The Tiffin tribune. (Tiffin, Ohio) 1868-1887, 1871-09-14
TIRE CHOLERA.
origin and Travels Of lsIatle cholera.

In DIR. Peters "Origin and Travel
OF Cholera" just published by Apple
ton from the pages of the Mediea
Journal, he says that British India i
the only country i'm the world having
the reputation of being the abode o
endemic cholera, IL being an undenia
ble fact that il Is endemic in CalifOr-
MIA, where the lowest number,nf death.
from It per year since IS4l, was 2,jO2
the highest, 6,4l7. One of the princi.
pal causes of cholera in India is the
/ filthy condition of the towns and vii.
/ lagos These consist Of a mass Of huts
I constructed without my plan or ar.
rangement, without roads or drains
ill-ventilated and never cleaned
/ Most Of the native villages and towns
are the abode Of misery and filth, and
the nurseries Ofsiekness and disease.
They abound i'm green, Shiny, stag
nant ponds, full of putrid vegetable
and animal matter in a state of de
composition, whose bubbling surfaces
exhale, under a tropical sun, nOxiOus
gases, poisoning the atmosphere and
spreading around disease and death.
The filthy habits of the people who
drink this water, and seem to deem
cleanliness akin to anything but god
illness, also serve to spread the cOnta-
giOn even further.
The Journeys of the pilgrims in In
/ dla are also conducive to n large
/ spreading of the cOntagiOn, countless
numbers of these fanatics meeting to-
gether at Ramisseram, Hurdwar and
Bijanagur; and from this latter it is
doubtless carried over to the extreme
west coast of HindOstan, especially to
the great seapOrts, Calcutta, Goa, &c.
These pilgrimages are evidently the
root of all evil in India. The greatest
license is INDUCED in, the pilgrims
surfeiting themselves with meat and
drink of the most unhealthy eharac-
ter, and when the fanatieal excite
ment is over, and they start on their
hOmeward journey, sick, weary and
demOralized, it is then that the disease
is disseminated throughout the cOun-
try. Public roads and thOrOughfares
become saturated with the elements
of the disease, and every well and
spring and stream along the pilgrim
routes becomes dangerous to march
ing troops and wayfaring travellers. In
this connection we may add, that the
first accurate account of Asiatic chOl-
era in HindOstan, in not very remote
times, relates to the sufferings of a di-
vision of English troops, consisting of
5000 men, while marching under the
command of Colonel Pearse, near Can
jam, not far from the temple of Jug
gernaut. This force was. attacked sud-
denly with the pestilence on March
23, 1881, i. G., very shortly after the
festival of Juggernaut must have TAX
EN- place, and with an almost incOn-
ceivable celebrity and fury, which
could only have originated from con-
taminated water.
at is well TO notice (Dr. Peters tells
us) that Juggermaut, or eastern twen-
ty-year festivals, occur two years ear
lier than the Hurdwar, or rgreatnOrth-
ern festivals. Thus, the Juggernaut
cholera Of 17Sl was followed by the
great epidemic of 1888; the Jugger-
naut cholera Of 1877 was followed 10y
the Hurdwar pestilence OF 1919;
and the Juggernaut cholera o. 1865
was supplanted by the stupendOus
outbreak at Hurdwar in 1867. We
may expect an epidemic of cholera
again in 1877 and 1889"
After tracing its course through out
India and Eastern Asia, DIR. kPeters
comes to the conclusion that the chOl-
era that has now reached Russia and
Poland is the result of the Hurdwar
of 1867; quoting the Ian
guage of the London Lancet, which
says:
TGThere never was a more forcibIe
Of the doctrine that chOl-
era travels along the line of human
than supplied by the pill
grimage to and from Hurdwar. The
well-known Goth year native gather
ing took place; cholera appeared; the
vast assemblage, three millions in
number, broke up; and from Hurd-
war as as a centre, did the pestilence
radiate outward in the diveTging lines
taken by these pilgrims.