The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-07-15
THE GREAT PESTTLENCE.
Its First Appearance i'm America-How 1t
Spread Over the Country.

The spread of cholera from Spain into France,
and its temperance there at some of the COM
mercial ports which it ravaged last summer, and
which are III direct marine communication with
our own, will revive discussion of the scourge in
this country. although there appear to be no adj
ditional grounds for immediate apprehension.
1t is little more than half century since
cholera first appeared in America. Its history
shows that it may enter anywhere along the At
lantic coast, from the Gulf of st. Lawrence to
the Gulf of Mexico, unless effective precautions
are taken. 1t has never yet crossed the Pacific,
though it has more than once ravaged China. 1t
was first brought to America from Ireland in
the emigrant ship Carrck, which arrived in the
St. Lawrence early in June 1892 1t
had then devastated nearly all parts
of Asia. by turns and intermit
tently, during fifteen years, and for
more than twelve months had ravaged Europe
1t is well to recall these historic facts in order
that those ignorant of them may not hastily
INFER that the restriction of the disease mainly
to southwestern Europe during the last season.
and so far during the present, is IA guarantee of
its being confined to that region, or even to that
continent, without the exercise of the most
rigid precautions. The epidemic mad reached
Moscow in the autumn of 1880. where, in the
space of six weeks, it had destroyed 3 900 victims
The summer following it ragged at St Petersburg
and moved to Warsaw with the Russian soldiery,
from whom it was communicated to the Austrian
and Prussian troops there, and through them
to Vienna and Berlin. From Berlin 1t moved
Sunderland and then to London, which it
reached the 18th of February 1892. 1t
destroyed 1886 lives in that city, and, altogether.
3,229 in Great Britain. Meanwhile, it had
crossed the Irish Sea, and prior to the 4th of
May there were 5l5 cases and sos deaths in
Dublin and 997 cases, with 267 deaths, at Cork.
From the former port the Carrick sailed for
Quebec. Forty-two of her passengers died on
the way over, and on the 9Th of June the scourge
she brought spreading in Quebec. Two
days later it was in Montreal. Each of these
places contained at that time about thirty thou
sand people, and in each nearly two thousand
died of cholera. The epidemic rapidly extended
up the river, through villages and farms, to
Kingston. thence along the shores of the great
lakes to Buffalo, Detroit and Chicago, and then
throughout the Mississippi valley.
Meanwhile cholera had broken out in New
York city on the 9th of June, apparently be-
fore its arrival anywhere else in the United
States, unless perhaps at Ogdensburg and
Plattsburgh. At all events since even Albany
was safe until July g. although eventually 389
persons died of it there out of popula
tion of twenty-five thousand, it is believed
that the New York visitation sprang from q
different source-the arrival of the ship
Henry w from Havre with cholera patients.
The first cases occurred in Cherry street, and
then the pestilence rapidly all over the lower
part of the island and northward into Green
witch, Chelsea. Yorkvile, and Harlem. The
city than contained about 225, 900 inhabitants,
but perhaps third of them fled to the country.
On the 2lst of July, when the scourge was at its
height in the CITY, three hundred new cases were
reported; and during the week succeeding
there were $50 deaths from this malady. The
total number Of deaths certainly ascribable to
cholera in the city up to the middle of October,
when it disappeared. about three thousand.
One out of every two attacks proved fatal, and
this terrible ratio of mortality produced panic.
Those were not the days of sewers, and refuse
was dumped into cutters
The scattering of people from New York took
xoT+l No.
that while it was following one path up the st.
Lawrence and down the Mississippi, it was from
another focus extending everywhere inland. Yet
its westward tendency was marked-Save few
cases in New Haven, Newport, Providence and
Boston, New England was not severely visited.
Philadelphia had its first on the 9th of July,
and its second the 9th. Up to the
middle of September there were 935 deaths in
a population nominally of 100000, but
which had been greatly reduced by flight The
total deaths up to the end of the season are not
known. since the mortality record was then very
incomplete in that city, and many cases of chol-
era In private practice were not reported at all.
The disease there reached its height on the 7th
of August, about fortnight later than in New
York. In Baltimore, which also took the cpl
demic from the New York focus, the deaths up
to the end of September numbered no. in Nor
folk. up to Sept IL, there were about 400-a
heavy ratio to the population. In Cincinnati
there were 307 deaths up to Aug 7. In
New Orleans, which was reached much later in
the year from the Quebec focus, the mortality
was estimated at 5000, the slaves suffering
heavily; and thence it continued to Cuba and
Mexico, which were also frightfu]ly ravaged 1t
has been said that in TampcO, the following
year, 900 persons died within seventeen days.
The paths of the second cholera epidemic in
America were wholly different from those of the
first. 1t was brought to New Orleans on the
1lth of December, 1S48 10y the emigrant ship
Swanton. from Havre. There was no proper
quarantine, and before the end of that month
$50 persons had died of the disease in New Or
leans BY the end OF January the number of
victims had reached nearly thousand. Mean
while, on the goth of December the disease had
travelled by steamboat up the Mississippi to
Memphis. For over three weeks, by a deter
mined struggle, it was held within short radius
of the steamers dock, but at length it evaded
precautions, and spread up the river reaching
St Louis and then Cincinnati in the spring Of
1849. That was the year when California was
peopled with gold hunters and the scOurge tray
eled with them, both overland to Sacramento
and by way of Panama to San Francisco
New York was not reached until the 10th of
May, when a broke out in what is
now Baxter street. 1t is worth observing that
in that very month of December, when the lack
of quarantine admitted the disease at New Or
leans, strict quarantine at Staten Island had
found it coming on another vessel from Hayre
and had completely corralled it OH the grounds
there and quenched it. When frsm the New
Orleans focus New York was attacked in May
most vigorous effort was made to keep it within
the Five Points district. Hospitals were extern
porized near by, and sanitary committee of
public-spirited citizens was formed which
acted in conjunction with a board of
medical counsel and the Board of Health AS
the cases increased in number school houses
were turned into hospitals. Throughout the
month the fight for corralling the epidemic was
kept up; but early in June a case occurred in the
First ward and another in the Seventh Then
1t was known that the scourge had escaped its
barriers, and before long it was all over the
island. The climax was reached toward the end
OF August During the twenty two weeks of
its continuance there were more than ten thou
sand cases, and 8 OH persons died of the disease
In Cincinnati l,400 persisted; in st. Louis 953;
In Chicago, 678 in Sacramento, nearly a thou
sand. or one in every eight of the inhabitants,
and probably one in five of those who remained
in the city.
Here, also, as in Europe and Asia, the well.
defined and sweeping epidemic was followed for