The Wilmingtonian., 1885-08-22
THE EUROPEAN PLAGuE

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At this date over CO. 900 people have died
of cholera in Spain, The plague is still rag
ing there and has apparently not yet reach
ed its highest death rate.
This is the most fearful record of modern
times As yet there has been discovered no
cure and no preventive but the ordinary san.
itary measures. DR.. Ferran's theories of
incubation have been finally dscredited.
There is nothing left for us but to look care
fully after the cleansing of our streets, al
leyways and sewers Uf we have any).
In regard to the recent cholera scare in
Philadelphia the Press says
Keep quiet, don't fear, boil your drink
ing water before icing it, cat no stale fruit
and wear flannel next your skin and YOU
VIII live to be thousand years-ir death
waits for some illness bred of summer heat
to carry you off,
And the advice is worth regarding. A
disposition or susceptibility towards the dis
ease S undoubtedly caused by incautious
consumption of unripe or over-ripe fruit.
1t is not alleged here that any quantity of it
is exposed for sale by our hucksters and
dealers, but upon the old principle that ''an
ounce of prevention is worth a pound of
cure" it would be well for the Board of
Health, and all wise citizens also, to keep a
sharp look out along the streets that fruit
OF vegetables of nature unsuitable for hu
man food be not offered for sale.
1t is great temptation for the over thrift.
ty seller to dispose of produce that has been
on his hands too loug, at cheap price, and
the temptation is equally great to the buyer
to purchase at cheap rate. Here is where
the difficulty and tha danger lie. The tons
of fluit and vegetables that are daily CON
demned in the New York markets might in
dolte to us what possibilities of risk we
run.
1t is only midsummer now and Spain has
lost several thousands more people than the
whole population of Wilmington amounts
to.
France is afflicted also. The unanimous
verdict, which is couched in the form of
criminal indictment against the city fathers
OF foulon, Marseilles and the Spanish cities,
is that the cause of the spread of the terri
BILE plague must be ascrbed to an infectual
sewerage system.
This much might be suggested as regards
sanitary methods in our fruit markets that
more exact measures be enforced as to the
careless habit of some venders of throwing
| -decayed frnit into the cutters or out into the
street. During this hot weather six hours
of exposure of dscayed matter of this kind,
is sufficient to cause a noisome stench--too
readily impressing itself upon the olfacto
ries of passers by.
Very strict regulations as to the collec-
tion and disposition of such refuse in proper
reccptacles are what are needed. Those
who have the charge of the city sanitation
cannot at this moment be too careful or in
dustTious.
Our greater solicitude should not so much
be in the direction of vaunting the statisti-
cal health rate Of the city or its fortunate
situation as being butt upon series of
hills, thus aifording favorable opportunities
for drainage, but we should remember the
very extensive built up area in the swamp
lots and the lower parts of the city along
the littofal, the poorest CONSTRUCTED and
most unhealthy parts of Wilmington. Here
is where the possibilities of danger to the
community lies, and where an epidemic
would find its natural element.
The condition of the water supply or more
exactly speaking its impurity after each
freshet, is another point deserving atten-
tion. Our drinking water on those occa.
sions is not fit for use, and at the first her
aiding of an epidemic it would form aues-
tion demanding the attention of the sani-
tary authorites-wh not take it up now?
Again, to repeat the old proverb, an ounce
of prevention is worth pound of cure.