Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1884-07-18
THE CHOLERA.


lin Cholera Commission, has decided that
the epidemic raging at Toulon and Mar
seilles is Asiatic cholera, and that 1t VIII In
all likelihood spread over Germany and the
adjoining countries, medical experts, who
know how careful DIR. Koch is to arrive at
certainty On such an important point before
expressing an opinion, are beginning to see
clearly that the rumored plague Is no mere
newspaper canard, but an abomlnatlon
which may soon be working It's cru uel Will
in the great cities of Europe and America.
And the worst Of it is that there seems no
way of avoiding it. Creeping, like thief
in the night, from the unwholesome regions
near Calcutta, it comes now, as it has so Of
ten come before, pitilessly gliding on from
CITY to city, and laughing to scorn all at
teInpts TO root it out.
Cholera, it is said, originates at Jugger.
naut. in India, from the over crowding OF
pilgrims whose habits are filthy and whose
food is bad. The predisposing causes in
that country are tremendous floods, follow
ed by excessive heat and drought, which
kill cattle and crops and thus poison the
entire region. In 1917 the pilgrims took
the disease to Calcutta and thence to Jes-
sore which from that time became the
starting point The predisposing factors,
potent in all climes and seasons, are an at
mosphere impregnated with the products OF
fermenting human eNcrement, close, hot,
stagnant atmosphere; such unusually high
readings of the barometer 80 degrees
and up to 80. .46 degrees and 30.4S degrees
as favor the chemical decomposition of or
canic substances: lowness Of site, swampy
grounds, decomposition of vegetable matter,
filthy streets and yards, impure water and
bad food. Other recognized causes are un-
due exposure to the vicissitudes OF climate,
especially cold nights following hot days;
physical fatigue, nervous depression ana
fear of the disease; undue abstinence from
food or the presence of injurious properties
in the food; excess in eating and drinking
and liccntiousness, vitiated atmosphere, and
especially direct exposure to the contaglon
of the disease. That any or all Of these
causes will be the means of introducing the
germs Of cholera into the human system has
been fully proved by q carelul study of the
disease, both in Asia, Europe and America"
The disease has always been brought to
America by ships. In 1882 the brig Carrick,
bringing emigrants from Ireland, arrived ut
Quebec The cholera had killed forty-two
passengers during the voyage and broke
out at Quebec on June 6. On June 10 it
reached Montreal. and soon after Detroit.
During the same month the ship Henry
". arrived at New York from Havre with
cholera patients, and the disease appeared
in the city on the 24th Soon after it was
carried TO Canada, Philadelphia and the
West.
In 1S4S two vessels sailed from Havrc--
one, the New York for New York, the other
the Swanton, for New Orleans. Both YES
sells were full of German emigrants, fourteen
of whom died or the New York and thirteen
on the Swauton. The New York arrived at
Staten Island Oh December 2, 1915, and a
severe epidemic soon broke out, but was
confined to the quarantine grounds. The
Swanton arrived ut New Orleans on Decem-
ber IL. No quarantine was instituted, and
The result was that the epidemic lasted the
whole winter About $50 died in Decem-
her, GOO in January and $500 in June. On
December 20 the epidemic was brought by
steamboat from New Orleans 10 Memphis,
where ii was confined for twenty-five days
municatins with the vessel, after which
time it spread among the most distant
houses In the spring of 1919 it reached ST.
Louis and Cincinnati, and soon covered the
whole valley of the Mississippi. In October,
1850 it reached Sacramento by means Of
overland emigrants and San Francisco by
means of the United States mail steamer
Northerner from Panama.
In the fall Of 1853 cholera ships came in
great numbers from England to New York,
but, rs the epidemic was confined to the
quarantine grounds on Staten Island, no
outbreak occurred until the following spring.
1t soon spread, however, TO the large cities
in the regular lines of travel. In 1866 the
cholera was brought to New York from
Havre, Liverpool, London, Hamburg and
Bremen, and carried thence, both by land
and water, to every part of the United
States 1t reached Chicago, Cincinnati and
the West by railroad, and New Orleans,
Texas and the South by steamboat. 1t died
out in the Indian Territory.
In 1873 cholera appeared again at New
Orleans, having been most probably brought
there by immigrants from Hamburg and
Bremen. This suppostion becomes almost
certainty when it is remembered that
there were seventy thousand cases Of cholera
in North Germany in 1872, and that the
names of the vessels in which the imm;-
grants were brought 10 New Orleans
have hitherto been studicusly. conceal
ed. From New Orleans the plague pass
ed up the Mississippi River along the
Memphis From Cincinnati ii swept along TO
Pittsburg and the cghborhood of New York and
Philadcpha but was etfectually prevented from
enterin. the last two cities by rigid quarantine,
which had already in the same year stopped sew
eral cholera vessels bound for New York. This
was the last appearance of cholera in America
When the Suez Canal was opened in 1S6S It
was supposed that cholera would thcnceforth en-
, ter Europe by way of the Red and Mediterranean
seas in steamships but it was soon known that an
epidemic had for some time been crawling through
Persia by means Of caravans TO the holy city OF
Mcshod and had gone up between the Black aud
| Caspian to Russia, whence. in l07i-I2, 1t
spreai 10 Germany, and was for the second tine
! carried to Ncw Orleans by way of Hamburg and
| Bremen, in the winter of 1878 Its entrance in;o
| New Orleans was overlooked by the same quaran-
| tine officer who disregarded The yellow fever OF
1873 which so heavily afflicted Memphis, Shrevc.
port Nashville and other cities and towns of the
!! South and West.