Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1871-08-25

Northern standpoint. There are many
errors contained in this account, and, OF
course, everything is highly colored. Ii
ifs publication will call out some of the
gallant Confederates who survived that
battle to give us an account Of the Gap
ture, it will have accomplished some good.
The Cholera.
When this terrible Asiatic pestilence,
bred in the Delta of the Gauges, first np-
peared in Europe, it's rate Of travel was
observed to be, as it were, that of man
travelling Cd foot. Everybody remembers
how, in his powerfnl romance Of the wan
derine Jew" Eugene Sue connected this
fact with the wanderings Of the Iegen-
darv parsonage who, according to the
very ancient tradition, is doomed to travel
without resting even Tor one moment until
the second advent of the Lord whom he
harshly babe mar Oh On when faintlng I'M
der the weight of the cross.
Rnt the rate of travel of the scourge has
kept pace with the progress OF human 10
comotion. It is now found that 1t moves
along the highway of trade with velocity
nearly equal to the average speed OF com
mercial communication. AS an individual
would proceed on business journey, stop
ping in all the principal cities and towns
along the main lines of travel, tarrylpg here
a week, there day or two, and then moving
on and sending meanwhile messengers
moving in the same leisurely way along
the secondary lines and visiting the smaller
towns and villages, SO this fearful scourge
scours every land, marking its CHASTITY loot
prints by tie fresh graves OF innumerable
victims.
Many theories have been advanced to
explain the nature and the laws OF this de-
structive plague. But it is to be feared
that physicians and philosophers know as
little on the subject as they did forty
years ago. RaspaiI, an eminent French
chemist, who has studied the disease since
1882, asserts that it is an animalcular dis
ease. This theory has obtained a wide
spread belief. A correspondent OF the
New York Herald speaks thus of the sub
ject: slu 1916 and 1850, during the
rayages of the Cholera in the West Indies,
/ found on examining microscop1caily the
water of the localities where the dis
ease existed, that it was impregnated with
animalculfe, foreign to the place, Which
disappeared simultaneously with tho dis
ease. These animalcu.ie would die when
placed in contact with cAmphor, which
seemed to be to them deadly poison"
He then recommends the following pre-
yentives, and says that he has seen them
successfully applied "All water for drink
ing purposes should be well boiled and
kept tightly covered, for it is in the water
that the greater number of animalcuife IS
found. We should abstain from all liquids
that have not been thoroughly purified by
fire. A judicious use internally of few
drops of spirits of camphor, daily, destroys
the amin alcuIae as fast as they can enter
the system, thereby arrestiDB the dis
ease"
These suggestions may prove highly
useful. Another opinion. sanctioned by
very high medical authority, and which
accords with some of the above mentioned
facts, is that the most prolific cause of the
diffusion of the disease is found in the
excavations of the cholera patients. If
the sinks are kept constantly and thor
oughly disinfected, the disease will not
spread.
We are not alarm;sts, and nothing is
further from our purpose than to create
needless fears. But precaattiO7a can do no
harm. The cholera has appeared in Lon
dor and Paris. The probability is that it
will appear in New York in two or three
weeks, and the authorities of that city are
now taking the most energetic measures
to prepare against its visitation. When
it appears in New York, how long before
it shows itself here, and in all the sea-
board cities To depend upon quarantine
for security, is to rely on broken reed,
for the epidemic may come by land
Upon a subject of such vital Importance to
the community, we must be allowed to
speak plainly. The sanitary condition of
this city is bad. The alleys and back
yards, even in the most central
parts of the city, are offensive, and
their effluvia pollutes the night air.
The city authorities, 81 far as we know,
have not done their whole duty this year.
Last year they were more vigilant, though
there was less danger. September, our
sickiest month, is approaching. Let the
city authorities wake up at once and take
every precaution. Let the sinks. privies,
cess-pools all over the town and the
suburbs be at once and thoroughly disin-
fected. Let all offensive deposits and gar
bage be buried or well covered with earth.
Let the City Council make an appropria-
ton if necessary for the purchase OF an
abundance of disinfectsnts, and let these
be distributed among the citizens four or
five times as literally as they have been
before. Don't let them be like the Mo-
hammedans who fold up their hands when
the plague visits them. Let the city be
at once placed in the best possible SAM
tary condition. This course certainly can
result in nothing but good, whether the
cholera visits US or not; and when we have
done our whole duty and have taken every