The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1871-08-26 00:00:00

HISTORY OF THE CHOLERA

Th, Th.,. in a lea.ler, giveg the following history of this
terrible se.airge ; and It may, twrlsaps. he a sea,nal.le
nition to tisk.ae also take to little isstertbt iss ganitary
matters :

Forty years horse LOW eloop.eol since a new aLii for-
mtdable disease ins-h- its appearance in this country.
Generated, acoxording to common belief, in the swami"
of Lower Bengal, it gradually advanced, always in a
North-Westerly direction, until it had at length trans-
krred itself from the banks of the Ganges hr the lurid:a
of the Time. Two :Noileri of the case are worthy of re-
m:irk. The plague, though apparently of purely
Asiatic origin, was at once called by the name of an
old English malady, and that doosignathon it has borne
not only in England, but in India also, up to the pre-
sent day. Sydenhant upward:4 of IL century before,
hail minutely describeol a disease incidental to the
autumn amosno in this country under the title of the
" Cholera," or Cholera-morbus," anol SO accurately did
his account tally in all particulars with the symptoms of
the newly-imported loestilence that the old mune wax at
once applieol to it. The next point notable is that,
though the 'bolero did certainly travel from Jessore to
Sunderland, as we have said, its progress Was strangely
slow, interrupted, and capricious. It took six years in
getting acre.; Persia to the shores of the Black Sea,
and at that point it remained quite stationary for fully
six years tore. It seemed, indeed, as if it could obtain
no foooting on European ground, until all at once, in the
midst of the excitement caused by the French Revolu-
tion of 18410. the alarm Wtrs again raised, and 'holera
was declared to be on its march. The report was brit
tee true. A tingle twelvemonth then sufficed too bring
the plague =roes the Continent of Europe, anol in the
bite autumn or early winter of I Sill it struck the shorm
of this country in the parts of Northumberland. We
must now put another fact on record. Thrieerrince the
first inVaNn Ollllll4ilDolera visitrnitiriocrnuirtry, but always
hitherto unohor cettain invariable co aulitions. It has uni-
formly made its appearource in that autumn season with
which Sydeuliam connected it. awl as uniformly has it
made a kind of tentative or preliminary attack in the year
prereding its more fatal ooutbreak. Thus the mortality
in 1331 was inconsiderable, mid the main attack fol-
lowed in 183 e ' • and precisely in the same manner the
epidemicar of 184% 1851, and 1866 were preceded by
slight or partial eruptions of the pestilence in 1848,
1833, and 186fi. Cholera years, in fact, have gone in-
variably in pairs. so that if a fifth attack is really
threatening us now, we might, according to preco.olent,
expect some slight outbreak in the present autumn
and a more widespread and fatal ephlemic in 1879. It
must be observed, however, that in certain aspects the
ease has materially changed.
According to all evidence, the visitation of 1831.32
did actually represent the arrival of a certain plague,
the course of which coolol be tracked from Bengal to
the Baltic, and to on to the coasts of Northumberland.
lire same might be said with somewhat less certainty
of the epidemics of 1848-49, and perhaps 1853-54, but
in 1865-66 it was otherwise, and the difference is still
more remarkable at present. Six years ago, aso we then
obaerved, the pestilenoe with which we were threatened
metrical br have originated, or, at any rate, to have
acquired a communicable virulence, in the basin of the
Mediterranean. At this moment it dates, on, to speak,
from linssia, and from Russia exclusively. Onr two
observation, 'rakish inclines us to doubt whether
the epidemic of 1866 has not survived in Russia
ever !once that period, so as to break out again
with new force ilLit 1101 e. In any case, the far-to
are very strikin.,f, for the disease ton which sour
eyes are now fiXofl has been raging in Russia
with more or has intensity f. or at least two years
without giving any serious alarm to the countries
Oil its Western frontier. It is re:namable enough, there-
fore, to ask why we should be apprehensive of the im-
portation of Cholera from St. Petersburg now thorn we
were six moonths ago, when, in point of fact, it Was
raging mime severely than at pre:writ. In this sense,
indeed, both Lord kindierky and Mr. Forster spoke
when questioned the other day in Parliament, and no
doubt it might be argued that, if the I fludera olid not
spread in 18119 or 1870,. it may fail tor. reach no in Is7l.
But it cannot i.e &an e imal that at this moment the eta-
denlie, though less intense, appears more diffusable,
and it has actually reached KOnmasberg—a considerable
stride. lln the whole, we think there is remon for sur-
mising that for the last five years Cholera has been
endemiso in Rusaia, as it always is in India, and that
some of tin one conditions which we cannot fathom are
now rauorying it Westward Once MOTO.

if we extend this survey of the pestilence from its
history to its effects, we shall observe other changes of
an important character. sentrary to what might have
been anticipated, the epidemic of 1831-32 WM the
lightest of the series. Though the new plague fell npon
a is emilation terribly frightened, necessarily unpreteared,
and vary scantily protected by the sanitary appliances
regarded as indispensable by ourselves, the deaths --a
most remarkable phenomenon —were but AA One to
three in proportion to the attacks, and the general
()Onion appeared to be that in this country, at any
rate, Cholera could never assume any very alarming
character. Seventeen years later we were effectually
nneleceived. The outhres,k of IS4O was destructive
in the extreme. Home progress, we suppose, must
have been made since 1532 in laws and regulations
for the public health • hut no mitigating effect was
produced on the epiefemic. In I`4ll, however, and
again, more strikingly, in 15641, the disease appeared in
certain respects to be more amenable to control. Its
actual intensity had not end), not diminished, but hail
fearfully increased. The deaths, instead of being only
30 per cent. of the attacks, were at least 50, awl this
augmented fatality, we may here remark, has been
visible in India also. But still the epidemics of 1554
awl 1866,- though violent at particular spots, were par-
tial compared with that of IS-19. In 1866, indeed, the
mortality was almost confined to certain districts of
East London, awl, after rapidly culminating in a heavy
tale el deaths at the beginning of August, it declined,
and departed with a celerity unknown in former visita-
tions. The study of these factaxnay tend, perhaps, to
give us Some assurance.
, Of Cholera itself it must be confessed, after hsty
years' experience and inluiry, that we know literally

nothing. That it did not really appear for the first time
in 1 le lia in the year 1817 is more than pri dial& —perhaps
certain ; but that it first acquired in that particular
year theyower and character of a sweeping epidemic
is certain also. That it resembles, again, in every
symptom the disorder described by Sydenham is true,
and perhaps we shall not be far wrong in regarding it
as some Asiatic variety of the complaint which at
certain seasons and under given conditions slips
itself, as it were, into the old English shell. But
of the real nature or proper treatment of the disease
we are as ignorat.t as we were forty years since,
nor are the doctors in India any wiser. Still, we
do seem able to exert some control met the plague,
for it was repressed more succesfully in 1654 than
in 1849, and more effectually in 1%13 than in 1854.
These faets are beyond question, and we are entitled
to make the best of them. We have had our warnings,
and have been taught what to avoid. We know in a
general way what hi do, and not only is the duty
simple, but it; performance is certain to be for our
benefit, whether the t liuleni comes or not. What-
ever tends to prevent the propagation of the pestilence
will infallibly tend to the improvement of the public
health the comfort of our lives, and the welfare of the
reople. The prescription, in short, is little more than
cleanliness -with such a care for the air We breathe
and the water we drink as ought never, in any seasons,
tube dispensed with.