Los Angeles herald., 1892-09-15
CHOLERA IN NEW YORK,
Five Deaths From the Dis
ease in Gotham.
The Plague Now Surely I'm
planted in the City.
How 1t Got Past Quarantine Is q
Profound Mystery.
The Health Authorities Taking Every
Precaution to Stamp 1t Out
Before 1t Becomes
Epidemic.

By the Associated Press.l
New YORK, Sept. 14..-Now that Ash
attic cholera has developed among the
dwellers in this city, each may ask his
neighbor: swell, what of it?" This
expressionimpliesn no over-confdence. 1t
lies within each individuals power to
assure his own personal safety almost
beyond peradventure. He has but to
drink no water and milk except such as
has been thoroughly boiled, and to eat
no food that has not been thoroughly
and freshly cooked; he will abstain
from butter and cheese, and may then
possess his soul in serenity. Cholera
will pass him by.
Ever since the Moravia arrived in
port, as the harbinger Of the dreaded
plague, the state and local officials have
been straining every nerve to prevent its
gaining foothold in this city and being
spread by various channels to the coun-
try at large; but while they were all
looking seward, cholera quietly made
it's presence felt in our midst, and five
corpses today mark it's advent.
'How did it get in ?' is the question
on everyone's lips. The health officers
are puzzled, but the utmost precautions
are being taken to prevent it's spread
At each of the houses where the patients
lived, two doctors have been sta
toned to remain constantly on duty,
enforcing the most rigid rules,
of cleanliness; seeing to disinfection,
etc. No family must move out of the
house without a written permit. The
idea is to overwhelm and stamp out the
disease in each house, as was done with
typhus upon it's first appearance. That
this could be done was successfully
demonstrated in the cholera outbreak of
1866. The doctors on duty in each in
fected house will remain there until the
danger of further outbreak has finally
passed. The health officers fully be-
lieve that this will be before long. Other
cases are expected to develop from the
scattered centers of contagion, but none
fn the same buildings.
That is the way the health officers
propose to drive the cholera from the
city, now that it has got in, and If the
citizens will use reason and not get into
foolish and needless panic, they are
sure that they will succeed, though they
should by no means undervalue the
danger. Every possibility, every feature
of cholera epidemic has been dis
counted and provided against.
1t is hard for the department to trace
the cases 80 far reported, because all the
victims are dead. The situation is
identical with that Of 1866. when cholera
suddenly appeared in three or four
widely separated places in the city, af-
ter it had been successfully quarantined
out the previous fall. The first case
this year was Charles McAvoy, a plast.
erer by trade. who lived on Tenth ave.
nue.. The only possible clue may be,
that he had been working about the
wharves. Yet, none of the pest-ships
had come up to the wharf.
McAvoy was seized with cramps last
Monday evening, and the next morning
took to bed, dying Tuesday evening.
Two doctors diagnosed his case as
Asiatic cholera, and the house was dis
infected as a measure of precaution.
DR.. Briggs, who made an autopsy, de-
clared, however, that its result was
mot at all suggestive of Asiatic cholera,
while showing familiar signs of cholera
morbus." In spite of this statement,
however, some of the intestinal fluid
taken to sanitary headquarters and cul-
tivated in gelatina, produced a crop OF
cholera bacilli, and the nature of the
disease is no longer open to question.
Eight days have elapsed since Nc
Avoy's death. What caused the long
delay in ascertaining the exact facts ia
not stated.
The other victims were William Wig
mann and wife, OF 761 Eleventh avenue !;
Charlotte Beck, of 1884 Second avenue,
and Minnie Levingen, of All East Forty
sixth street. There have been other
cases, of which the board has not yet
made an official report.
1t was said at police headquarters this
evening that the disease had been
brought into the city by butchers taking
meat to the quarantined Hamburg
steamships. but this could not be sup
ported.