Western Reserve chronicle. [volume] (Warren, Ohio) 1855-1921, 1871-08-16
CHOLERA IN EUROPE.
ITs RAvAaEs ExTENpINe


The London Times says If we
may credit the accounts we receive
from every quarter, a terrible and
subtitle enemy Is approaching our
shores by an accustomed and well
marked track. For some time past
cholera has been ravaging Persia,
where famine has contributed to
nOurish the pestilenee. It has crept
on slowly through the steppes of
Southern Russia, until it has grasped
Poland, and has made ITS appearance
in a virulent form in the eastern prov
inces of Prussia. We are well ae-
quainted with the history Of recorded
epidemics of Asiatic cholera. They
have never taken US unawares. They
have always given warning of their
death-dealing approach, and have
allowed us ample time, If we choose,
to set our house in order before their
coming. In tropical Asia, among a
teemIng population to whom sanitary
precautions are unknown, cholera
has permanent home. A eorrespOn-
dent recently returned from India,
called attention, day or two ago, in
our columns to the state Of things by
which the disease is propagated.in the
East. In India there is no system of
drainage, no purified water supply,
except in the great cities. The germs
of disease are never destroyed or re-
moved; they are transferred by wa
ter oT Ssind from one hOushOld to the
other, and allowed to tester freely in
the filthy, close and darkened habita-
tiOns of the natives. When an I'M
healthy season causes q particular
Yirulent outbreak of cholera in India.
the epidemic rapidly crosses the Him
alayas, spreads among the nomad
tribes of Central Asia, whose primi-
tive habits do not tend to check the
pestilenee, makes its way steadily
along the shores of the Caspian into
Southern Russia, is nurtured among
the peasant population OF that region,
and finally penetrates by way of Po-
land and POmerania into the heart of
Western and civilized Europe.
This fatal drama has been repeated
several times within the memory of
the present generation. Four times
we have seen the approach of cholera,
by regular graduations from the East;
we have watched it coming upon US,
and, until we were actually wrestling
with the epidemic, we took no meas
ures to avert the threatened devasta-
ton. Yet we know what horrible
scourge it is. The outbreak Of 1S47
carried off $1,000 lives; the milder
epidemic of 1854, 10000 the latest
visitation in 1866, disastrously felt in
all the pauperized quarters Of the me-
trOpOiis. Against such a danger as
this 1t has been our practice to take
no general precautions, although
medical science, almost powerless to
cope with the disease when it has
once appeared, has demonstrated that
its ravages can be absolutely averted,
or, at all events, restricted within the
narrowest limits, by most simple pre-
measures. Cholera is an enc
my which once permitted to enter the
citadel of life, can be dislodged by no
effort Of the physician; when the dis
ease has stricken down even the
and most vigorous, there Is
only faint hope left that the latent
energies Of nature may be powerful
enough to resist the fatal state of col
lapse, an dtoinitiate a healthyreaetion.
1t is surely better not to challenge a
contest so unequal as this. Happily
there is some time, though not an
hour to spare left, for preparation
Cholera does not hasten its solemn and
CHASTITY march even to find its victims
and helpless. 1t is quite
possible in month or two to frame
such system Of sanitary regulations,
and to confer on the proper authors
ties such effective powers, as may ena-
BILE us to meet the epidemic without
serious apprehensions.