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

JPIIifAT 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 light,"
and that on the darkest night there is light enough in
apace to illumine millions of moons, did they exist.
What do we know of the more distant primary and
rsecondary planets ? but that they, like the earth, revolve
round and with the sun, and have density corresponding
to their diameters. Of the stars we know nothing,
but that their distance and bulk are to us incalcu-
lable, and their numbers, as revealed by the
telescope, innumerable. We do know that our
earth, is, in its solids, composed of certain sub-
stances, at present reducible to metallic bases. That
water is composed of two volumes, or measures, of hy-
drogen gas, and one of oxygen gas, that when pure, it
is colourless, transparent, tasteless, without smell ;
and if deprived of heat below 32° of Fahrenheit, it be-
comes .ce. We know that air is composed by weight,
of 8 oxygen to 28 nitrogen ; that when untainted it is
invie ibis, inodorous, colourless, elastic, possessed of gra-
vity, easily moved, rarified, and condensed. Chemical
analyses 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
and air, comparatively pure, are absolutely necessary to
health ; and sanitary science has shown that men seldom
Pay sufficient attention to these most important facts.
Political economy has recently been raised to the rank
of a science, and men are taught how best to buy, to
sell, and to get gain ; but they have yet to learn
that it is human life alone which is of inestimable
'value. The 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-
important text, " What shall it profit a man if he gain
the whole world and lose his own soul," may, para-
phrased, be taken for a sermon on the necessity of sani
Lary improvement. What shall it profit a man if he
accumulate immense wealth, and lose his own life ? Is
this considered, as it ought to be, in these latter days of
mammon worship ? Let the millionaire who toils 16 hours
out of each 24, to accumulate more wealth, answer ; let
those who consider the rights of the poor to consist in
unceasing toil amidst hopeless squalor and misery, and
their own duties to consist in extracting a full pound of
flesh, answer. But, to the question. What do we know
about cholera? We know that it is nearly 6,000 years since
man was banished from the garden of Eden ; and, we
also know, that he has yet to learn the simple A B C
of life—namely, that pure air is absolutely necessary to
healthy existence. This is so simple a statement that man
will none of it. Like the Assyrian General, he wishes
to witness the doing of some great thing.
One theorist will maintain that cholera is owing to
volcanic agency ; the solid crust of the world must be
convulsed to satisfy his profound imaginings. The
choleraic elements are 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 animalculm 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 OF
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, espe-
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, &c., 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
_,lvtietreent niioonst crowded with human life, and in them least
was paid to the necessities of health. In the
Laoverpool cellars occurred so fearful a mortality that
actln r,. of Parliament was obtained to prohibit their use.
sugars are
and in Copenhagen houses are let in flats,
used as stores, ground floors as places of
.11,. 8, first floors as best-class residences, whilst the
upper floors
Meet, being take
the place of the Liverpool cellar tene-
-I°l' clewing crowded with human life, =ring nothing
these boullesB nor ventilation. In the upper storeys of
disease
strißies cholera raged most, showing that the
be it on
~4es its prepared victims where it finds them,
table the river's bank, in a morass, or on elevated
'the ov
in the damp and unwholesome cellar, or in
ercrowded, unventilated, and equally unwhole-
some att. • It is said that cholera does nut confine its
"11
the filthy and to the impure. Fire, once
ations
flate-
-0 to
ed to obtain the mastery, will destroy things in-
"table, and so will cholera. The commencement of
a fire. 4
a...Au
earety. of cholera must be prevented, if there is to be

'What do we know about cholera? This, we fear, must
•")r 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
6aY that, like this subtle element, once ignited it gathers
6~engtli if neglected, and only ceases its action when
lake food upon which it preys has been exhausted.
Whatever may be the germ of cholera, there is abun-
dance of evidence to show that it may exist in a state of
quiescence over vast areas, and that it is, in this condi-
tion, independent of the physical elements. Cholera
Ilhas been known to progress against stream and wind.
e most rigid quarantine is ineffective. Cholera leaps
human barriers at a single bound, appearing simulta-
. eously at places wide asunder, even though a hurricane
raging adverse to its progress, and at the same
tn oreent strikes the l4 his dormitor peasant in his cot, the pauper
,y, and the prisoner in his cell. Jf then 'eft to do its
work unchecked, the active middle class
tradesman,
and the idle rich man soon become the vic-
tims. The middle class house has its adjoining privyand
Midden. The country seat and the nobleman's mansion
have,ess most probably, large drains of deposit, with huge
secret
cpools beneath them. But the foul sewer and the
cesspool have other victims than those claimed by
cholera, as many a bereaved family unconsciously bear
witness.
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