Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1873-06-29
9HE ORIGIN AND TREATMENT OF
CH0LERA&

the old.
9HE ORIGIN AND TREATMENT Oh
OHOLERA.*
We have received from the publisher q
small book Of large value at this time
treating Of the origin, nature, prevention
and treatment of Asiatic cholera by an in
selligent and experienced physician. II
cautains but 200 duodecimo pages, yet q
vast fund of information which ought TO be
IN the possession of every family that can
read tire English language. Turning to the
chapter on the prevention of cholera, we
select the followin; facts as worthy of con-
liberation: DAT Sarepta, on the Vol ga,
there Is "a settlement of Moravians, which,
curing three several epidemic6 OF the whole
surrounding country, remained untouched.
In addition to their good and cleanly habits,
these thoughtful people maintained a per-
feet system of quarantine" Such immun-
ity secured BY such means, when the whole
surrounding country was deeply afflicted
by cholera, fairly indicates that the source
ofthe disease was really known, wisely
guarded against and kept a. a distance.
DR.. Peters says: Shese have been fourteen
epidemics Of cholera at S stem Island, [only
5 few miles form New York, and only
four have reached New York. 1t cannot
then be said that quarantine, even in the
careless and inefficient manner in which
1t has, for the most part, been heretofore
enforced, has been altogether a failure"
Such facts, (and they abound in the history
OF this peculiar plague) shox the value of
caution, and pre- caution in isolating dis
eases persons, their clothing, bedding, ETC.,
from well persons, as much as humanity
viii allow. On the same page may be
found the following statement:
stOn the 18th of July, 1866, Mrs. Nc
Coy, a hospitable nurse from the quaran-
tine ship Falcon, visited Wards Island;
and was attacked with cholera; her two
children who bad spent the greater part of
the previous day with her were next at
tackled. On the 10th Mrs. Burls, a very
healthy woman, and companion of Mrs.
Mccoy sickened and died in Twelve hours.
The woman who washed the clothing of
Mrs. Burns was the next victim; being at
tackled on the 18th, and dying after an ILL
ness Of less than twenty four hours.
The outbreak then became general in the
wash-house building, and has since spread
10 other wards and the lunatic asylum. In
the course Of nine days, tbirty-one cases
and in two days after eleven more were re-
ported in dying condition"
It is impossible not to believe that, had
Mrs. Mccoy remained on the hospital ship
nursing cholera patients, and not visited
her two children on Wards Island, they
would have escaped an attack of cholera,
and all the others who recei9ed cholera
germs from her unfortunate visit. Immi-
grants arriving in cholera ships have COM
munic tied the disease to hundreds of Uni
ted States troops on Harris and Governors
Islands, Of whom scores died. IL is, how
ever needless to multiply citations; for if
the facts already given fail to satisfy the
reader that the pestilence in many places,
is pre- DEtable, more evidence would not
prr oily change bis mind. 1t may interest
se>he of our friends to be told briefly, how
they have long and successfully cultivated
cholera in the large city of Calcutta, stand
ing 10 a low, damp, hot district, on
a branch of the Ganges, in Asia.
1t was in such climate that the seeds of
this plague, in the unknown past, first as
sailed the human family. .. -.-
d.. Norman Cheevers, of Calcutta, has
given attention to impure mater as a means
of plop&gating cholera in that city, and
district of country. To improve the delta |
of the Ganges as frst-class hot-bed for
multiplying cholera germs on magnificent
scale, DR.. q. says that $50 tons of RigIttsol |
a day are emptied into the Hooghly,
branch of the Ganges. The tide takes this |
mass of excrements and other filth Is |
miles upstream, and returns it leisurely be-
low the city. In thirty days, under broil-
ing sun, the river receives in mid-s!ream,
five thousand four hundred tons of rich
for the growth of cholera plants.
OF course the denizens of Calcutta beat the |
cholera growers of Nashville long dis
lance. 1t is something to know that the
cultivation of cholera as staple crop, is
the same in both cities; and
hat the harvest of death is alone dissmi-
lar il quantity-not in kind or quality.
British sailors on board ships in the river,
are compelled TO drink lis pollu ed water,
and Gil the hospitals with cholera patients
to overlooking, although many die to make
empty couches foE new victims. Has not
the UNION AND AMERICAN furnished sufi-
Gent proof Of what gives existence to this
scourge, in some places, and plain intima-
ton why it does not exist in other places?
If man makes all the conditions of his
garden right to raise crop OF weeds, can
there be q reasonable doubt as 10 their
growing under such conditions? Ii the
seed of purslane is absent, he may have
host of other weeds, but that well known
plant will not be among them. Just so
me may raise hundred other germs of
human maIadies in any hot-bed, without
having in the crowd one germ of Asistic
,hoIera. No microscope reveals tia essen
ial difference between the primary cell of
mushroom that is edible, and the primary
ell of one that is poisonous; yet t5ey de-
elop plants as distinct as those that pro-
uce yellow fever and cholera. Nature de-
ghts in an infinite variety.
Notes on the Origin, Nature, Prevention and
Treatment of Asiatic Cholera, BY Jobn q.
Peters, Nj. ID. Second Edition, with an APP
peDdix. New York ID. Van Nostrand