, 1873-07-26
CHOLERA.
An Important Report from DIR. John
e. Peters to tho Now York NonrA Of
6Teu1ft,.

e. Peters to tho Now York nonr.l Of
Health.
From Me St.e Tork 4smts, July p2a
At the meotnE of tho Board Of Health yeHter-
day, tho following preliminary report on tic
ohoiera of tho Wost md South was preaonted by
DR.. John G. Peters
TN In advance d nee Of tho more fun report can state
| conveyed from New Or1cauB and Mem
| phis by steam boats to LouiByllo and
Cincinnati. The Health Onicer OF Evansville
also roports that tho frHt threo or moro
| caaes wero landed tlloro from HteamboatB from
also have very positive information that caBoa
wore brought BY railroad to Nashville and died
there. III Gallatin, Woodbnrn, and Bowling
Green, the llrst casos, aomqtmea tl'roo in NUM-
fact stands out worry strongly tnat, however tho
| diAoaao may have boon brought to, or hayo orig
limited III, M1,rfrocsboro, Nashville, and Bowling
Green, and many other places, tho reatilonco
! tho filthiost parts Of these towns, while tho
cloanest portions almost entirely oBcnpad.
:, In MurfreeHboro no dlreot importation OF tho
dfBoasc is yot acknowledged, but 1t ID we'll known
hood was that of a negro who arrived from
| Nashville and illoa in Aouso noar tho town ;
! the woman who nuraod him, washed his olothos,
| dad, and two othora in the samo house. N
TINT tho diaoase was truo Asiatio cholera, like
TINT OF 1866, but wore aluo fully impressed with
| the Southern theory, viz: That long severe
wintor, changing siddonly to 3 worry warm sum-
our Of 7asotaon 'G that s0'4 III Eno sse aasses ea~sa
md md unwEo!osoo the filth '0ts aeo,1malste2 al.ssg
during tho wintor was suddenly exposed to 4
very hot sun, md brod . peculiar indigenous
malarin; TINT tho drinking-wntor became af-
fccted, especially in the lower portions Of the
town, which received sewage mud drainage from
above; tint tho diaeaHe cTopt along tho creok
and water courses, wherevor drainage mists and
1nalaria most prevailed, and atootel principally,
| or almoat exclusively, tho black and low-clnsa
white, who llvad i'll sllcl places. .Theso localiz-
ing influences wore 20 great md manifest that
Importation was not thought Of or looked for,
especially as almost all tic better and higher
parts Of Murfrcoaboro aud tho moro oloanly and
comfortable inhabitants almost enteroly os-
capod.
Still, tho slurfrccshoro physicians regarded tho
diHenso q true Asatio cholera, merely prccipi-
tated and modified by malarious and bud dietotio
Influences. They used cleanliness and disnfeo-
ton Of persons aud clothes vigorously, forbade
tho nightly aaselnblagcs OF negroes, aud stamped
tho disease out quickly At Nashville tle loculiz-
ing cauBoB or cholera Woro 30 extended aud Ap-
paront that no importation Of tho disease was
lookcGl for or gonorally beloved in. Nur aro
tho Nashville physicians mnch to blame for fast
oning thcir attention almost exclusively upon
these secondary and localizing causoB Of tho dis
easo. They aro no patent in Nashville that they
forco themselves upon evory one'B attention.
Comparatively few deaths occurred in tho
lighost, cloanest. boat-vontinted, best-drained,
md best-pavod portions Of tho city. Tho best
residence nnd businoHs portion Of Nashville
during tho whole Of tho torriblo epidemic which
ragged OH its outskirts was almost perfectly aafo
to live in. The cholora was almost exclusively
tho city, and carried OF hundreds OF thoso living
noar tho small streams or .so-called branches,
1iekB, and runs Of wator, eHpecally the Lick
Branch on ono side and Wilson'S Spring Branch
Jones, "thoro Inns been a rapid and
progressive orowtling Of houses, or rather
huta aud shanties, either clustered togothor in
NARROW streeta and alleys, or moro frequently
Auldlod togothor without syBtom and crowded
dolclont il ventilation, without any facilities
for tho enforcement OF hygionio regulations,
forming }nost favorable flell for tho iodgment
and spread Of disease like cholora, and rendering
it difficult, il not wholly impossible to doviso
any oflclent measures Tor tho arrest of commu-
nicable diseases in them" In these places the
cholera prevailed both in 1850 aud this year.
III 1866 the disease canao from tho Last and
North, and, " faot, was brought down from
Cincinnati. This year it camo up from tho
Southwest, aud Nashville has doubtless sont
casoa up to Cincinnati, as aho has to many other
places.
DR.. Jones feared in 1866 that cholora might
appear and prevail among tho black4 md ill-fed
and poorly-cared-f for whites in the suburbs OF
tho city for days before itg presence could evcn
10 suspected. ,sss But It 51ia q not On tho 9th Of
ing, who WIS auffcring from tho diaease. IN
1873 cholora really appeared, aud prevailed some
time heforc its presence was discovered. On
June tho City physician pnb!ishca q card, as
cho1ora because within tho past tow
days aome deaths had occurred 80
suddenly that t,, some physieians, and
Of opo%e or fsae eoora eo" rbst m thoy a'sere ~ere
produced by clolora morbuH. or sporadic cholera,
ho assorts, t6oro la not q doubt. The list OF
deaths was not published till Juno 9, OH which
tlny they amounted to twenty,one. Tho disease
less population. unheodod aud uncontrolled, for
ton or fonrteou dnya, when Oh June 7 tho deaths
amounted It to twonty-one per day, and, notwith-
sltanaing tho assurances Of tho city authorltfos
TINT it was only mild American or African cholo
ra. Ill enormous panic and stampede ot the oiti-
zons took placo, somo Of thcm cnrryng tho dis
easo to various parts Of tho country. =
At Edgo'lold, just across the Cumberland
niycr, md scarcely half . milo distant, from
deaths. 1t lioA on low, sandy plan IL supplied
with good c1Htcrn water; and has broad, we'll
ventilated stroots. It's immunity was SO ro-
narkahlo tllat public thanksgiving was held
To-" Similar casoH AFRO vory common in 1910 it
did not spread from st. Louis to Altoona for
moro than month.
At Gallath,, Woodburn, and Bowling Groom
tho frat caacs woro NIL imported Homo OF tho
Nashville fugitives died in tho hotels, followed
by mora doatls among tho inmates aud another
general scattering to more distant places with
tho same goncral result. At Bowling Groom a-
IL, Murfroesboro and Nashville, viz: THO hghor,
cleaner, and bettor parta OF tho town rouaainod
froo from disoaso w4ilo tho eourHo OF filthy
stream, a.,a tho low, mnrsAy land below, which
raya6ed by 1t. louisville, /. worry clean
CITY, built. OIL sandy, gravolly noil with
broad, well-payed strosts, wiae!y-sepas-
atod houses, cloan courts, alloys,
yanla, md aal'os, has again for tho fifth time
1883 ad 1858, 1913 and 1910, 1854, 1860. or 1875
Tho diseasq has boen rereated!y landed thoso
from steamboats, and railroads, to my own