The Sun.
London, England, 1853-10-06 00:00:00

WHAT DO WE KNOW ABOUT CHOLERA ?

The question may be asked with equal force of any
single phenomenon in nature. What do we know of
ourselves ? but that " we are fearfully and wonderfully
made." What do we know of this earth ? but that it
floats in space—a speck in the universe of worlds ; we
know there is an enveloping atmosphere, liquid oceans,
and a crust, solid at the surface, balanced by gravity.
What do we know of the moon ? the nearest planetary
body to us, but that she shines with "borrowed l gh
and that on the darkest night there is light enough in
space to illumine millions of moons, did they exist.
What do we know of the more distant primary and
"e°114,17 planets ? but that they, like the earth, revolve
r°nnd and with the sun, and have density corresponding.
ts) their diameters. Of the stars we know nothing,
buitethnaat.litaheir distance and bulk are to us incalcu-
lable,their numbers, as revealed by the
that our
earth,°7: innumerable. We do know
wtaatnecres' 'at
ill
its
solids,
That
composed of certain sub-
Present reducible to metallic bases.
drogeniB C 0 present
of two volumes, or measures, of hy-
hi
gas) Octa one of oxygen gas, that when pure, it
colourless, transparent, tasteless, without smell ;
and if deprived of heat below 32° of Fahrenheit, it be-
e:flll,zes ice- We know that air is composed by weight,
-- ' Oxygen to 28 nitrogen ; that when untainted it is
invisible, inodorous, colourless, elastic, possessed of gra_
l'iantaya
Yieae:ily moved, rarified, and condensed. Chemical
have revealed these facts, and has further shown
that pure water is rapidly defiled, and that pure air is
easily tainted. Medical analyses have proved that water
Ziaci air, comparatively pure, are absolutely necessary to
health ; and sanitary science has shown that men seldom
Pol i tsi il I
if acient attention to these most important facts.
cl
economy has recently been raised to the rank
et. a science, and men
are taught how best to buy, to
sell, and to get
that gain ; but they have yet to learn
lat it is huinan life alone which is of inestimable
value.
11'..-me Manchester School has learned, and has
taught the commercial lesson of free trade in things
necessary to the artificial comforts of life, but men have
Yet to learn the sanitary lesson necessary to bodily health,
and to a moral and religious enjoyment of life.• The all-
the text, " What shall it profit a man if he gain
the whole world and lose his own soul," may, para.
rased, be taken for a sermon on the necessity of sani
41 eprovenaent. What shall it profit a man if he
thistilillate irurnense wealth, and lose his own life ? Is
f
rnaraconsidered, as it ought to be, in these latter days o
those
sin consider
worshi p ?
cut of .... , Let the millionaire who toils 16 hours
hob 24, to accumulate more wealth, answer ; let
.n
their o consider the rights of the poor to consist i
flesh, arm
g toil amidst hopeless squalor and misery, and
about choleraclu
wer. -r•
7tivves to consist in extracting a full pound of
4.'ut, to the question. What do we know
132 e know that it is nearly 6,000 years since
...l°
1 know an Was banished from the garden of Eden ; and, we
:1..........eai1fi5it4if,.71 e_, that
A. he has yet to learn the simple B C
namely, that pure air is absolutely necessary to
existence. none This is so simple a statement that man
of it. Like the Assyrian General, he wishes
to witness the doing of some
One theorist will great thing
maintain that cholera is owing to
'Volcanic agency'
the solid crust of the world must be

convulsed„ to satisfy his profound imaginings. The
choleraic element s aro generated in mysterious subter
ranean reservoirs, and, through the tremblings and-
crackings of the earth, are vomited forth and dispersed
in the surrounding atmosphere. We know, however,
that cholera has appeared independent of the earthquake,
and that the earthquake takes place without producing
cholera. A second theorist states that cholera is partial
to definable geological systems, and to certain strata. A
commission of French physicians reported that cholera
was rarely, if ever, found upon the granites. It has
also been said, " Cholera follows the course of rivers."
Another set of theorists will have it that "a diminution
of electricity tends to produce cholera," that there is
"a deficiency of ozone in the atmosphere ;" then there is
the fungus theory, and the animalculas theory, and the
doctrines of contagion, and of non-contagion, advocated
and denounced by men of European reputation—men
who place M.D. after their names. But,for the " cer-
tain and unfailing cure of cholera," receipts out of num-,
ber are published, pro bono publico, by eminent phy-
sicians and army surgeons of twenty years' practice,
until the public are fairly bewildered ; and, to mend the
matter, or rather to disgrace the professors of medicine
in the eyes of all the world, we have the medical men
sent to Newcastle-upon-Tyne by the General Board of
Health, set upon in the midst of their labours (the
plague half stayed), and denounced by the local medical
men. This, however, does not answer the question—
What do we know about cholera ? Without dog-
matising, we may say historically, that cholera
had its birth beneath the burning suns of India
—that it was brought forth in a crowded, dirty,
ill-ventilated town, surrounded by a thick jungle and by
immense swamps—the town of Jepore—that its elder
sister was fever. We may also say that cholera con-
tinues true to its parentage, and ever claims its first vic-
tims from CROWDED, DIRTY, ILL-VENTILATED PARTS OP
TOWNS, having a damp, undrained subsoil. Theorists,
in their speculations, have for the most part overlooked
one simple fact, namely, that the existence of human
beings are necessary to the development of cholera, and
that, consequently, where human life is most abundant,
there is most scope for the development of cholera, eßpe-

