Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1890-08-17
CHOLERA WARNINGS.

| In 1871.
CHOLERA WARNINGS.
The Board of Health of San Francisco
and the State Board of Health have
warned the people to lose no time in
cleaning up their premises, since, while
we hope for the best, there is possibility
of the cholera appearing in the State at
any moment. 1t is epidemic in Japan,
its rayages are becoming frightful at the
port from which the steamers for Califor-
MIA take their departure; it is epidemic
in Spain, and has been for month. No
where is it abating, but on the contrary,
1t develops greater virulence at all points
and is rapidly spreading. We have es-
capped the cholera in California for thirty
eight years, but that is all the more rea-
son to fear that it may now come to us.
II once the pest gets foothold in the hot
valleys, it will decimate the population,
and California will not recover from the
shock in decade. We are not alarmists,
and believe that nothing is to be gained
by being nervous about this matter, hut
we have the warrant of the two principal
health Boards in the State for the sug-
gestion that all towns and cities should
clean up. If they do so and the cholera
appears California will in considerable
degree be prepared to resist and put down
the disease. If, however, cholera does
not reach us, the cleansing process will
still be of infinite benefit, on general
principles.
What needs to be done in this city at
this time is to require every cesspool and
vault to be emptied and thoroughly disin-
fected, from one end of the city to the
other. If there are not appliances enough
in the city to accomplish the task inside
of three or four weeks, then assistance
should be engaged from San Francisco.
All decaying vegetable and animal matter
should be removed and burned, and all
new refuse be destroyed daily. All areas
and spaces on low ground, beneath walks
and floors, should be cleaned out and dis
infected, and every sewer and drain should
be weekly flushed and disinfecting fluids
and gases forced into them.
A city thus prepared would be pretty
well armed against the disease. If it is
said that the processes suggested would en-
tail enormous expense, the reply is that
they would not be nearly so expensive as
at first thought may seem. Each house
holder and landlord can and should cleanse
the premises under his or her control, and
if to each there is cost of from ten to
twenty dollars for the work, it is cheaper
by far than will be the cost after the
disease reaches us, should that disaster be
ours. The city should disinfect the drains
and sewers and to do so will not involve
an outlay of more than few thousand
dollars. Neglected until the disease is
upon the State, it will cost five times the
amount required now. For these things
will be ordered if cholera comes upon us
of that we may rest assured. 1t was SO in
Chicago in the early fifties, it was so in
parts more recently, and it was SO only two
years ago in the Mediterranean cities.
The authorities compelled cleansing and
disinfection after the disease set it, and in
that way stamped it out, but nearly bank
rupted the cities and the property owners
in doing it. Had attention been
given to the matter early, however, the
people would not have felt it to be bur-
den.
The lives of our families are more
precious than money or property, and it is
unthinkable that we will, by neglect or stub
bornness, put the one in the balance against
the other. Moreover, severe visitation of
cholera will depreciate values for the next
ten years; if, however, it reaches us from the
Orient and we are prepared to meet and
stamp it out, We will not lose credit or suf-
fer material injury.
There is certainly reason to fear that in
this, its fifth attempt in successive years to
circle the globe, the dread monster may
succeed. We are in such close commune
cation with China and Japan that we are
involved in constant risk of visitation,
and the climate and the conditions of other
character are all favorable to the spread of
the disease in the valleys Of California if
it once arrives. There is no reason in
alarm; on the contrary, fear invites the
disease, it is said, but there is reason in
preparing for an enemy that threatens us
with deadly assault. In the meantime
this State and the National Government
ought to adopt the policy that was found
effective in Europe all commu-
nication with infected ports. Ut is the
hight of folly to permit ships to enter
our harbors from infected ports until
they have had an outside-of-port exam
ination. If ship arrives off the Heads
hailing from Japan, she should be exam
ined outside the bar, and If nct clear Of
the disease she should be kept out Of the
Larbor until all danger is passed and all
baggage aboard has been laundned or dis
infected. Such a policy saved Italy one
season from the invasion of tile cholera,
another season it protected Slain, it in
sured the safety of the people Of Cuba, and
it was the effective guard Of the inhabit
ants of the Danish West Indies. 1t is
superior to in port quarantine, and is justi-
fable in the interests of common human
ity.
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