Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1866-06-26
Nsutralizing Cholera Poison.


A report Of the New York Board OF
Health, made last week, makes it pretty
certain that there have been between
thirty and forty cases of Asiatic cholera
in that city in the months of May and
June. The Board takes the sensible
ground that it is improper and unwlse to
attempt to conceal the facts. On the
other hand, they maintain that the peo-
pie should be apprised of them and the
only known means of stopping the fur
ther spread of the disease, There is no
occasion for any one to be alarmed
They are of the opinion--and they are
supported in it by the best medical au-
thority-that the poison which causes
the disease is controllable-thati it can
be neutralized and killed To this end,
the facal discharges ofa cholera patient
should never be allowed to be thrown in
to water-closet or sink without first
being thoroughly disnfected. These dis
charges are the most fatal, and probably
the only, means of spreading the disease;
and on this subject we desire 10 call the
earnest attention of the public to what
follows in this article:
DR.. Max Pettenkober, an eminent
German physician, and Professor of
Medicinal Chemistry in the University
of Munich, was recently employed during
a whole year in an elaborate investiga-
ton of the Asiatic Cholera, and of the
ways in which it is, or may be, propaga-
ted from individual to individual and
from place to place The results of his
examinations have been published in the
form of a report, to which we have oc-
casionally referred embodying not only
his own researches, but those of other
physicians and men of science, and the
report is deemed so valuable that its
gratuitous distribution throughout the
kingdom of Bavaria has been ordered at
the expense of the government His OBJ
servations were made under more favor
able circumstances than could be bad in
any republican country, for he had
authority over cholera patients that
could not be easily obtained anywhere
but under a monarchy and these obser-
vations he compared with those made in
India and England by others during the
last fifty years. We say thus much by
way of preface to the conclusion drawn
by DIR. Pettenkober, that the public and
students of medicine in this city may
know that what he sets forth in his re-
port as results are not mere empirical
guesses, but deductions from logical
Investigations. The facts that he claims
as fully established are as follows;
|. That cholera is not contagious in
the usual sense of the word, bat that it
can, nevertheless, be carried from one
place TO another. 2 That it always fol
lows the usual routes of commerce. 3.
That no elevation above the level of the
ocean furnishes guarantee against the
disease, nor is any depth necessarily ex-
posed to its ravages. 4. That no conta-
gious cholera matter is floating in the
atmosphere; and that consequently the
disease is not propagated by currents Of
air. s. That it is not propagated through
water. G. That il is propagated through
the earth. Z. That the earth receives
and develops the cholera contagion
from the excrements ofdiseased persons.
g. That excremenis from a diseased per-
son thrown into sink are capable OF
transforming the whole mass into
hearth Of cholera contagion. 3. That
the gases diSengdged by the decompo-
sition of organic substances penetrate
the earth, rise TO the surface and become
the cause of fsvers and of cholera. 10.
That there has not been a single case OF
cholera observed in Bavaria that could
not be traced to that species ofinfection.
IL. That the stools Of persons afflicted
with cholera and that species of diarrhea
which usually precedes cholera are more
infections than contact with persons
who are actually seized with the disease.
u. The cholera when carried to place /
where il has not previously appeared, is |
always carried by q diseased person and
through ererements