Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1892-08-31
CHOLERA ~ EUROPE
respss % Esgissd Are Growing Apprshes
sive of IN Epsdemie.

fact hat the people OF Engiaad generally arc
beginning to be nervously apprehcnsive that
despite the quarantine regulAtionsai the various
ports the country 10 doomed 10 undergo another
siege Of cholera plague. That the quar-
sntine regulations at present enforced
do not prevent the introduction Of cholera
has been abundantly proved and many
persons claim that the only efiectual method
to keep the disease ct bay is to absolutely pro-
hibit all intercourse with the infected ports
abroad. OF course this would entail an inn
mense money loss and considerable suffering,
but il is claimed that on occasions like the pres
ent the question Of financial loss is Of little
consequences, and that the question Of preserv-
ing the lives of the people of Great BritAin il
Of paramount importance.
Z large proportion Of the people. not only in
England but elsewhere, believe that the ap-
preaching autumn, with its cool weather and
frosts, will check il not eradicate the disease
should il become epidemic, but a high author
ity has pointed out that this belief is erroneous
wINTER. DOES NOT KILL IT.
Prof. ]. o. Afflick, N. D., medical examiner at
the University of Edinburgh, has declared in
an article on cholera written by him, in gen.
eral high temperature favors the development
Of the disease. but that some Of the most
severe epidemics known have ragged with the
greatest fury in winter. This being the case il
will be seen that there can be no relaxation of
the quarantine ard sanitary regulations for q
considera BILE time to come.
The disease has now appeared at Dover, one
Of the chief ports Of communication between
Eng land and the continent, and which has con-
tinual intercourse by steamboats, with Calais
and Boulogne, France. Three persons have
.s&. ~l-~l l. II
time. The man came from Hamburg, and his
death has caused considerable anxiety.
INDIGNATION AT THE IMMIGRATION OFFICIALS.
There is deep indigna ton felt at the health
authorities for permitting the passengers TO
land Monday last from the steamer Peregrine
from Hamburg. These passengers were care
fully examined and as no symptoms of cholera
were shown they were allowed TO 60 ashore, with
the result that they have introduced the disease
into one OF the most densely populated quarters
of London. The dangerous character of the
disease and the ineficiency Of an examination
to show whether not boats from infected
ports carry the infection with them is shown in
this case
These dispatches announced Yesterday that
two cases of the disease appeared yesterday in
the city road. the sufferers being passengers
from the Peregrine. This morning one of the
patients, German, died, and now his wife and
child have been seized with the disease. As be-
lore SAID the ulStrlct into winch the injection
has been carried is filed with an immense
population. Overcrowding is a fruitful
source for the spread of the disease. and il is
believed that it will require every aid known 10
science to prevent the disease spreading The
people Of the district are loud in their denun-
citation of what they term the happy-go-lucky
methods of the health authorities and declare
that IL the only precautionary measure that
would avail anything-absolute prohibition of
immigration-had been enforced the disease
would not have appeared in London.
THE SITUATION AT HAMBURG.
vienna. Aug. SL-A well-known physician of
this city, who is visiting Hamburg, has written
to the Neue Freie Press regarding the situa-
tion in that city. He says that the sanitary ma
chinery Of the municipality is in the greatest
disorder. No preparations for possible visit
OF the infection had been made and now that
the scourge is sweeping the city everything has
to be improvised. The ambulance service is
altogether too small to attend to the demands
made upon it and sixty landaus have been hired
as auxiliary ambulances. Into these vehicles
the patients are placed, each landau taking four
victims, and then are driven to the hospitals
Often when the patients are placed in these mn
provised ambulances they are already in dying
condition.
There are a total Of $50 ambulance attend
ants, who all wear ordinary clothing instead of
oil cloth, which is advocated by specialists as a
protection against propagating the infection.
At the Eppendorf Hospital there are 500
patients suffering from various maladies. The
number Of doctors is absolutely inadequate to
attend to the demands made upon them !
When cholera patients are taken into the
hospital the ordinary patients are removed into |
one room to make space for them. The
writer declares that he saw 200 dead. Another |
doctor reports that the ordinary means OF dis |
posing OF the dead have been found inadequate. |
Furniture vans have been pressed into service |
to carry the bodies to places of interment His |
description Of the hospital arrangements al |
most passes belief, but there is no reason to |
doubt that every word he writes regarding the |
situation In Hamburg is absolutely true. He |
says the whole system is confused and every
thing goes along in q hap-hazard fashion So |
great has grown the demand for hospital serv- |
Ice that 1t Is proposed to fit up the schools and
gymnasiums as hospitals.
Describing his visit to the old Hamburg |
hospital he says he found affairs there in a far
more horrible condition than at the Eppendorf |
hospital. In the dirty, neglected passages he |
saw bundles Of clothing lying on the floors |
awaiting disinfection. Among these packages |
lay large numbers Of the bodies Of those who |
bad died from cholera. These bodies showed |
the carelessness with which they were handled. |
for they lay in every conceivable way Just as
they had been dropped by the hospital attend |
ants.
Even to those Injured to hospital scenes the
sight OF these bodies, men, women and little |
children being thrown promiscuously together, |
was revolving
The doors Of the wards opening on these |
passages are left wide open and the sick can |
actually Bee the ever-growing number Of the |
dead.
To get into the wards the people have TO step |
over the corpses and the piles Of infected cloth
ing. The overcrowding in the wards is very |
great. In one room fitted for thirty patients |
sixty are lying in such close proximity that nurs-
ing them is very difficuult if not almost an i'm
possibility. Many of the sufferers are without |
covering and lie on bare mattresses, which are |
absolutely filthy from use
For from forty to sixty patients there are /
only two attendants and one doctor So abso- 1
Lutte and widespread is the confusion that |
patientswho are not suffering from the epi- |
demic are taken into the cholera wards, where /
they contract the disease.
Private dwellings where deaths from cholera /
occur are not disinfected Only the portable |
articles in them are taken TO the public disln-
fecting rooms, where anybody Is allowed to |
freely enter and many contract the infection |
there.
The Hamburg senate has voted SOC. 600 marks |
to enable tie authorities to cope with the epi-
demic. Had this vote been passed two weeks l
sgo it would have saved much misery.
BRUssELs, Aug. 3l.-A report that has lust /
been issued by Prof. Ermingen the bacteriolo- /
at he tbx yrrsr