The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-07-14

What Scientific People Think of the Epidemic
in Spain-The incubation Experiments.

Europe is again brought lace TO face with the
questions What is to be done to protect the re-
naming countries from the terrible guest? And
this is the permanent question of the day, while
a hundred others come up and get disposed of.
The attempt of last year to suppress the news Of
the first cases in Valencia was repeated this
summer, their infectious character being hidden
under the name inflammation of the intestine,
according to the report forwarded by a specialist
to one Of the Berlin dailies. But. as usual, the
attempt failed and the Spanish government
finds itself compelled 10 do in the end what it
might better have done in the beginning, con
fess that the trouble is Asiatic cholera. Since
the epidemic subsidized last year nothing OF
course has been done to ward off its reappear-
ance IN Spain. The sanitary condition OF Valen-
cia is described by those who know as the
worst conceivable; filth and debris, animal and
vegetable, everywhere bad water, the streams
used for cleansing not bed linen Ouly, but the
whole clothing of the Vaencian popula-
ton. Such is the nature of Spanish hygiene.
An English espondent reports from Burja-
sot, another infected place, that not single
sanitary measure has been taken, not even the
isolation Of the patients. Everywhere the we'll
go in and out of the sick room and the ordinary
routine is so little changed that in one butchers
shop the outlets for the customers were produced
from the room where the butchers wife lay Ill OF
cholera. Both physicians of the district sat
short distance from the bed, smoking without
having given a single order THAT would
have obeyed" However, such episodes no
longer cause surprise after the experience of
last year in Spain, Italy and the south of France.
The panic is ncomparably less this year than
last perhaps because the hOpo held out through
DR.. Ferran's cholera NEGOTIATIONS has a quoting
effect. This has been tried upon number of
persons and is claimed to have secured them
immunity.
Outside of Spain, however. this Spanish dis
covery is met with great dlstrust. Thus, PROBES
sor Virchow gave it as his opinion in the second
meeting of the Berlin cholera conference that
the spores said to be newly discovered by Ferran
were only decrept forms of the comma bacillus
Of Koch, and wholly incapable of further devel-
opment being rather sterile than otherwise.
The Madrid correspondent of the British Med
zeal Journal too speaking from personal expert
ence, is by no means favorably disposed towards
Ferran. According to one German journal, on
the other hand. the conclusions of the commits
sion sent to Valencia by the Spanish govern
ment are now at hand, III which DR.. FerranS
prophylactic treatment is commended. For the
time being the commission has divided some
members remaining in Valencia to follow the
progress Of the epidemic others having gone to
,Jallva the central point of the infected district
to experiment with vaccination there and OBJ
serve the results.
The process of incubation is, in itself OK
tremey simple. The patient stretches out his
bare upper arm, the physician presses the flesh
slightly backward with the left hand and with
the right inserts the point of his injector into the
flesh of the arm by quick push upward, gen
tie pressure Of the thumb upon the butt end of
the instrument, then iDjects the fluid into the
tissue Of the arm. DR.. Jane Martin has made
close observation Of the effect of the NEGOTIATIONS
recently undertaken in the Atheneum. Accord
ing to the testimony of all the persons treated,
they observed a heightened pulse beat and-ln-
creased blood temperature, besides the local
pain of the incubation and subsequent lassitude.
In some cases high fever ensued, and IN others
tendency to nausea slight diarrhOea, but these
symptoms were in no case persistent One person
only suffered acute pain in the arm.
while the others experienced scarcely any
inconvenience, n fact probably attributable
to the insertion having been made horizontally
in this case so that no muscle was touched,
while in the other cases the insertion was made
tissue Of the arm. Dr. Martin made further ex-
periments, also, in order to arrive at more
thoroughly grounded opinion. Drops of blood,
or Of serum from the incubation sore, and ex-
crement from the inoculated persons were placed
before members of the commission for micro
scopic examination and chemical ANALYSIS in
! order to discover traces Of the comma bacillus
and to ascertain the changes in the substances
themselves brought about by the incubation
The results of these examinations and analyses
have not yet been made public.
Meanwhile all official cholera bulletins are
wanting and kilograms upon the subject ad-
dressed to destinations outside of Spain are sub
jected to the censorship Nevertheless the move
ment of the disease can be more or less accurate
ly ascertained. Valencia and its surrounding
country, especially PUG and Museros, are iso-
lated by health Gordon, and travellers are re-
Quired TO undergo five DAYS quarantine. Of LOO
inhabitants of PUG sixty have been attacked by
the disease, and twenty have already died This
little town has attained certain reputation as
the seat of miraculous picture of the Virgin.
The supertltOus peasantry make pilgrimages to
1t to obtain drop of consecrated OIL which is
regarded as a talisman against the epidemic
Extraordinarily violent is the course of the
cholera In MuserOs, place of but 500 inhabi-
tants, of whom since May 16. $50 have been at
tackled, of whom eighty have persisted.
The presence of cholera in Madrid was long de-
MED but III the long run concealment became
impossible as the number of refugees increased
daily, their number being officially given at r.
900. When the presence of the cholera was fin
ally announced in Madrid there was a tumult,
the black flag being borne aloft and the police
attacked with stones, twenty persons were ar
arrested and the populace then dispersed.
The international Sanitary Conference at
Rome, from which so much was hoped has &C
complished even less perhaps than its prede
cessors Since the first such conference in Paris
IN 1881, the present one has had four forerunners
in 1929 in Paris, in 1866 in Constantinople. in
1874 In Vienna, in 1881 in Washington-all more
or less frultless in practical results At the first
Paris conference an international agreement was
drawn up, signed by five of the great powers
ratified by but three and regarded as obsolete in
1861 From scientific point Of view the most
P 'tolc s.o Cle VIENNA conference OF 1914, the
majority adopting resolution that all CONT
mental and river guarantees might be dis
pensed with without danger, those upon
the Red and Caspian seas being retained.
The Washington conference of 1881 rose
superior to the quarantine question in general,
ana proposed In Its stead the foundation of an
international bureau, the object of which should
be to watch for the first signs of outbreak of cpl
demic diseases in all countries and propose
means of preventing their spreading All these
propositions, however remained vain desires
Each country goes its way in matter
which most emphatically demands international
agreement. SO people believed that the Roman
conference certainly must bring about some
binding agreement, but the hope alasi has had
to be abandoned. Germany. impelled by politi-
cal motives, made it the chief condition of it's
participation, that the question of an Internal
tiOnal sanitary supelyision of Ervnt should in |