Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1871-08-18
The ChOlera-AIarm In Eng land.


And echo 1t all round about,
"'Tis O'Clock p. m"
The ChOlera-Alarm In Eng land.
IF we may credit the accounts we re-
ceive from every quarter, terrible and
subtle enemy is approaching our shores
by an accustomed and well marked track
For some time past cholera has been raw
aging Persia, where famine has contrib
uted to noursh the pestilence II has
crept on slowly through the steppes of
Southern Russia, until IL has grasped Po-
land, and has made its appearance in
virulent form in the eastern provinces of
Prussia. We are well acquainted with |
the history OF all recorded epidemics of
Asiatic cholera They have never take n
US unawares. They have always given
warning of their death dealing apprC ZACH.
aud have allowed us ample time, If we
chose, TO set our houses in order before
their coming In tropical Asia, among
teeming population, to whom. sanitary
precautions are unknown, CT ,olera has a
permanent home. A corr ,spondent. re.
Gently returned from Indi a, called atten.
ton day or two ago il our columns to
the state OF things by '<hich the disease is
propagated IN the n st. In India there is
no system OF dra' hage, no purified water
NNPt-Si Al Vic kiNob ClhlCH. nt
germs OF dlst 4se are never destroyed or
removed, thy are transferred by water or
Wlnd IroD1 one household to another, and
allowed to tester freely in the close and
uatK' med habitations of the natives. When
an unhealthy season causes particularly
tdrulent outbreak of cholera in India, the
epidemic rapidly crosses the Himalayas
spreads among the nomad tribes of Cen
trail Asia, whose primitive habits DO not
tend to check the pestilence; makes its
way steadily along the shores of the Cas-
plan into Southern Russia is matured
among the miserable peasant population
of that region, and finally penetrates by
way of Poland and Pomerania into the
heart of Western and civilized Europe
This fatal drama has been repeated sew
eral times within the memory of the pres
ent generation. Four times we have seen
the approach of cholera, by regular grada-
tions; from the East we have watched it
coming upon us, and, until we were actu-
ally wrestling with the epidemic, we took
no measures to avert the threatened devas.
tation. Yet we know what a horrible
scourge it is. The outbreak of 1S4S car
Tied off $4,000 lives; the milder epidemic
of 1854, 10000; the latest visitation, in
1866, was disastrously felt in all the pau
perized quarters of the metropolis. Against
such danger as this it has been our prac-
tice to take no general precautions, al
though medical science, almost powerlesS
to cope with the disease when it has once
appeared, has demonstrated that its raw
ages can be absolutely averted, or, at all
events, restricted within the narrowest
limits, by most simple preventive measures.
Cholera is an enemy which, once permit
ted to enter the citadel of life, can be DIS
lodged by no effort Of the physician; when
he ~ cfr a tIa
youngest and most vigorous, there is only
a faint hope left that the latent energies of
nature may be powerful enough to resist
the fatal state of collapse, and to initiate q
healthy reaction. 1t is surely better not
to challenge contest so unequal as this
If cholera is preventable disease, those
who maintain the conditions which foster
and propagate it are almost as culpable as
those who resist the prevention of small
poX by general system of vaccination
We have suffered enough lately by the
neglect of sanitary precautions before al
epidemic has taken permanent hold OIL
the country. 1t can hardly be questioned
that cholera is to be ranked among pre-
ventabe diseases. We know thoroughly
the means of its propagation, and thu
most fatal of these is completely undel
public control. Before the princi
Piles of sanitary science were vel
understood, it was q matter of marvel tina
epidemics of cholera, in their pro
gress from the East, followed the cours,
of the great rivers. This observation
once difficulty, has now been recognized
as an additional proof of the theory, sup
ported by many other observed results
that the germs of cholera are mainl,
propagated by polluted water The ercTet,
from patients suffering from the epidemi
are allowed TO mingle with the common
drainage, and thence find their way Il
some rlver, which further on its cours
fm nishes the water supply to populou
towns, and thus distributes the seeds of til
disease In other cases "cholera dust,
the dried ercretG from infected persons, i
carried by the wind into some well, pond
or river. Colera germs thus distribute
are an organic poison, and the destruction
they create can as surely be prevented b
proper methods of isolation and disinfeC
tion as the life of any person can be sc
cured by the exclusion OF an oIdinar
poison. In the East, as we have said, tn
absence of personal cleanliness among tn
population and of public sanitary meal
ures allows the poison to circulate fTeel,
and to spread ruin over half cOntinen
In England we have made some slight a
tempts to control diseases by enforcin
sanitary precautions We have it in OF
power especially to check the spread {
the cholera poison by avigilant inspectio
of the drainage system and the water SUI
ply. But how little will what we hay
done hitherto avail us against the DANCE
Gus foe, whose invasion we now see i'll
pending if once the scourge sets foot O
our shores.-LOndon Times, July 21.