Thus the difficulty of obtaining assistance, and of providing nurses, was lamentably increased. The sick and dying, who had no one to help them, sought their minister, as their only earthly friend: and in the closing scenes of their existence, they called aloud for his presence. Such an appeal, both to the common feelings of humanity, as well as to one of the highest obligations of a Christian minister, could not be otherwise than irresistible. There is nothing remarkable, therefore, in the circumstance of a clergyman, residing close to the village afflicted with such an awful visitation, having endeavoured to render all the assistance in his power, independently of attending to the important duties of his sacred office. Who, among the clergy, would not have done the same, in a similar case of emergency? Many names are on record, of those who exerted all their energies, in a manner far more valuable and important. When we recollect the scenes at Bilston, Sedgly, Plymouth, and other populous districts, where the epidemic spread among thousands, it is evident that the labour and exertion of those whose duty called upon them to attend the sick, must have been past description. Few, under such circumstances, had an opportunity of remaining any great length of time to watch the progress of particular cases, or of taking minutes of them. But where the disease was confined within narrower limits, and not more than two or three hundred had been affected by it, the difficulty of taking notes became proportionably less. This has probably been done in many instances, which, at present, have not been made known. But it has been strongly urged that the publication of them might be highly useful; as an opportunity would be thus afforded for those who are the most competent for the undertaking, to compare the details of variation of character, which this extraordinary disease may have exhibited under different circumstances; and by these means to arrive at some additional conclusions as to how far it has resisted or yielded to the application of particular modes of treatment. The _Christian Observer_ (No. 381, Sept. 1833, page 511) expresses this opinion in the following words:— “It might be well if clergymen, or other persons, would draw up a record of any remarkable circumstances, in their respective vicinities, connected with the visitation. These local narratives would form valuable notices towards a history of this mysterious disease. “It would not be uninteresting to compare the memoranda, moral and physical, of an inland manufacturing town like Bilston, suffering under the affliction, with those of a scattered rural district, or a seaport population, such as that of Plymouth, which the disease visited with almost unexampled rigour.” EXTRACTS FROM A DIARY, &c.