Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1892-09-23

as il the gloom Of his impending late
had already overshadowed his SOUL"
Similar premonitions seem to Indicate
the peril of certain epidemics. Smallpox
and yellow fever appear to have no
power over the constitution OF some
persons, while others are instinctively
sure that they will be attacked aud sue
cumb to the coutagion unless they can
save themselves by timely fight. re-
member the case OF a New Orleans
hospital nurse who was supposed to be
fever proof, but had deadly horror of
the grippe, the very disease to which
she eventually fell a victim. In the case
of some Eastern epidemics those warning
instincts may have saved countless lives,
since medicine is powerless to arrest the
progress of the disorder after it has
reached a certain stage Of development.
The history of Asiatic cholera, for in
stance, has emphatically proved the fact
that prevention is better than cure.
Remedial expedients, such as they are,
at best can assist the progress of re.
covery after a powerful constitution has
turned the scales of the crisis, but much
oftener the apparent improvement is only
o last flicker of the fame of life before
its final extinction. BY injecting the
veins of a cholera patient with a saline
solution resembling in its composition
that of human blood, the trauce-likc
letbarrv of exhaustion can be broken
for few minutes, but in nine out of ten
cases the patient relapses into more and
more irremediable torpor, till at last the
worn-out energies OF the system fail to re-
spond to the most powerful stimulants.
The skin becomes cold, the pulse feeble
and intermittent, the patients breath re-
.embles convulsive sighs, and gradually
subsidies into mere twitches of the dia-
nbraem. The entire mechanism of life
c. to a stop, overpowered by the
superior vital activity of countless in-
visible foes.
Some of the theories advanced to ex
plain the origin of cholera epidemics arc
absurdy and almost incredibly far.
fetched, such as the existence of an at
mospheric parasite which at certain inter
walls like the seventeen year locusD ap.
pears in countless multitudes, or the still
more astonishing hypothesis Of surgeon
Knapp, of Mexico, who attributed the
uerio6icity of the epidemic to 'plan
etary pestilence, caused by au increase
of planetary attraction, and specially
incident to the perihelion OF Jupiter,
which occurs about once in twelve years.
The only plausible feature Of that
nightmare Is the circumstance that chol-
era of specially virulent type has ac-
tually made the tour of the world in
neriods of almost exactly twelve years
1925. 1888, 1850, 1852, etc., linger-
ing about six years on its journey from
Eastern Asia to Western Europe. That
fact, however, has bean accounted for
by the twelve years interval of the great
mass meeting of Brahmin pilgrims at the
shrine of Hurdwar on the Upper Ganges.
uThousands of Hindoos make the jour-
ney every third year." says a commits
sioper Of the British Government.
"Every sixth year the number is still
greater, and once in twelve years an
immense throng numbering more than
three million people makes this long pill
orimage. Poor food, impure water, to-
pether with depressing climate condi-
tions and the entire absence OF sanitary
precautions, result in the production Of
the disease we'll characterized as Asiatic
cholera. There is more or less Of con-
tagion every year, but once in twelve
years at the great pilgrimage it assumes
such proportions that it extends beyond
the limits of its original habitat and car
ries devastation TO thousands of house
holds in Europe and even in America.
The bathing place OF the pilgrims is a
space $50 feet long by thirty wide shut
off from the rest of the Ganges by rails.
Into this long, narrow inclosure pilgrims
from all parts OF the country crowd to-
relher from early morn to sunset, wash
ing themselves and their clothes, diving
three times OF more and then drinking
of the holy water, while saying their
prayers. Even during the festival
numerous cases Of cholera are admitted
1t the hospitals of Hurd var, aud when
he vast coDcourse of pilgrims at last
iisperse they carry cholera in every
direction over Hindostan. It attacks
and travelling merchants, gets
INTO Persia and so on into Europe
The assertion that cholera can be
only by means Of contain /
mated water and food seems to be dis
approved by the ineficiencY Of quaran.
inc regulations and Of the precautions
BY which the natives OF Western Asia
Try at least to retard the progress Of the