The Camden chronicle. (Camden, Tenn.) 1890-current, 1892-09-23
SOME CHOLERA PRECAUTIONS.
ISSUED BY STATE BOARD OF HEALTH.
An Address TO the Local Authorities of the
stiles and Towns Of Tonnessce.

AS there are outbreaks of cholera
at several places in Europe, and 1t
may extend to places which are in
frequent and rapid communication
with the United States, it is posi-
BILE that cases Of the disease, may,
before long, be brought into the
ports Of this country, whence then
they may advance to other and per-
haps interior places, notwithstand-
ing the vigilance and efforts to local
authorities Of such seaboard towns
to prevent the spread of the disease.
AS cases Of cholera infection have
widely different degrees Of severity,
it thus becomes possible that some
such cases, slightly affected, may
escape the authorities, and pene-
rate far into the interior before
recognition.
Former experience Of cholera, es-
pecially upon the continent and in
England, justifes belief that the
presence Of imported cases Of the
disease at various spots inthe coun-
try will not be capable Of causing
much injury to the population, if
The places receiving the infection
have had the advantage Of proper
sanitary administration, and in or
der that all. local populations may
make their self-defeuse as effective
as they can, it will be well for them
to have regard to the present state
of knowledge concerning the mode
in which epidemics Of cholera out
side Of its native abode are pro-
duced.
Cholera in Tennessee shows itself
so little contagious, in the sense in
which smallpox and scarlet fever
are commonly called contagious,
that, if reasonable care be taken
where it is present, there is almost
no risk that the disease will spread
to persons who nurse or otherwise
closely attend upon the sick. But
cholera has a certain peculiar in
fectiveness of its own, which, where
local conditions exist, can operate
with terrible force, and at consid-
cradle distances from the sick. 1t
is characteristic Of cholera (and as
much so of the slight cases where
diarrh@a is the only symptom as Of
the disease in its more dreadful and
charming forns) that all matters
which the patient discharges from
his stomach and bowels-are infect
I'VE. Probably, underordinary Cir
oumstanoes, the patient has no pow
or Of injecting other persons except
by means of these discharges; nor
any powerof injecting evenly them
except in so far as particles of them
are enabled to faint the food, water,
orair which people consume. Thus
when q case Of cholera is imported
into any place, the disease is not
likely to spread, unless in proper
ton as it finds, locally open to it
certain facilities for spreading by
indirect infection.
In order rightly to appreciate
what these facilities must be. the
following considerations have to b.
borne in mind.
(1)s That any choleraic discharge
cast without previous thorough dis
Infection into any privy, water
closet, cesspool, drain, or other de
pesitory or conduit of filth, infect
Observation-Disclosures with whicl
itthere mingles, and probably NOR
OF less Of the efiiuyia which thos
matters evolve.
~ That the effective power o
oholeraic discharges attaches t
whatever bedding, towels, cloth
ing, and like things have been i'm