§ Colonel Sibthorpwished to know whether the right hon. Gentleman would have any objection to lay upon the Table the papers in his possession relative to the existence of Cholera?
Mr. Poulett Thomson knewthat there were rumours of such a nature, but he was 520 happy to be able to say, that they were very much exaggerated. From the best accounts he had been able to obtain from the Central Board of Health, there were not more than from thirty to forty new cases daily throughout the whole of London and its neighbourhood, and that the deaths amounted from twenty to thirty. He had no objection to give the hon. Member past returns, but he thought that there would be no advantage in issuing daily bulletins, as if the cholera were really prevalent as a disease here. The result of such a publication would be, to put the whole trade of this country under restrictions with regard to the south of Europe; and he did not think that circumstances at all required such a sacrifice. Undoubtedly, if the port of London was in a state in which the cholera was at all prevalent, there would be an absolute necessity to state the fact to the world, but such was not the case. There were no cases in the hospital ship, or in the hospitals on the shores of the river. He had had communications, which showed that the cholera was in existence in some parts of the back portions of the Metropolis, but, that what was properly called the Port of London, was by no means under the influence of the cholera. If the hon. Gentleman wished, for his own satisfaction, to see the Returns, he would have no objection to shew them to him, but he could not consent to their being published.
Mr. Goulburnsaid, that the medical men in distant parts of the country complained that, from the want of this information, which the Board of Health and the Government alone could give, they were without that knowledge of the disease which might be communicated to them, and the want of which would leave them to make experiments that a knowledge of the disease would render unnecessary.
§ Mr. Poulett Thomsonsaid, that there was a publication called The Cholera Gazette, which he understood had a very extensive circulation, and which contained a statement of the cholera cases.
§ Colonel Sibthorpobserved, that there had appeared in the public papers a statement directly contrary to that made by the Board of Health. He hoped that the right hon. Gentleman would pay his best attention to the subject.