The new North-west. [volume] (Deer Lodge, Mont.) 1869-1897, 1884-08-08
DEER LODGE, MONTANA, AUGUST 8, 1884
THE CHOLERA.
A Description Of the Plague and the Treat
OF the Disease.

A Description Of the Plague and the Treat
OF the Disease.
The New York times Of July 2sth print
a telegram five columns long, giving an &C
count Of the first English.speakipg cores
pondent who visited Marseilles and Toulor
during the epidemic. The following are ex
tracts:
/ have visited every room In every choler,
hospital existing in Marseilles and Toulop
and have seen the poor people dying In hos
pitfalls and in their own novels, and buried al
midnight In the cemeteries by the light o.
torches and lanterns. have discussed
ALL PHASES OF THE EPIDEMIC
exhaustively with the hospital doctors, the
priests and the nurses, and my conclusion /,
that the much dreaded cholera is probably
the most fatal and severe of all diseases to
which human flesL is heir. Yet 1t is thing
Of which no intelligent community, Of we'll
ordered lives and well sewer pipes
need have alarming fear, even when brought
into close contact with it, to say nothing oi
getting into panic at its distance. The
vilest quarters of Marseilles, Capallette and
Its adjoining districts have furnished most OF
the cases Of cholera, and 1t Is an interesting
fact that the largest proportion Of them are
Italians. visited the chief hospital, where
l saw 81 patients, in all stages of the disease,
from the last agonized breath to the period
Of cheerful convalescence. Every face in
these "a males and females was the face of q
person from the lower walks of life, and this
| l am told has been the rule among the pa
tients from the first. At the beginning nine
teen-twentieths Of the patients received at
Pharo failed to recover. For the past fort
night matters have improved. The treat
ment both here and In Toulon in the first
stages is twenty drops Of laudanum with
three grains of ether and ice in the mouth to
stop the vomiting. In the second stages
when the patient becomes very cold, from 10
| to fifteen grammes of acitate of ammonia and
the same quantity Of alcohol and two injec-
tions of morphia are given daily. II the pa.
tient cannot breathe, artificial respiration Of
| oxygen Is produced and the limbs are rubbed
with turpentine. The third stage Is In the
coffin. A delay in placing the bodies in the
collins is made necessary by the fact that vio-
lent post mortem action Of the limbs takes
place, caused by the terrible reaction after
death, in which the temperature rises from
extreme cold at dissolution to 120 after it.
t. Il. f,ll Ig.tn
FROM GRAVE TO GAY.
After visiting the cemetery at night and
witnessing the horrible scenes of burial there
enacted, the correspondent returned to the
central part of the city land 1t was gay enough.
Bands we're playing, aud the cafe lamps were
cleaning. People III throngs were walking
in the streets laughing merrily, and many
heads were poked out of the windows Of the
houses. The next morning | saw . mourn
ful procession of 500 people forming opposite
Palais de Industre. They were poor people
taking their turn, so that they might obtain
a modicum Of bread. All day long this cue
remained, and was sadly suggestive Of q
panic. If
IN A SANITARY VIEW
the condition of Marseilles Is frightful, that
of Toulon struck me simply as murderous.
Toulon must be inhabited by people who
utterly ignore every precaution which health
requires. Their habits both in their houses
and in the public streets are indescribablJ
filthy. It is impossible for people who live
on fruit, who drink all kinds of poor fluids,
who sleep in dirt and nastiness, who breathe
air polluted by the sewerage Of the town IT,
self and rendered doubly poisonous by ex-
creta left by training ships, to escape the
cholera. The marvel is, that the disease did
not find its birth here years before. Toulon
has always been
BREEDING PLACE OF DISEASE.
Smallpox, when 1t broke out In Toulon,
was always of the most malignant type, and
m ore difficult to stamp out than elsewhere.
| saw some thirty six cases Of cholera. The
condition Of the patients differed in no re-
spect from those In Marseilles. l noticed
that the doctors smoked cigars and chewed
considerable quantities Of camphor. In Ras-
pail's time, thirty years ago, camphor was
considered In France as an antidote for many
diseases. Doctors drank wine and beer
freely. / put piece of tobacco in my mouth
and chewed during my visit, following the
advice of an old sea going friend Of mine ia
miIiar with the disease. Cholera has gone
to Italy. Should 1t reach Naples the slsugh-
ter will be terrible, as the city Is one Of the
| dirtiest on earth. .....
CHOLERA NOT CATCHING.
Florence Nightingale writes the Herald
from Paris thus: In reply to You note, asking
| e~- al--...i.~i .S-,~~.ss-- ..i~-- ~ ssn ~.-sa
spread Of cholera" ! will say that our whole
experience In India, where the cholera Is
never wholly absent, proves that cholera Is
not communicable from person to person;
that the disease cannot be ascribed to "some-
body else .; that Is, that the sick do not man
ufacture the Especial poison" which causes
the disease; that cholera Is Q local disease,
an epidemic affecting localities, and then de-
pending upon the pollution Of the earth, air
and water and buildings; that the isolation
of the sick cannot stop the disease, nor
quarantine, nor cordons, nor the like. These,
indeed, may tend fatally TO aggravate the
disease, directly and indirectly, by turning
away our attention from the only measure
which can stopit. The only preventive is
to put the earth, air and water and the build
| ines into healthy state Of scavenging, lime
washing and every kind Of sanitary work, and
| II the cholera does come, to move the people
from place to place where the disease has
broken out, and then TO cleanse. Persons
about cholera patients do not catch the dis
ease from the sick any more than cases oi
poisoning 'infect" others. II number Of
persons have been poisoned, say by arsenic
put by mistake into the food, 1t Is because
each has swallowed the arsenic.
|
A Postonice on Mount Sinai.
i London Standard.
The world moves SO fast that one learns mol
In he astonished at anything. Still TO heal