—As we predicted several weeks since, the committees having charge of the bills relating to national health organizations in the two houses of Congress, have concluded that the time intervening before the 4th of March, is too short to permit the discussion and passage of any such bills.
They will, therefore, only recommend the appropriation of $20,000 for the use of the present National Board of Health for the coming year and the placing of $500,000 at the disposal of the President, as a contingent fund, to be used only in case the cholera or other severe epidemic disease should become prevalent in our country during the coming summer and autumn. To place an adequate sum of money where it can be used in fighting an epidemic after it has become prevalent, is better than to do nothing. Yet, if a cholera epidemic in this country is dependent on the