The Dallas weekly herald. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1873-1885, 1873-07-26
CHOLERA.
The Advantages OF Cistcrn water as
Preventive.

The Advantages of Cistcrn water as
Preventive.
To tbe Editor of The Dallas Herald
Sut-In view of the fact that Asiaic
cholera, that most appalling OF all uls-
eases, is at present spreading rapidly
throughout the United States, and the
fact that Dallas and similar railroad
towns will soon have three approaches
by rail- thereby renderipghor thcmorc
liable, it being now admitted by all
that cholera follows the line of travel, J
have for sometime thought it.n duty J
owed the community in which live,
to give them the benefit of my concll-
sions, based not upon theory, but close
study and practical experience, extend
ing over period of twcnty-four years
/ have been present and in the midst
of every epidemic of this disease, that
has visited the United States, having
lost, my father with it in 1888. Again,
when medical student in st. Louis,
during the year 1919 encountered it,
and yet again in DecemberslS5o, when
I embarked ON board The Steamship
Mexico, at New Orleans, bound for
Galveston, Texas.
We had scarcely passed the Balize,
with four hundred passengers aboard,
when it was announced that cholera
bgd broken out among the deck pas
sengers German pmigraplsi 70 Vie
number of over two hundred).. was
requested by Captain Place, command
ing, and DIR. Lewis Jones, now of Gal
weston, Commodore Stockton, and
General Todd, United States Boundary
Commissioner, to take charge as mffv
ical officer, assuring me that my wishes
should be implicitly obeyed. We were
out forty eight hours, and lost one cab
IN and seventeen deck passengers, and
landed in Galveston with the disease
In full blast. The passengers going on
shore, at once commenced the use OF
cistcrn water, and the disease suddenly
stopped. Each vessel that had preced-
ed lis had brought 10 Galveston more
or less cholera, and they so continued
as long rs the disease remained In
New Orleans; and yet it did not spread,
nor has there ever been an epidemic OF
cholera in Galveston. .o 1a
was told by Dfs, Smith and Hol-
land, together with other physicians
with whom l was thrown in treating
the convalescents from the steamships,
that there had never been an epidemic
OF cholera on the island. I asked them
how they accounted for it? They re-
piled, "Why, sir, the saIubrity OF oap
climate!" AS they were oldand learned
physicians, took their statement as
oracuiar, and thought no farther on
the subject.
/ afterwards settled in Indianola,
and here again, in 1852, was called to
treat cholera. A negro man, my own
servant, was the first to contract the
disease, on board . schooner at anchor
Off the town. He came OH shore a,ta
died in sixteen hours. During the sue
ceeding thirty daysI lost sixty-for pa
tients in my own practice. Here it
was, for the first time, that my atten-
tion was, by Major John Henry Brown,
called to The fact that the use of cistern
water was o preventive to cholera.
There were but few cisternsin the town,
most of them wooden, and in fact, l
think Major Brown owned the only
underground cistern in the place; yet
not one family this own included) who
used cistern water exclusively con-
tracted the disease, though the town
was more than decimated. Aa 10 the
circumstances which led Major Brown
to this conclusion, and in confirmation
of what l have and may state in this
'connection, / have thought best TO adj
dress q communication to himself and
Mr.. A. i. Hensley, either of whom
could to-day, from memory, write as
good history of Western Texas as
any gentlemen living, and not man
i'm that section could be found to disbe-
lievc single statement that either OF
them would make, here insert their
reply: sf nt3
DALLAS, July II, 1873.