New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1883-06-30
standing defects which may remain TO DO
corrected hereafter.
nv oUTRRF1K OF PESTILENCE.

AN OUTBREAK OF PESTILENCE.
The appalling intelligence has been received
this week that Asiatic cholera has appeared
in Epypt in a most virulent form. About 3oo
deaths from the disease are reported to have
occurred within four days at Dametta; ana
according TO one account which seems scarce
" credible, there have been lib fatal cases
within twenty-four hours. At the outset
controversy arose in regard to the nature Oh
the disease, the medical staff pronounclng 1t
contagious fever and the Sanitary Commission
contending that it was Asiatlc cholera; Dut
the rapid spread of the disease and the alarm
ing rate of mortality now leave little room
for doubt on this score. From French
sources the fact is learned that cholera
broke out in Bombay as early as May, and the
charge is made that precautionary measures
for staying its progress westward have been
neglected by the British Government. Paris
critics, however, are not disposed ut present
to do Justice to the nation that has acquired
control of the administration of the lower Nile
country, and the assumption that any English
Sanitary Commissioner has declared CONNER
cial interests to be moro important than those
of public health is probably gratuitous. 1t is
of plaques has suddenly appeared on the high
way between East and West Damietta lies
near the coast on the east branch OF the Nile
about quarter of the distance from Port SAID
to Alexandria by sea. Mansurah, where ad-
dtional cases arc reported lies short distance
up the Dametta brarch; and Rosetta and
Port Said, where the disease is also SAID TO
have broken out, are on the coast to the west
and east Damietta itself, which is the centre
of contagion, is separated from Port SAD only
by the shallow salt mere, Lake Menzaieh,
through which NJ. de Lesseps followed out
his great ditch. The scourge has appeared
in quarter where it is directly cOmmunca-
BILE to Greek, Italian, French and English ports,
where it will be capable of reproducing itselt.
Asiatic cholera is a disease as old as Hippo
crates and Galen, for they describe 1t III detail
although each has his own name for 1t. For
a century and quarter its periodical move
ment has been attributed to the dense masses
of population gathered together every twelfth
wear at the great Hindoo festivals. From the
sh1ines in the interior, TO which pilgrimages
are made. the disease has been carried to the
coast at Bombay or Calcutta, and thence by
ship to CeylOn, MauTtius and China or along
the caravan roads to the Persian Gult, the
Caspian and the Mediterranean, and even
across Central Asia into European Russia.
The most terrible visitations OF this plague
winch have occurred since 1886 have
followed this periodical law. The dis
ease broke out in India in 1917 and
ran its course in four years In 1879
cholera reached Orenburg, spread to Poland
and Eastern Europe, and was carried by emil
grant Sims 20 America in 1882. In 1871 there
was fresh outbreak in Bengal, the effects OF
which were traced year after year IN one coun-
try after another until the pcstiIence again
spept its force in America. In 1865 the In
lection was communicated more rapidly, steam
sbips carrying it to Marseiles and England,
| and finally TO New-York. The next visitation
WAS due under this periodical law in 1877,
and in December of that year there was great
mortality from the disease in Jeddah, Mecca
and throughout Arabia, and sporadic cases
were reported in land caravans at long dis
tances from India. This was the year OF the
Russo-Turkish war, and if the disease had
broken ont in Asia Minor or the Balkans Its
rayages would have been terrible. Its progress
was STAYED in 1878. and it did not reach the
Mediterranean ports.
II is not easy TO determine whether the
present appearance of cholera in Egypt Is
directly connected with the outbreak five years
| ago in Arabia, or is to be attributed to more
| recent infection { ON India. Whatever may
be its marching pace, and wherever may have
been its original point of departure, it is
visitor whose approach has not ceased to be an
awful warning. Its presence in the South
Mediterranean ports ought not, however, to
cause the same degree of apprehension as for
merly. The overland routes Of communica-
ton between Asia Minor and Egypt on the
one hand and the hives Of Indian population
ON the other are no longer so dcnsely thronged
as to open an easy passage for contagion. The
railroad system III India, the Suez Canal and the
EGYPTIAN trunk line have broken up the busi-
ness of the caravan routes and thereby dimin-
ished the danger of contagion. At the same
time quarantine system has been established
by various nations in the Mediterranean by
which the progress of plague may be retarded
and possibly blocked altogether
] An INACCURATE GOVERNOR.
Governor Butler Of Massachusetts, has been
often charged with taking unwarranted lber-