The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1872-03-30

Xhs Necessity Of Early and Effective
Qsarantiue-Epidemic Germs OF Choleraic
aud Other Contagia.
Without marring the joyous anticipalions Of
the spring, its arrival admonshes US to guard
our thresholds from the epidemic dangers of
which 1t Is often the precursor. When the
frosts Of the past winter set in last November
they came just in time to avert the pestilence that
had been transported across the Atlantic and
was then knocking at our doors. The vigilance
OF the authorities prevailed to arrest its march
and cut II off at the moment Of its ingress on
our shores But it is known that on the other
side of the water the great Asatic disease
which has heretofore defiei the science and
skill Of the physician, has held its own, only
sncamped 10 its winter quarters aud awaiting
more genial season for an early aud sweeping
campaign.
In our natural and just protests against the
insfioency of sanitary precautions We are
apt to ignore the many and cheering triumphs
that science has made over the deadliest of
diseases. The statement has often been made
by able statisticians and confirmed by the
records that the London OF the seventeenth
century and the London of the nineteenth
century differ in salubri.y far more then Lon
don In the cholera and London in the
healthiest season. Modern statistics show
that the mortality of that metropolis has been
reduced since the reign Of the Stuarts and the
beginning Of the last century from one in
every twenty to less than one in forty, and
that this reduction is generally or proportion
ally true for the larger towns of England.
The saving of human life by vaccination alone
has entered as large and significant figure in
the results due to the medical progress of the
age; and all such facts should encourage us
to hope for the still greater reduction of the
death rates of the whole world. They should
also stimulate the authorities now, in precau-
tionary preparations against the threatened
epidemios Of the year, to begin with an early
and searching and stern quarantine and erect
it as an iron wall around our seaboard cities.
2 The study of epidemics has rapidly pro-
gressed in America. The great subject of the
origin of malaria and its attendant poisons
has very recently been ably developed by a
distinguished American physicist Mr.. Daniel
Vaughan, of Cincinnati. This gentleman
researches throw much light on the prolific
seeds Of epidemic, originating, as he shows
In the volatile oils Of vegetation, which are
rapidly developed By the heat Of the yernal
Ind summer suns. According to the views he
now advances and so forcibly sustains it is in
the warmest climates that these germs of
disease are produced in the greatest ahun-
dance, and the air becomes most highly
charged with organic vapors in marshy and
moist localities; but the restless condition of
the air prevents 1t from remaining over these
districts long enough to be largely impreg-
mated with the poisonous exhalations, and
the trade winds serve to avert much of the
insalubrity which heat and moisture are ever
prompt to generate in tropical climates.
This reasoning would seem to lead
us to the unavoidable inference that
the Asiatic cholera-the disease which
now threatens all Europe and Americas
has its birthplace in the valley of the Ganges,
10 rich in verdure and vegetation, and follows
the principal water courses in all countries,
because in these IL finds its most abundant
supplies of organic vapors. 1t is well known
that the inuldations Of the Euphrates River
give to the city of Bussorah its worst pesti-
lences, and the streams which wash the green
wales of the Elburz mountains sometimes
render Teheran almost uninhabitable. But
the Nile, which in the lower part of its course
runs thousand miles without receiving a
tributary and washes rocky bed, has gotten
torial Africa, aud even in its highest floods
scarcely impairs the health Of Egypt. The
theory of Mr.. Vaughan must be regarded as a
valuable attempt to solve the mystery of
epidemics, because it can be put to
the test of future chemical analysis,
and may, therefore, be the dawning light
Of science on this dark subject. But, with
out presuming to determine its accuracy, it
Is important to bear in mind that it is In the
months of March and April that the Asiatic
cholera breaks out in its stronghold, the great
Gangetic valley. We may, therefore, at once
begin to take the utmost precaution to protect
ourselves from this terrific evil. It has been
said by some that If the whole OF Hindostan
could be qnarantined the whole world would
be secure from cholera; but this is far from
likely or probable, and the most sagacious
physicists do not hesitate to say that the Asiatic
importation of cholera only quickens and
invigorates the seeds of the pestilence already
scattered broadcast (if they are not indigenous)
over the entire globe. There is not single
day to be lost by our health authorities in
throwing an impregnable sanitary Gordon
around this country. In the present instance
1t Is thousand times true that ian ounce of
prevention is better than pound of cure"