Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1883-08-30
THE CHOLERA.
Where the Dreaded PestiIence Comes
From.

From.
II there we're really any danger of
general epidemic in this country this
summer. we might well speak IN tones
Of apprehension and dread. The tele-
graph brings accounts, 1t is true OF
the apparant development of the epi-
demic in Egypt, China and the far
East; but it is believed and hoped
that there is as yet no immediate pros
pect of a spread of the scourge through
Europe and America.
The cholera is now almost entirely
confined to the region in which the ep-
idemic usually originates. The source
of the disease has been almost uniform
ly.in Hlndostan, and the occasion has
been those years in which there were
great religious festivals. involving the
congregation of devout Hindoos from
all parts Of tue land. The deporta.
ton of the disease occurs in twelve
yearly periods, corresponding 70 the
festivals just mentioned.
The cholera epidemic of lS29-3l
was the first to cross the Atlantic, and
it approached Europe by way of Mos
cow having first appeared IN Astraka-
han in August of 1929. From Mos
COW it was disseminated all over North.
ern Russia. and was carried by coaling
vessels on the Baltic to England, and
was soon epidemic all over Scotland
and Ireland. Thence by ten or twelve
Irish emigrant ships, the disease land
ed in Quebec, to be sent up the St.
Lawrence and the lakes to Detroit, in
time to bring down number of Amer
ican troops destined for the scene of
the Black Hawk war. Chicago, Rock
Island and Prairie d la Chen were soon
infected; and later the disease took its
course down the Mississippi to New
Orleans, where 5000 deaths took place,
when the city's population was 55,-
900.
The next great epidemic occurred in
1851, arising in lower Bengal, reaching
Afghanistan in 1914. The Black Sea
and the Danube carried it to Germany,
and, as IN 1880, em!grant ships car
ried it to America, this time to appear
at New Orleans. in 1880 the cooler
northern climate DETECTED the course
of the disease southwark, where its
greatest havoc occurred in the heated
term. In this instance the course of
the disease was northward. The
north bound Mississippi and OHIO riv-
er steamers had twenty to thirty cases
on board every day. But the north
ern air curtailed the epidemic, and the
mortality in the North was not near
that of the South at this time. Emf
grants carried the disease to San
Francisco, even by their slow-going
wagon trains.
Our last visitation of cholera was in
1865, when, On account of that mar.
velous increase in facilities for inter-
communication, 1t made its appearace
IN New York only four months after
it broke out in India. The pest spread
as far west as Kansas. 1t is curious
to note that in the past, the United
States has always been the terminus
of the cholera in its westward progress.
1t has never thence crossed the Pacific.
1t is possible now, however, that the
disease might be transmitted either to
or from us by way of the Pacific on ac-
count of the recent growth of travel
over the ocean.
AS intimated at the outset, we
would not excite needless alarm. Our
sanitary methods are certainly much
more complete and inteligently en-
ployed than when the scourge before
attacked the land. The seaboards are
the places needed to be particularly
guarded. A national Health Board
should be appointed, and strict quar-
antine should be put on vessels from
possibly infected regions. In all
towns and cities, local sanitary meas.
ures for the abolition of filth and ma
laria producing places should be IN
augurated, and we would prepare even
for the worst without giving way to
undue apprehension.
Polluted drinking water, poisonous
gases, vitiated atmosphere and i'm
properly prepared and disturbing fruit
and vegetable foods are all aggrava
ting causes Of the disease in cholera
times; and should intimation of the
epidemic appear unusual care. should
at once be exercised in all these d.
rections.