The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1871-08-02
The Asiatlc Cholera Again Upsn Its Travels
from the East to the West.

The Asiatlc Cholera Again Upsn Its Travels
| from the East to the West.
The reports which we have received within
the last few days of the presence and the
! spreading of the Asiatic cholera in various
parts Of Europe, convey the warning that this
terrible East Indian destroyer has perhaps set
out upon another pilgrimage round the world
from the East to the West For months past
we have had, from time to time, hints and ru-
mors of the existence of this epidemic and OF
its ravages in various widely separated locali-
ties in the Russian empire. Now we have the
| more definite information in letters from Cron-
stadt and St. Petersburg describing the prog
ress of the disease in European Russia as
alarming in the extreme, and that it has ad-
vanced to the German frontier that the Ger
man government has quietly established san
itary Gordon along its Russian border; but
that, in spite Of these precautions, the disease
has made its appearance in all the Baltic
ports. 1t appears, also, that 1t has carried off
many victims in Poland, whence 1t threatens
! to spread into Prussia, Gallicia and Hungary.
Nor is this all for we have the information
from London that case Of cholera has al
ready broken out in Hull, England, whittier
the seeds of the disease had been brought by
emigrants from North Germany en- route to
the United States. Great apprehensions are felt
in England that the epidemic may cover again
the British islands In its travels westward.
The scourge has also appeared In the
South Of France, where measures have been
taken to prevent the spread Of the disease.
The disinfection, meantime of the numerous
bloody battle fields of France is slowly pro-
crossing. and, should the disease spread rap
idly, it is feared that its ravages in France
will be frightful. Such is the substance of our
special intelligence from London received
within the last thirty-six hours of the prog
ress of this Asiatic pestilence in Central and
Western Europe, and touching the fears
awakened in England in refersnce to its mani
fest destiny westward
Now, while we have no purpose or desire
to create a needless alarm on this side the
Atlantic, we are, nevertheless, warned by
experience that the broad expanse Of the
dividing ocean is no barrier against the
Asiatic cholera advancing westward over the
European Continent. The history Of this
terrible disease, as a travelling epidemic from
India to all other parts of the world, is very
remarkable and very mysterious, but is,
nevertheless, very instructive. This Asiatic
cholera had existed in India for many centu-
ries, and had been very destructive at differ
ent times among the swarming population of
those burning regions as q local disease, just
as that other tropical disease, the yellow
fever, from time to time breaks out with un-
usual virulence in its strongholds, such as Ha-
vana and Vera Cruz But in 1917 the Indian
cholera, as raging epidemic, developed
in the sweltering delta Of the Ganges, broke
away from it's usual confines, and eastward,
northward and westwardly set out upon its
mission as destroying demon to every quar-
ter of the globe. Slowly advancing at first, in
1920 it appeared at Bombay, where it swept
of hundred and fifty thousand persons. In
1921 it pushed to the northwest. following the
courses of commercial rivers and travelled
roads to Persia, Arabia and Asia Minor. Then
1t seemed to pause awhile; but in 1923 it
reappeared and devastated Central Asia.
Then steadily extending to the shores of the
Caspian Sea, in 1929 it broke out in Southern
Russia. Thence pursuing the commercial
route of the Volga and its tributaries it sd-
vanced to Moscow in 1880, and, rapidly
spreading over Europe, it appeared in England
in October 1881. On the 9Th of June, 1882,
it was introduced by an emigrant ship into
Quebec, on the 10th it appeared at Montreal,
on the 2lst of the same month it appeared in
New York, and by October it had spread over
all the country east of the Mississippi to New
Orleans. We had it again in the United
States at various places in 1884 and again in
lS49. On this occasion the epidemic had
apparently travelled from Asia across the
Continent to Europe and across the Atlantic
to the West Indies in the comparatively short
space of single year. 1t entered the United
States this time by way of the Mississippi
River, in March, and broke out in New York
in May, and, spreading over all the country to
our remotest frontier settlements, did not
| wholly disappear till November.
The fatality from the pestilence in this
country in ls49, however, compared with
| that of 1882. was light. In 1882 the
death records of this city from the cholera
give us an aggregate Of three thousand
FIVE hundred souls from July to Novem-
Der, when the scourge itself died ont. This
fatality in population of three hundred
thousand was heavy. The largest number
Of deaths from cholera in the city in any one
week of 1882 was seven hundred and sixteen
the record for the week ending July 81. The
same fatality in our present population would
be about twenty-five hundred deaths per
week, which, including deaths from other
causes would give us a weekly report of
three thousand. As it was in New York in