Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1873-07-10
IEyA GAZETTE & VIRGINIA ADVERTISER.

additional will bo charged.
Succi.l contracts will bo made with yearly I'D
ycrtlScrS.
Marriage and Death Notices, whom not exceed
ing eight lines fifty cents
Cholera and Its Prevention.
While it is proper to endeavor to allay uu-
necessary anxiety in such communities as are
threatened with cholera, it is not wise to Ignore
the disease until it forces itself upon attention
By its presence The best informed physicians,
and the health authorities generally, coucede
that the malady which has been spreading
northward and eastward from New Orleans is
cholera, and that thore is danger that it may
become epidemic The most important thing
TO know at this time is how tho disease can be
controlled, and this is clearly shown by circu
lar issued by the executive committee OF the
American Board Of Health Association. This
document is signed by well-kuown physicians
residing in all parts of the country. They con,
cur in declaring that cholera, from being the
most feared and destructive pestilence, may
now be controlled more quickly and completely
than any other epidemic disease.
The committee give in plain language the
local conditions that chiefly promote the out
break and propagation of cholera, such as ne
elected privies; filthy, sodden grounds; foul
cellars and filthy or badly drained surroundings
OF dwellings,; foul and obstructed house drains;
tccayiug and putrescent materials, whether
animal or vegetable; unventilatcd, damp and
unccaned dwellings, and apartments. These
IocaIizinc causes should be dealt with By saui-
,ary cleaning before case of the disease occurs
in the neighborhood The security of personal
health requires pure drinking water, fresh and
substantial food, temperance, and tho needed
rest and bathing of the body.
For popular use the committee recommends
the following schedu of rules and methods re-
lating to disinfection, which it advises should
be given to the press and to all principals OF
schools, superiutendents of places of public re-
sort, rail rosd depots, ferries, hotels and public
institutions, and to the masters of ships and
steamboats,, aud the conductors of passenger
trains throughout this continent, believing that
by the tlmly application of these measures the
prevalence of cholera may be prevented:
Rules and Methods Of D,s'nection. For prl-
rics, water closets, drains and sewerS-Eight
or ten pounds of sulphate Of iron (copperas)
dissolved in five or six gallons of water, with
halt pint Of crude carbolic acid added to the
solution aud brskly stirred, makes the cheapest
and best disintecting fluid for common use. 1t
can bc procured iD every town and by any fami-
ly, and if the carbolic acid is not at hand, the
solution Of coppcras may be used without it.
10 prevent priVies and water closets from bo:
coming Infected or offensvo-Pour q pint OF
this strong solution into every water closet pan
or prlyy seat once or twice day.
To disiufcct masses of filth, privy vaults,
sewers and drains-Gradually pour in this So
luton until it reaches and dislntects all the foul
material.
For the chamber-vesscls used by the sick,
aud for the disnfection of ground upon which
al hos hoop not fcr
dlSinfccsing extensive masses or surfaces of pU-
crescent materials, and tor drains, sewers and
bitches, the dead oir' of coaltar, or coa-tar
itself, is available; coaltar may ho used as o
disiniecting paint upon the walls Of cellars, sta
blcs and open drains.
Ouicklime is useful as an absorbent and dry.
CT upon such walls and in damp places, anc
whitewashing with it should be practiccd in
common tenements, factories, Easements, closets
and garrets.
TO disintcct tho clothing defled 10 any man
ncr by excremental matters from the sick
throw all such matters Immediately into boiling
water and continue the boiling for halt an
hour, or place them in solution, covered
zinc, six OF eight gallons of water, to which add
TWO or three ounces Of pure strong carbolie
acid.
Keep the soiled articles saturated until they
can be boiled If the acid is not at hand use
the zinc water alone.
Apartments, bedding and upholstery that
have been used by the sick with cholera or
diarrhra, should be fumigatcd by the burning
OF several pounds of rhinestone (sulphur) upon
defended iron pan, with the place tightly
closed for several hours, under physician 1
directions
The committee also quote the following
words of the chief medical officer OF Great Brl-
tain:
1T appears to be characteristic of cholera,
not only Of the disease in its developed and
alarming form, but equally of the slightest
dlarrhea which the epidemic can produce, that
all matters which the patient discharges ftom
the stomach and bowels are intective; that the
patlents's power of injecting other persons is
represented almost or quite exclusively, by those
discharges that they are comparatively non
hltcctive at the moment they are discharged, but
aiterward, when undergoing decomposition,
acquire their maximum infective power; sand
that If they be cast away without previous dis
Infection they impart their own infective quail
Vto the eNcremental matters with which they
mlngle IN fth-sodden cath, or in repositories
and condu!ts Of filth, and the efauvia which
these excremental matters evolve; that if the
lhlectNe material, by leakage or soakage from
oralns or cess pools or otherwise, gets access,
even IN the smallest quantity, directly or
.nr99ueh porous soils, to wells or other sources
y. drinking water, it can infect, in the most
uanserous manner very large volumes of the
1' Ta'er' mat the infcctive influence of the
Jiloleralc discharges attaches to whatever bed
uing' clothing and ike things have been imbued
WIN tiem' and renders these things, if not dis
injected, capable of spreading the disease"
,,>
POOR HUMAN NATURE The Memphis
appeal CONTAINS the following important an
nouncement: ''On the 23d of February, 1861,
mere was published in the Appeal list Of
about one thousand two hundred names of gen.
tiemen who pronounced themselves straight,
original seeessiouists, It is alleged that some