Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1885-07-23
The Asiatic Cholera.
The Present scourge In Spain and
France.
History OF the Scourgc in the
United States.


ravaged last summer, and which are in
direct marine communication with our
own, will revive discussion of the
scourge In this country, although there
appear to be no additional grounds for
immediate apprehension.
1t is a little moro than half a century
since cholera first appeared in America.
It's history shows that 1t may enter any
where along the Atlantic coast, from
the Gulf of st. Lawrence to the Gulfof
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, Carrick, which arrived i'm the St.
Lawrence early in June, 1882. 1t had
then devastated nearly all parts of
Asia, by turns and intermittently,
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, aud so
far during the present, is guarantee
of its being confined to that region, or
even to that continent, without the
exercise of the most rigid precautions.
The epidemic had reached Moscow in
the autumn of 1880, where, In the space
of six weeks, it had destroyed three
thousand victims. The summer follow
ing it ragged in st. Petersburg and NOV
ed to Warsaw with the Russian soldie-
ry, from whom it was communicated
to the Austrian and Prussian troops
there, and through them to Vienna
and Berlin. From Berlin it moved to
Hamburg and across the North Sea to
the Sunderland, and then to London,
which it reached on the 18th of Febru-
ary, 1882. 1t destroyed 1886 lives in
that city, and altogether ,229 in Great
Britain. Meanwhile, it had crossed the
Irish Sea, and prior to the 4th of May
there were | ,515 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 8th of June the scourge she
brought out was spreading in Quebec.
Two days later it was in Montreal.
Each of these places contained at that
time about thirty thousand people,
and in each nearly two thousand died of
cholera. The epidemic rapidly extend
ed up the river, through villages and
farms to Kingston, thence along the
shores of the great lakes to Buffalo,
Detroit and Chicago, and then through
the Mississippi valley.
Meanwhile cholera had broken out
in New York City on the 9th of June,
apparently before its arrival anywhere
else in the United States, unless per-
haps ut Ogdensburg and Plattsburgh.
AT all events, since even Albany was
safe until July 3, although eventually
3S9 persons died of it there out of q
population of twenty-five thousand, it
is believed that the New York visita-
ton sprang from different source
the arrival of the ship Henry ~, from
Hayre, with cholera patients. The
first cases occurred in Cherry street,
and then the pestilence ran rapidly all
over the lower part of the island, and
northward into Greenwhich,' Chelsea,
Yorkville and Harlem. The city then
contained about 225,000 inhabitants,
but perhaps third of them fled to the
country. On the Dist day of July,
when the scourge was at its height in
the city, three hundred new cases were
reported; and during the week sue
ceeding 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
1t disappeared, was abont 5000. One
out of every two attacks proved fatal,
and this terrible ratio of mortality pro-
duced a panic. Those were not the days
of sewers, and refuse was dumped into
the cutters.
The scattering Of people from New
York took the disease to every quarter
of the compass so that while it was fol-
lowing the path up the st. Lawrence
and down the Mississippi, it was from
another focus extending everywhere in
land. Yet its westward tendency was
marked save few cases in New Ha-
ven, Newport, Providence and Boston,
New England was not severely visited.
Philadelphia had its first case on the
9th of July, and Its second on the 9th.
Up to the middle of September their
were 935 deaths in a population nomin-
ally of 10000, but which had been
greatly reduced by flight. The total
deaths up to the end of the season are
not known since the morality record
was then very incomplete in that city,
and many cases of cholera 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 epidemic from the New
York focus, the deaths up to the end Of
September numbered 10; in Norfolk,
up to September IL, they were about
400-a heavy ratio to the population.
In Cincinnati there were 307 deaths up
to August Z. In New Orleans, which
was reached much later in the year,
from the Quebec focus, the mortality
was estimated at 5000, the slaves suffer
ing heavily; and thence it continued
to Cuba and Mexico, which were also
frightfully ravaged. 1t has been said
that in Tampico, the following year,
900 persons died within seventeen days.
The paths of the second cholera epi-
demic in America were wholly different
from those of the first. Tt was brought
to New Orleans on the 18th of Decem-
Der, lS4S, by the emigrant ship Swan
ton, from Havre. There was no proper
quarantine, and before the end of that
month 800 perrons had died of the dis
ease in New Orleans. BY the end Of
January the number of victims had
reached nearly a thousand. Mean
while, ON the Goth of December, the dis
ease had travelled by steamboat up the
Mississippi to Memphis. Forever three
weeks, by q determined struggle, it was
held within a short radiIfs If fha etna M