The Mineral argus., 1884-07-17

weeks. This is customary. and most uniusti
naole, as II allows the pestilenee to gain head
way m various places before proper am
out stamp 4
They are burning great fires in tbe streats
IA oFdef To- purify the air and amuse the pub
nc. Inc disease does not float about in the air
Du1 comes from microscopic germs which
breed immensely in the bowels of those WHO
sWolow them with their food and drinking wa
gI Iney are east out in great numbers with
the discharges from the bowels and kidnevs.
ana the soiled bed and body clothes of cholera
patents abound with very live and active ones.
dhese gelms always thrive best in alkaline
Hulds, where putrefaction and decomposition
are going on and where there is warmth. The
rice,water discharges of cholera are always
alkallne and more usually prone to decomposi-
ton- All the acids are good disinfectants, es-
peclally the sulphuric, and aromatic sulphuric
acid, Or elixir %vitriol, is one of the best cura-
tive remedies.
Unfortunately, it was imposed that the sui
phuTlc acid in sulphate of iron, or copperas.
would prove sufficient to kill these germs.
but 1t has signally and repeatedly failed. The
ACID Is neutralized by the iron. 1t was select
cd because it was safe to handle bv ignorant
people, far more 90 than sulpheric acid or oil
of vitriOl. Carbolic acid, so called, was sup
posed to be an acid, but it is not, and is also
unreliable. Turpentine isa splendid disinfec-
tant, but the danger of fire in its use by care
less peoples too great for its general recon-
mendatlon- Corrosive sublimate, or bodbug
poison, is thoroughly reliable as a germ killer,
and will probably be used largely by physi-
clans.
1t has not generally been realized that
cholera germs are present in the urine as
well as in the discharges from the bowels,
and that has usually not been disinfected
ChOlera patients commonly have more or less
dlarrhea for several days before they break
down and show unmistakable signs of the
disease. In the meantime they are going to
and fro in various places, injecting every
water closet and urinal they make a con-
yenlence Of and every wayside fence or lot
they may be compelled to soil The first
question which should be put to cholera pa
TENTS, soon as they have been prescribed for
and made comfortable, Is to fld out every
place they have visited and used
came sick. Every one Of these places
should be promptly disinfected by
health officers. Unless this precaution is TAX
en- cholera will crop up in the most varied
and unexpected places. 1t will seem to have
been dropped from the heavens, and to have
been blown about by the winds, instead of hav-
ing effectually deposited by persons already
sick with it. Cholera generally crops out at
first in various and distant parts of a town.
where DO cholera patient has been supposed to
nave come 1t seems to arise spontaneously.
The cases seem to have no direct connection
with each other, and the whole is a great puz-
zle to simple-minded people. 1t is especially
difficult to track down the first cases, which
may nothave been fatal ones. Importation is
denied, and only to often successfully concealed.
There Is no doubt that cholera was imported
into Egypt from India last year, and that the
English authorities did not hunt it down skill
fully. The same thing happened in New Or
leans in 1873.