The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1884-11-28
The Chances of Cholera Next Year.

III Ine Autumn feNlNeS ana SJfeDSJn-
ems the apprehensions which have been
so generally felt by physicians of both
Europe and America, that next ye."
would be marked by cholera epide,
ic more widespread and more fatal than
that of 1884. Accordingly, anxious
inquiries are mado as to our prepar.-
tions to ward off the pestilenct, and as
to the probabilities of its visiting New
York, despite the best sanitary care of
the city.
The last time that New York suffer-
ed from cholera to any great extent
was in the summer and autumn of 1866
and 1867. Then; as now, the health
officers expected its coming, for it was
epidemic in Europe during 1866, and
as early as November of that year cas-
es were brought here on the Atlanta.
More cases arrived on the incoming
vessels during the spring succeeding,
and the Board of Health, then in its
Infancy, organized pretty thorough
system of sanitary measures, of relief
and medical advice, adapted to thu
possible exlgencies of great epidenI-
lc.
Owing to these precautions, the visi-
tatiOn was far less severe and general
than previous cholera epidemics had
been. The business streets and the
more cleanly parts of the city were al
most entirely exempt from it, but as the
report of the Health Board for 1,o6
says, ''from Bowling Green to X rs
bridge, cholera selected its fields, nd
fearfully menaced all foul places.
Meanwhile the well-drained and well
built districts escaped, with but thi4s
or four exceptions, and mot respec-
table hotel or commercial visitor in the
city was reached by infection" l."
AT that time the condition of both
New York and Brooklyn as to cleauli-
ness was bad. The report for 1867
speaks of the difficulty of the task in
which the Board engaged, because of
the ''reeking tilthiness" of the two cit
les. But in the face of such draw
back, the sanitary officers succeeded in
reducing the epidemic to comparative.
ly small proportions, and in confning
1t within limited areas. The map of
the districts affected by cholera from
May, 1866, to December, 1867, shows
that they included a small space in the
vicinity of the Battery inhabited by
crowded population, and other portions
OF the city where the tenement houses
We're numerous. The region above
Amity street and lying between the
Sixth and Lexington avenues wa
scarcely touched. In fine, only cholera
appeared in those quarters of the
town where diarrhpal diseases were
most wont to prevail, and coincidently
with the appearance of cholera such
diseases increased their ravages.
1t is true that the city is even more
crowded than it was then that pro-
portionately y the tenement house popv
lation is greater, and that every sum
mer diarrhgal diseases prevail extern
sively in the parts of The town whe the
number Of inhabitants to the square
acre is largest. But every year the
Health Department is extending the
area benefited by its efforts, and ev-
cry year better comprehends the task
before it.
We do not, therefore, look toward
next summer with great alarm. Very
likely there will be cases of cholera
here, but at the Quarantine and in the
Health Department there will be con-
stant watch for their appearance, and
the methods OF preventing the spread
OF the disease will of course be prompt
ly applied We see that this year,
though cholera has been severe in the
south of France and in Italy, and has
now entered Paris to some extent, it
has not disturbed London, where the
sanitary condition is so much better
than the French capital, In fact, in
Paris, districts of the city are still
badly dranied, and some of the domes
TIC arrangements are not very far in
advance of those Of century ago it
is to those districts, too, that cholera
has been confined, ~ Y San.