Dodge City times. [volume] (Dodge City, Kan.) 1876-1892, 1879-03-29

an and in the neighborhood of the Black
Sea, and there is dispute of very long
| standing between the Persian and Turk
ish authorities, as to whether it was
originally imported into Iran from Mes
opotamia or came among the Osmanli
from across the Tigris. The truth is
that both are equally faulty in their ex-
treme negligence OF the simplest laws
of health, as
FEW WISE PRECAUTIONS
at the outset, and an energetic treat
ment of the disease wherever it APP
peared, would have greatly attenuated,
if not altogether ayerted the danger
So it is with the Astrakhan provinces,
and the severe prescriptions of DR.. Bot
kin might have been unnecessary, if the
misery of the furnished population had
been relieved in 1858, or if the Russians
would have listened to the earnest warn
ings, so often reiterated during the last
two or three years by the most eminent
psychologists of Europe. Be this,
however, as it may, the epidemic ex-
lists, and the questions for the moment
are: What is its nature? In what way
is contagion to be apprehended? What
are the measures best adapted to stamp
1t out? So far as is known from the i'm
perfect data at their disposal, medical
authors have adopted the following con-
illusions, first, it is not a new disease !;
second, 1t is not one of those epidemics
which, presenting conditions of excep-
tional gravity at the outbreak, gradually
decrease in virulence; third, it is en-
demic to the shores of the Caspian, as
the cholera is indemical to India; fourth,
in former times it spread more rapidly,
whereas now it appears TO be circum-
scribed within fixed limits.
ITS FIRST APPEARANCE
was on the 27th of November. 1878. at
the Stanitza Vetlienka, A miserable col
lection Of fishermen's huts on the right
bank of the Volga, some l25 miles above
Astrakhan, in a district always notori-
| Gus for the prevalence of infectious dis
eases. Hence it worked its way I'D
stream TO Prichiba, N;colsky, and Star
iskoJe, and then, crossing TO the left
bank, invaded the villages of Tambow-
ka, Michailowka, and Udatshaga. Up
TO these points it has been possible, says
the Russian DIR. Deppner, to localize it,
but Staritzkoje is not far distant from
Tzaritzin, the terminus of two railways,
one to Moscow, the other to TaganrOg,
on the Sea of Azov, and if it reaches
Tzaritzin, the difficulties of preventins
contagion into the interior of the En-
pire will be insurmountable. The Ia
ganrog line passes through a section of
country unusually favorable to infecti-
GUS diseases, and l need scarcely point
out the fearful results TO be anticipated
should the pestilence show itself on the
EuXine coast, or break across the from
tiers of Bulgaria and Roumelia, where
SO much misery, so many ruins are al
ready accumulated.
EFS0HrS AT RESISTING THE PLAGUE.
The Russian medical authorities have
not effected single cure in any well
authenticated case, but this proves lit
tie, as, if it be permitted to Judge of
class from its specimens with the Rus
sian army during the late war, their
doctors are not much more skillful than
self-taught village farrier; and, al |
though there are, without doubt, some |
learned members of the profession in |
st. Petersburg and the other great cen
tiers, these shining lights will not be
more disposed to self-sacrifice in the |
filth and squalor of an Asiatic village
than they were to follow their Gar
across the Danube. Only when we re-
ceive report from the Austro- German
Commission shall we know any thing
concerning the diagnosis
or the treatment of the epidemic, and,
until then, all that seems to be ATTEMPT
ed is 10 circumscribe as much as posi-
Bile its ravages. For this Gen. Loris
Alelikoff, under the advice of DR.. Bot
kin, has ordered, first, the cremation of
all corpses; second, the destruction by
ire OF the houses, furniture, clothing,
and domestic animals belonging TO in
ected persons. third the removal Of