The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1892-09-08
THE CHOLERA.

There is substantial reason for the belief
that the advance of the cholera plague will
be stayed at our ports and our country be
spared the frightful visitation The meas
ures which are now being taken at ali cur
sea-gates are wisely conceived and will,
almost without doubt, be effectual
In spite of all the terrors with which it
has been invested the cholera is very con-
troilable disease Medical science has COM
pletely mastered its causes and course, and
SO the method of its management is rational
and comparatively easy.
Most diseases are the result of filth and
ignorance; cholera lie pre-eminentiy so.
Along with typhoid fever, it shares the bad
distinction of being directly caused by the
most disgusting conditions Of living, eating,
and drinking. There is but one way that
cholera can be communicates, AMI that is
by taking into the stomach bacillus which
has passed through the body of person
suffering from the cholera. There are q
multitude of ways in which the deadly
little microbe can gain access to the bowels,
where it will do its fatal work, but The most
common way is through drinking wafer
All wells, springs, and streams in thickly-
settled countries are more or less polluted
by the drainage from cess-pools. This pol
luton becomes highly concentrated after
long dry seasons, as the present has been
all over the world, and then cholera and
typhus rage.
We are much less liable to the disease in
this country than Europe or Asia, because
our population is no. SO concentrated, our
ground is fresher and not filled with poison
GUS emanations TO the extent of that which
has supported a dense population for centu-
ries, and our streams and other sources of
drinking water are yet tolerably pure. The
habits of our people are more clearly than
those of the Hindus, Arabs Russians, Ital-
ians, and the tenement-class in Europe,
where the cholera has heretofore found lis
chief victims. Nothing can be more dis
gushing than the practices Of the poor peo-
pie where the plague has generally ragged.
They herd together like animals, in the
greatest filth, and the water they drink is
vile beyond conception. Bad as ara the
conditions Of the water-supply in some
villages and cities in this country, the worst
of them are fountains of purity alongside
of the filthy water drank in the seats of the
cholera epidemic.
The New York Board Of Health has FORM
ulated an admirable little circular on the
disease, and the bes. method of avoiding it,
which contains the whole matter in nut
she'll 1t is as follows:
Healthy persons catch " cholera by taking into
their systems through The mouth, as In their food
or drink or from their hands knives forks plates
tumblers, clothing etc, the of the disease.
which are always present in the discharges from
the stomach and bowels Of those sick with cholera.
Thorough cooking destroys the cholera germ
therefore
Don't eat raw, uncooked articles of any kind. not
even milk.
Don't eat or drink 70 excess Use plain whole
some, dizestible food. indigestion and diarrhea
favor q attack Of cholera
Don't drink unboiied water.
Don't eat or drink articles unless they have bee
thoroughly and recently cooked boiled and the
more recent and hotter they the safer
Don't employ utensils in eating drinking un-
Iess they have been recently put in boiling water
the more recent the safer
Don't eat handle food or drink with unwnshed
hands or receive il from the unwashed hands OF
others.
Don't use the hands for any purpose when soiled
with cholera discharges; thoroughly cleanse them
et once.
Personal cleanliness and cleanliness of the living
and sleeping rooms and stheir contents aud
thorough ventilation should be rigidly enforced.
In other words ahsOIutA cleanliness il the