Board of Trade, and he trusted that the pressing nature of the subject would be a sufficient excuse for now interfering. He had last night been informed that five persons had died of the plague in Tottenham-court-road, and on his return home he met a gentleman in extensive practice near Bedford-square, whom he asked if he had heard of these cases, or of any others resembling the plague? The gentleman instantly answered in the negative. The report, however, was still prevalent, and had created great alarm, and it. was material, therefore, that distinct information should directly be 166 given to the public. He had understood also that a deputation had waited on the President of the Board of Trade on the subject, and he begged to know of that right hon. Gentleman whether it were true that the disease had made its appearance, or whether the reports were wholly without foundation.
Mr. PoulettThomson was very glad that the question had been put, as it was obvious that if reports of such a nature were in circulation they could not be too soon contradicted. He had the satisfaction to be able to give the most unqualified contradiction to the rumour which he was informed had been spread through the town. He must add, that he thought there was some reason to complain of the quarter from whence the ridiculous rumour had proceeded. On Friday last it had come to his knowledge, from several communications, that such a report was abroad, and it had been traced to a medical gentleman, who had said that a case of the plague, or several cases, had occurred in London. When the rumour reached the department over which he presided, further inquiry was made, and a letter was written to the medical gentleman on the subject, to which he had sent a reply. That reply he held in his hand, and would read to the House;—
In reply to the inquiry made, I have the honour to state, that the report was communicated to me by a medical practitioner on Sunday week, which report I mentioned in one house only on the same day, and not since. It was not that several cases of plague had occurred at the London Docks, but that Mr. Cooke, of the house of Shoolbred and Cooke, drapers, Tottenham-court-road, with seven assistants, had died from opening a bale of goods in their warehouse, and that it was suspected they had died of the plague. The medical practitioner in question, knowing that I had paid considerable attention to the disease, which I had witnessed at Constantinople, thought that the report would interest me, and wished that I should take pains to examine the truth, and investigate the particulars of it—an object which I have not been able to accomplish, in consequence of my other numerous avocations.Upon the receipt of this letter, he had at once requested Sir William Pym to make the necessary inquiries. He did so, and he found that Mr. Cooke was the head of the firm. It was a large warehouse establishment, where there were between seventy and eighty people employed. He found that the head of this establishment 167 had died on the first of May of a brain fever, and that since that time there had not been one single person out of the seventy or eighty employed there who had been ill, except one young man, who was suffering from a pulmonary complaint. He must say, that for a medical gentleman to propagate a rumour of this kind, adding that the knowledge of many cases of this nature was in his possession, and not to call the attention of the Government to it during a whole week, afforded just grounds of complaint. Having made this public explanation, in order to prevent the continuation of any alarm that might have been created, he must at the same time express his own feeling and belief (and he was sure that every gentleman who heard him would participate in that feeling and belief) that it was the duty of every medical man to whom any report of so alarming a character as that mentioned in this letter might have been made, at once to have informed the Government upon the subject, in order that steps might have been taken to ascertain the truth of it, and to quiet the public mind by taking such further steps as might have been deemed necessary. It was true, as the hon. Gentleman had stated, that alarm had been raised, and that a deputation from the parish had waited on him at the Council office this morning in considerable alarm. He also understood that in consequence of the reports that had been raised, Messrs. Cooke and Shoolbred had suffered very considerably, and expected to suffer more. They had been wise enough to offer a reward of 200l. for the discovery of whoever was the original author of the calumny which had been spread against them.
§ Mr. Wakleyexpressed his satisfaction at the explanation given by the right hon. Gentleman. It was the opinion of nine-tenths of the medical men in the country that the plague was not a contagious disease; but even if it were, it ought not in such a place as London to create any alarm.