Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1881-01-08
THE DREAD DIPHTHERIA.

| Two rather beats It," i
THE DREAD DIPHTHERIA.
Was It Imported from Russia, Where a Cor
don of Mem Was Intellectual to Stop 1t?
brooklyn Eagle.]
| The governor of Kharkoff, Russian
province, reports that during the year
1879 the number of deaths from diph-
liberia alone was 1000, and for the first
ten months of 1880 no less than $500 in
habitants have succumbed to the dreaded
disorder. This would be frightful state
ment for the great State of New York.
but the entire province docs not con-
tain a population greater than 1,750,000
The death rate, therefore, from diph-
liberia is shockingly high.
The report is suggestive of several i'm
portant inference which may be turned
to account for our especial advantage
In the first place, the mortality in Khar-
koff from diphtheria conclusively de-
molishes, if nothing else had done SO, the
theory that diphtheria is due to sewer
gas. The capital Of the province, of the
same name, is manufacturing town of
about the size of Syracuse, in this State.
Not being situated in particularly pro-
gressive country, it may be taken for
granted that the sewer-gas factory
namely, the sewerage system of Kharhof
lis exceedingly minute. The Russian
does not trouble himself very much with
sewers, even in aristocratic Moscow or
imperial st. Petersburg. In the province
at large, among rude agricultural peas
antry, the sewer is probably unknown. In
| other provinces the conditions are about
the same. And yet, in this one in par
| ticular, diphtheria has become epidemic}
carrying off some $4,000 inhabitants in
two years. There is only one conclusion
| to be drawn by common sense from this
presentment of facts--namely, that sewer
gas has nothing whatever to do with
diphtheria.
But the fact that the disease has ragged
through the empire Of the car for years
does point to one very important fact,
| namely, that Russia is either the starting
point Of the disease or else that it lies
very close to the starting point. 1t is ad
mitted that while the disease may be
endemic, that is, find lodgment more
or less permanent, it is in general ep-
| idemic, as is shown during the present
season. 1t has followed steady course
SO far this winter that it has swept over
| this continent, until the cities of the west
and south have been overtaken
| by it. In this respect it re-
sembles two other dreaded pestilences,
| Asiatic cholera and the plague, or black
death, whose movements have been well
| defined. Careful observati on has shown
that both have their origin in Asia, chol-
era rising to the importance of an cpl
demic at uncertain periods along the low,
steamy plains of the Ganges, and the
plague in the southern regions of central
Asia. 1t is something more than an as
sumption that diphtheria follows the same
law, and that, while it is constant ele
! ment in Russia, circumstances favorable
| to its development cause it to overleap
| its ordinary boundaries and travel west
ward. About year ago, when the Rus
slams of Kharkoff were dying by the
| thousand, other provinces were
even more previously affected 1t will be
remembered that such was the terror in
spired by the pestilence that the inhabi-
tants of one province in particular were
| flying in every direction, carrying the
seeds of diphtheria with them. The i'm
perial government was alarmed. 1t saw
the necessity for checking this fight, and
Gordon of eighty thousand troops
were formed around the center of the
disorder BY this means it was confined
| within certain limits, and thither were
sent forces of medical practitioners from
Pussia, France, Germany, and England.
But it was clearly impossible that gov
ernmental vigilance could be permanent
| ly and altogether effective. The disease
| spread, and the germs of it were
carried by the dirty Russ
| in his clothing and household
effects. During the past year emigration
| from Russia has been extensive. The
records show that the population of this
country has received considerable acces-
| sion from the arrival of Russian immi-
grants, who come in patches, like the
Mennonites, and in families, like the
| Germans 1t is only too likely that our
| present visitation is due to the release of
the diphtheria germ from its hiding
place in the chests and baggage of Rus
SLAMS arriving in this country. 1t has
been latent in their warm winter clothing
all summer and has infected the air,
when the approach of cold weather
has brought their winter gar
ments into use. If this is the case, then
the couse of the quarantine authorities
seems clear. A glance at the medical re-
turns will show whether the locali facts
correspond with this theory. If they
do, it will be simply precaution to re-
quire the immediate disinfection of all
baggage arriving by steerage with chic
rine gas upon the instant of landing.
| Experience has demonstrated that chlo-
rine is the immediate antidote to septic
poisons, and it is cheap as it is effective
We call the attention of the State medi-
cal authorities to this point. and suggest
that reports bearing upon it being secured
at once from all quarters in which diph-
liberia has appeared.
WEATHER TO-DAY.
| WASHINGTON, Jan. 6, A. M.-IndicatiOns
for the upper lake region, decidedly cold and