cially if the same set of conditions also exist as at the
place of its birth. What are the facts in the history of
cholera ? Seaports are built on the banks of rivers, on
low, swampy, and undrained sites ; population is crowded
for purposes of trade, and the character of the people
needs not to be described. We know that in such
towns there is overcrowding, want of ventilation,
filth, and vice in its most degrading forms, in excess.
Cholera, therefore, "tracks rivers," and "rages with
greatest violence in low situations." But large towns
are built on "particular formations," inland for pur-
poses of trade. The coal measures of England have
given birth to Birmingham, to Wolverhampton, to Man-
chester, and many other secondary towns. Manchester
is from 100 to 150 feet above the sea. Wolverhampton
and the district around, Bilston, &e., are 500 feet above
the sea. Sunderland is situate upon the magnesian
limestone. Liverpool and Wolverhampton are upon
the new red sandstone. Bilston and Newcastle-upon-
Tyne are upon the coal measures. Hull is upon the
oolites. London is upon the tertiaries. Dover is upon
the chalk. Plymouth is upon secondary limestones.
The towns in Cornwall and in the north of Scotland are
upon granite. In all these places cholera has raged ;
and the wretched, the dissipated, the foul livers, have
ever been the greatest sufferers. In Liverpool, cellars
were most crowded with human life, and in them least
attention was paid to the necessities of health. In the
Liverpool cellars occurred so fearful a mortality that
an act of Parliament was obtained to prohibit their use.
In Glasgow and in Copenhagen houses are let in flats,
cellars are used as stores, ground floors as places of
business, first floors as best-class residences, whilst the
upper floors take the place of the Liverpool cellar tene-
ment, being crowded with human life, caring nothing
for cleanliness nor ventilation. In the upper storeys of
these houses cholera raged most, showing that the
disease strikes its prepared victims where it finds them,
be it on the river's bank, in a morass, or on elevated
table land—in the damp and unwholesome cellar, or in
the overcrowded, unventilated, and equally unwhole-
somdlattic. It is said that cholera does not confine its
operations to the filthy and to the impure. Fire, once
allowed to obtain the mastery, will destroy things in-
flammable, and so will cholera. The commencement of
a fire and of cholera must be prevented, if there is to be
safety.

What do we know about cholera? This, we fear, must
for some time to come, through the blind neglect of
men, be a recurring question, and it may never be solved
in its entirety. We may, however, presume to say that
cholera is controllable, just as fire is controllable, if the
proper measures are promptly taken ; and we may also
say that, like this subtle element, once ignited it gathers
strength if neglected, and only ceases its action when
the food upon which it preys has been exhausted.

That fever may be diminished, and that cholera may
be controlled, there is abundant evidence ; as also that
sanitary works, properly executed, and sanitary regula-
tions efficiently carried out, will save life to an appreci-
able extent. The sanitary operations in Liverpool have
reduced the rate of mortality in that town by upwards
of three hundred deaths per annum, and as much re-
mains to be done in sewering, draining, water supply,
cleansing, and regulating, the value of life will still
further be added to.

The laws governing epidemic pestilences may be be-
yond the ken of man. Epidemics are not all of one
kind, as their history sufficiently proves, and there may
be pestilences against which no previous care shall be
a protection. Our system threads a mysterious way
through space ; and, as the slightest alteration in the
composition of the atmosphere will cause disease and
death, the whole race may suffer beyond human remedy.
The law governing cholera seems, in one respect, to be
simple—namely, that its first outbreak in any place is
amidst over-crowding, and defective ventilation, filth,
squalor, and vice. There has been no exception to this
rule in England. From such points the disease has
spread (radiated) as the raging of a fire ; or, as the
ripple on water after the plunging in of a stone. During
the epidemic in 1848-49, Dr. Sutherland noticed this
fact in the large towns be visited. The Registrar-Gene-
ral has published maps of the metropolis, and of the
country, showing that on a grand scale the disease
obeyed the same law. Cholera does not attack indis-
criminately, as influenza for instance, and may, there-
fore, be more readily warded off. That the virus
or cholera poison is something positive--something
which must have a fitting soil to grow in,—or
fitting materials to act upon, seems pretty cer-
tain. The atmosphere must, at all times, have in-
numerable seeds of the mould fungus floating harm-
lessly in it, waiting the presence of decaying animal
or vegetable matter to develops them into active and
visible life. Where there is rigid cleanliness these seeds
remain harmlessly dormant, and so of cholera. This last
dread visitation in the north of Europe and at Newcastle•
upon-Tyne, has clearly proved that neglected filth in-
vites the disease. The fact has also been verified that,
where local boards of health have been established, and
have done their duty, there cholera, though imported,
could not spread.

R. R.