MR. JUSTIN M'CARTHYasked the Under Secretary of State for India, Whether his attention has been lately called to an article published in The Madras Medical Journal, in July 1870, entitled "Salt as a Preventive of Cholera," and describing various instances in which an extra supply of salt had preserved certain villages, settlements, or barracks in India from choleraic attack during the successive recurrences of the disease; and, whether the statements contained in that article do not seem to the Government a reason for taking steps for the still further reduction of the Salt Tax?
§ MR. J. K. CROSSI have not been able to procure the number of The Madras Medical Journal for July, 1870, to which the hon. Member calls my attention. In reply to his Question, I can only repeat what I stated to the House on the 7th, that there is no reason to believe that want of salt has any connection with cholera in India, and that in the present state of the finances there is no immediate probability of a further reduction of the Salt Tax.