Savannah weekly echo., 1883-08-26
HOW CHOLERA TRAVELS.
THEORIES Al TO TRH CAUSE or TIN
TERRIBLE EFmE1GIC.

The Terrible Outbreak and Fatality a Few
Years Ago on Railroad Train in Ben
ga'--How the Dis ease Begins.
Cholera is disease that comes and
goes mysteriously. Although acting
under some unknown law of nature,
its movements are so erratic as to ap-
pear to be the mere result of chance.
While leaving long trail of death be-
hind it as it sweeps over long line Of
cities, it will suddenly pass over entire
districts and reappear on the other
side of them and renew its fatal
progress. 1t has baffled the ablest ply.
sicians in the world. They cannot tell
whether it is in the air or in the water
All they know is that it is.
The mcst general opinion held by
men who have had an opportunity of
studying its characteristics in its nat
ural home, the East Indies, is that
the malady is born of germs that have
sprung out of masses of decayed veCe-
table and animal matter played upon
by blazing sun; that these invisible
germs are borne over the earth by the
air currents, and that they have an
affinity for pllces characterized by the
decay and corruption whence they
sprung. This theory is at least as
plausible as any other, though occa-
siona!ly those who hold that it belongs,
to bad water have their theory sup
p rted by such awful calamities as the
one tnat took place few years ago in
Benga.
On that occasion a train packed
with natives started from Cawnpore
f Lucknow, ride OF about six hours.
When it arrived at its destination the
sight presented to the officials was ap-
palling. Hundreds of men and women
wee either dead or dying from cholera,
Some survivors testified that the dis
ease broke out almost tlnmt diately
after native passenger had handed
round to few of h acquaintances a
drink Of Ganges water from his tab.
For four h5urs these wfetche1 people
had been packed in that tran, sur
rounded by the revolving agonies Of the
dead and the dying, and several were
taken out of it stricken, not with the
tease, Tut with insanity.
The observations made by well-in-
r.ned Egyptian correspondents are
suggestive Of the fact that the rulers
of Egypt are greatly to blame for the
epidemic. The lakes around Damietta
produce enormous quantities of fish,
which are imperfectly cured, dried IN
the sun, and eaten in an almost putrid
state by the poor fellaheen.
Vast quantities of dead and rotten
cattle are cast into these lakes as food
for the fishes, and travellers have been
frequently filled with disgust at the
spectacle of bloated carcasses floating
on the waters. The fellaheen would
probably gladly bury their dead ami
,nals hi,t trna tc the characteristics
of Egyptian misgovernment, cne of
the taxes of the country is laised on
buried cattle. What is the result?
Rather than pay the tax each fellah
throws his dead animals into the canals
or shallow lakes and takes no further
heel of the transaction.
The New York Times gives the fol-
lowing particulars concerning the dis
ease The first cases are generally
widely scattered and sporadic, and no
connection can easily be traced from
one to another, and the whole thing
seems a great mystery. A most pro-
ductive source in obscure outbreaks is
the introduction of soiled clothes,
either sent to washerwOmen or to rela-
tives, or sold as old clothes. These
cases are often obscure, for the wash
erwomen, if robust, do not die first,
but some delicate person or child in the
same house or neighborhood. In the
meantime the healthy washerwoman
may merely have choleraic diarrhea,
and may recover entirely and never be
suspected, or may finally die when five,
ten, fifteen or even twenty whom she
has infected have gone to their graves.
The initial case is not always the first
fatal one far from it. The least
common occurrence is when persons
absolutely and greatly affected by the
disease come into a place with such
evident signs about them that none but
the least informed can mistake them,
and die quickly, and thus really fur
nish not only the initial case of every
kind, but the first fatal one.