Huntsville gazette., 1882-09-30
The Expected Coming OF the Asiati<
Cholera.

TIon UOtu EdSI anu w est tnero nave
! been coming notes Of warning which
the health authorities of all the cities OF
the Union would do well to heed. There
are various theories extant as to the true
cause of Asiatic cholera, one of which
is exceedingly horrible. This particular
form of the disease always originates in
Hindoostan, and it is said the place OF
its origin is in the delta of the Ganges,
down whose holy waters the faithful
survivors have for ages fioated the
bodies of their expiring kindred, in the
belief that this is the shortest and surest
road to the Hindoo paradise This ar.
rangement, comfortable enough for the
pious children who thus send their pa.
rents direct to heaven at the same time
that they get rid of the responsibility Of
supporting them on earth, has q very
uncomfortable side for other races and
peoples. The corpses thus foated down
"Ganges' holy tide y annually number
many hundred thousands, and those
that escape the jaws of the Indian
crocodile get lodged in the muddy sands
of the delta, there to bubble up fetid
contagion. This spot, the home OF
Atiatic cholera, is some $50 miles to the
east and north of Calcutta, and is one
of the dre2riest and most dismal places
on the face of the globe. Its dank at.
mosphere, mephitic black soil and rank,
gloomy vegetation make it seem the
chosen home of death.
As the years 90 by the rottenness be-
low the dark verdure accumulates and
foul gases hang over the country in an
ever-increasing poisonous cloud. A time
comes when some change must take
place. A gale from the sea carries the
vile vapor inland, and men begin to
sicken and die by the thousand. Ii this
happen at about the period of one of the
| annual pilgrimages which afllict Brah-
minical, Mohammedan and Buddhist
| countries alike, the disease spreads both
east and west and north and south,
sometimes leaving no land within the
temperate or torrid zones of the globe
unvisited.
It is not, however, always that this
awful scourge originates solely from the
fostering carcases that lie in the mud oi
/ the Ganges delta. IL has frequently
! happened that the enormous gatherings
at the twelve yearly pilgrimages to the
temple of Juggernaut have brought suf-
ficient pollution into a focus to create
the disease. At these pilgrimages hun
dreds of thousands of people assemble,
| befouling atmosphere and water alike.
With no knowledge of, and less care
for, cleanliness of habits or person,
these wretched creatures breathe pesti-
lence on the face of the earth. Famine,
| disease and death are their heralds and
their rear guard, and through them
whole armies of healthy men have be-
come suddenly prostrated. In 1917, for
instance, the Marquis of Hastings, CON-
manding an army of 10000 men in the
| war with the Mahrattas, was overtaken
by the cholera, which had travelled up
the Ganges faster than he could march,
and contemporary writer speaking OF
the result, says: stThe lines Of march
presented most deplorable spectacle !;
hundreds of soldiers dropped down in
every days advance and on every
nights halt, so that the whole presented
the appearance of successive battle
| fields, and the track of an army retreat
ing under every circumstance of defeat
and discontinue. The army was des-
cimated in two weeks.
Another great place of pilgrimage in
Hindostan IS Hurdwar, situated at or
near the source of the Ganges. This
particularly holy place assemblies many
hundred thousand people every year,
and at twelve year piIgrimages it is
estimated that fully 100000 of the
| faithful come to worship the sacred
river. This is, as might be supposed, a
prolific source of cholera. The last
| two epidemics which swept through
Europe and America are believed to
have been engendered here, and the
conditions surrounding the Hurdwar pill
grimage for the spread of the disease
are particularly favorable. The country
| around is full of Mahomedan tribes,
who think it their duty, also, to send
annual pilgrimages to Mecca. These
| travel through Afghanistan to Persia
and across the Persian gulf to Arabia,
where they meet other pilgrims coming
from Northern Africa to the same
| shrine. Contact is poison, and the
poison is carried northward to the Medi-
terranean on the homeward journey by
Turks, Egyptians and others. Here
commerce and war do all the rest.
Recently we have had bad news both
from Egypt and Japan-from the oppo-
| site ends of the earth, so to speak-that
cholera is spreading. A shipload of the
disease is said to be on its way down the
Nile, while the epidemic has assumed
| the most virulent form in the land Of
| the Tycoon. Under these circumstances
common prudence demands that some
| provision should be made to ward off
the danger while it is yet distant. 1t
will be much better to do this now
rather than wait till imminent peril
shall create an unreasoning scare. From
the western side it would seem to be
sufficiently easy to prevent the approach
1 of the insidious foe. 1t may not be SO
from the east, but, fortunately, the dan
! ger on that side is less pronounced, and
1 It is quite possible that the disease germs
may die out, as they have done before,
before they even reach Western Europe.
At the same time it is just as well in
these matters to neglect no precaution
possible. 4 few grains OF sense now
may avert an ocean of misery in the
future, and, with the advanced knowl-
| edoe claimed by our scientific men, 1t