Ellsworth American. [volume] (Ellsworth, Me.) 1855-current, 1866-01-12
Asia the Mother Of Pestilence

Among the ruins of once stupcndou
but now expiring civilization which fa
surpassed i'll pomp and splendor. all tha
modern times can hoast, sill fingers or
the banks of the Gangcs and the Indus {
mephitic atmosphere. that from time t,
time. rifects the adjacent continents witt
disease, and favored by peculiaritics o
climate and the increased circulation o
mankind, radiatcs its poison to the renotes
regions of the globe.
No one can have failed to remark thai
all the terrible cpidemics einanate from the
with its swarming Heather population ant
barbarons usages. casts broad and bale.
ful shadow over the path of progress. The
plague, the cholera. dstinctlvely called
Asatic. the Leprosy, the yellow fever the
contagious forms of Typhus fever, all own
| the same origin and seem to follow the
same path. The very quarter OF the earth
where the Mosaic records place the Para
disc of man, is also, and has been from the
first. the region that bears the most solemn
and impressive e' i !ence Of the atIlicton.
to which he became victim by the Fall
| 1t is not in that portion of the Asiati,
mainland where the chosen people found
their prescribed abode, that any of these
maladies are shown to have taken theii
rise, but where, since the beginning. abject
fatalism and superstition have had theil
home. The Gland Of the SUM- and con
sequently of especial light" has its treas
ures, old and new,of science. some of then
surprising the traditions and the facts O
our later and more polished Western races
/ Al, = ;,,N,,
tyranny, ecclesiastic and political, hav,
prevented their dissemination among til.
bulk of the populace, ,and have consequent
y. left it prey to innamerable calanties
that instruction would have aTerted.
An eloquent and somewhat eccentric
writer, Xavier de Maistre, says: "Shem
is good fellow. Give linn shade, pipe
his women, and Il, is quite content; bu
Japhct is "a terrible rogue
Rogue or net, the laCter has cleared ani
cultivated the more rugged portions of th'
earth. while s,hem has dozed under hi
spontaneous vine and iig-tree as the age
rolled away, leaving him far behind al
things that pertain to the new tlispensatiol
that prevail of human life.
Along with her spices. her slovy fabric
and her vices, Asia has within our epocl
bestowed upon the Western world c.iiefl,
her horrible infections. We have lad t.
develope, improve and utilize the commod
otics ;u to cxtirpate at our cur own grea
cost, her evil habits and l4er pest.lences
The plague and leprCsy have disappeare
almost totally from among us, by ieaso
of the universal hvgienic measures apple
to check them. The yellow fever is no,
confined almost entirely TO America, an
even the cholera, .iio most insidious, riys
tcroUs and persistent Of all these scourge
is losing It's terrors and its sway in all re
gions where personal and public cieanli
ness. correct lialits aud calm nerves con
front it. Filth, ignorance and poverty ar
its chief coadjutors nov, and when tn
partnership can finally he divided hy th
withdrawal of at least the two first partc
ipants in the firm, the cholera will ccas
to terr.iy. Still, as the fright.ul statistic
of the past twelccElontii have shown, III
virus is sufficiently plentiful and destruC
tive to inact incalculabe distress, aud tire
: with waiting for the comparatively slo'
result Of Iaedieal experiments, we are ur9
f entity inpcl,ed to lock for a sweeping col
receive to be applied at the very fountain
head Of the disease. Some timc ago W
had occasion, in an article upon cognat
topic, TO announce that call hal sou
forth in Europe for grand information;
Hygienie Leaguc, by which all govern
ments. East and West, would be urged {
co cooperate in seeking cat the causes 9
home, of these deyasting epidenics, and i
f appIyia@ thorough remedies. We ar
gratifica to perceive l'y our foreign file;
that tls prospect meets with universal ap
nroyal even in Turkey, ard the movcmei
has already begun N Y. Nercauhi
). f2WRai.