Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1873-06-20
THE CHOLERA.

This terrible scourge has made its
appearance in Louisiana, at New
Orleans, at Memphis and Nashville,
in Tennessee, at Washington City, and,
perhaps, at other points III the United
States. The disease has at no point
to be apprehended is not SO much for
the present as in the future, when the
Summers sun shall begin thoroughly
to decompose the accumulated filth Of
the Spring and Winter.
In view OF this state of facts our
city authorities have a weighty respon-
siiility resting upon them.
Are the sanitary precautions required
by the city ordinances strictly OBJ
served? Is the city i'll such cleanly
condition as TO give assurance OF an
atmosphere too pure to feed the
cholera? Cholera delights in bad
water, bad sewerage, filth, crowded
houses, tainted air and intemperance
Every person who, during the heated
term last Summer, was upon our streets
after midnight, will remember the
pestilential smells that greeted his
= nostrils. We trust that liz such con-
dition of affairs Will be allowed to
exist this Summer.
The city authorities have in their
hands. In a great measure, the health,
if not the lives, of our people. And
they will be held to II strict accOunta-
biiity if the city shall not be put in
such 81 condition as Will enable it to
fight, with the best hope of success,
the dreaded enemy that may so soon
attack it.
The Atlanta ConatiiHtjon, in refer
ring to the matter, says:
The disease, either III the mild OF
severe form, is not contagious. Du-
ring its prevalence in Moscow 40, 900
persons left the city, and yet not a
case was transferred. And SO when
10000 persons fled from Marseilles to
Lyons, no case occurred i'll the latter
city. The books are full OF facts that
prove the disease to be strictly epi-
demic, originating generally in tropi-
cal countries, AMI spreading from
thence, III Il somewhat regular geo
graphical course, to colder attitudes.
: While the doctors disagree about
1 the qualities of the air upon which
epidemical maladies feed, they all
agree about some local circumstances
1 that lend them additional force and
fatality. n lndla, exposure to noe
turnal cold and damps, great and sud
den variations of temperature and fa-
tigue, are known to have powerfully
aided the disease. In Moscow it chief
ly prevailed i'll moist and low situations.
Filth, intemperance, w"nt of physical
energy or moral courage, are all i'm
portant aids of the mystic poison i'll
the air.
Chambers Encyclopedia lays great
stress on the Importance of pure drink
ing water, and its absolute freedom
from contamination by animal matters
tiltering through the soil, or thrown
into water courses by sewers, etc. II
water cannot be had in pure state il
should be boiled before being used fol
drink, or indeed for any do nestle pur-
pose. Speaking Of organic impurities
IN drinking water, this encyclopaedia
says that no single local cause of chol-
era has been established by SO much
evidence.
Let us then prt the city in the best
possible sanitary condition at once and
keep 1t SO 4; let us keep clean and COO
ourselves, eat and drink temperately
avoid all unnecessary fatigue and ex-
posure and we may reasonably hope tc
prevent the coming of SO unwelcome q
visitor as the cholera,