Madison times. (Tallulah, Madison Parish, La.) 1884-1???, 1885-01-03
THE RAISON D'ETRE.
susceptibility 10 Cholera Matter OF
Diet.

1t is significant illustration of Eng
lish good sense that with choleraso near
at their door they have not at once COM
mcnced, as their neighbors under the
same apprehensions did, to clamor nerv-
ously for protection, and to urge upon
government the adoption of harassing
precautions against the importation OF
the mysterious pestileDce. Having no
land frontiers, they could isolate them
selves with comparative ease, and on the
Waterways that guard their island from
this end all other kinds of hostile inva-
sion might be established such a block
ade as even the cholera bacillus would
hardly be able to run" Yet, granting
all this, and assuming that they had en-
trenched themselves behind system of
sea patrols, they would really be no
nearer to safety than Italy was when
she organized along her line of ports and
her frontier stations a continuous quar-
antine as exasperating as it was futile.
France, in the same Way, drew her cor
dons as closely as she could around the
stricken cities Of the south, and We
heard much of the extraordinary activity
displayed by the authorities in endeav-
oring to stop the plague that walks
unseen and mocks at all attempts to turn
it from its path. We know nothing
positive about cholera, its causes or its
cure; and until we are more well-inform-
ed, how is it possible to defend ourselves
from it? All that we have learned as
vet is that common sense is stronger and
wissr than all the advice and all the
medicine ofdoctors, and that the victims
of the disease are not always the poor or
the unhealthy. We have been taught
by the experience of different countries
that the epidemic knows no rules, and is
no respecter of persons if they be not
cleanly and temperate; that it comes and
goes when and where it chooses; and
that the strongest and the most careful
are sometimes: attacked as well as the
weak and reckless. 1t has been proved
that the best systems of sanitation are
the only protection against the sudden
advent of this indiscriminate and mas
terful ailment, and that good drainage,
good water, good food, have apparently
much effect in barring the doors against
sucn a lawless and determined visitor.
The one other fact which seems tolerabIy
established is that certain atmospheric
conditions heat and damp-are favor
able to outbreaks of cholera, and that
cold, dry weather appears 10 be the re-
verse. But even to this there are fire.
quent and broad exceptions.
That the cities of Italy or Spain should
be ravished and panic-stricken does not
seem extraordinary, when we consider
the mercurial temperament of the pop
ulation, and the prevalent habits of
idleness. Their minds, with nothing
else to occupy them, were filed at once
with the liveliest apprehensions of dan
ger, and it is an extraordinary phenome-
non of this complaint that hard work,
plenty of exercise and occupation appear
to be the best ofprophylactics. "Cholera?
/ have no time to catch cholera" said an
energetic Anglo-Indian official whose
duties lay in the centre of a district in
which it was raging, and whose friends
cared he might fall a victim; and there
was much sense in what he said. WheI
the disease breaks out in an Indian en-
campment, the soldiers are at one,
encouraged to get up sports of all kinds
extra lndulseEces are permitted, an(
one idea of the officers and doctors is t.
drive the depressing sense of the pres
ence of the epidemic out of the mem
heads. As little fuss as possible is mad,
over the funeral, but cricket is played
frequently and the band is out daily OF
the parade ground. In Paris, it will
have been noticed, no change has &c
Cured in the ordinary course of tn,
seas N of fashion and gayety, and
whether this is due to frivolous disre
gard of the solemn visitation, or to
becoming comprsure under conditions o
public danger, the fact remains that tn,
Parisians are by their nonchalance tax
ing the best possible precautions agains
the severity of the outbreak. Panic j
the colleague of cholera, and each work
into the others hands. Where, however
q courageous front is shown, and mel
keep their heads as cool and their bodie
as healthy as possible, the outbreal
seems to lose heart and rapidly dwlndlt
away. For though we have said tina
medicines are virtually useless a2ains
an illness that strikes at random Their
are, ofcourse, broad principles ofhygien
which In this as in every other attacl
oonduce, if observed, to the public safety
and one of these is the character of thu
food that is eaten.
In the east it is notorious that thu
natives attribute the general Immunity
Of Europeans to the fact of their eatlns
meat, and, however the Asiatic arrived
at the superstition, there is, without
doubt, a certain substance of truth. A
solid, generous diet fortifies a man
against such forms of sickness, whine an
innutricious though copious one has no
such effect. The Asiatic feeds largely
upon vegetables and fruit, and so, as
compared with the English, do the peo-
pie OF southern Europe. They are able
to obtain them in sufficient quantity to
satisfy appetite, and, being no longer
hungry, consider themse Ives fed. But