Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1893-06-24

considerable quantities OF . mild disin.ecting
solution are injected. number of patients
who had passed the stage when recovery is
ordinarily considered possible were by this
means cured.
Good results are said to have been obtained
by incubation for the purpose Of rendering in
dividuals proof against the complaint. A
French physician. DR.. Ferran. has thus treated
thousands of people, among them many nurses
who served In the hospitals. However, there is
much dispute among experts as to the value Of
TINS alleged prophylactic. A simple culture of
the cholera bacillus in beef soup is employed
by hypodermic injection, producing symptoms
resembling those OF the disease itself in a mild
form. No attempt is made to 'attenuate" the
virus. 1t was Prof. Koch who first isolated and
identified these microbes as the germs Of the
plague. An assistant in his laboratory once swal-
lowed a lot of them by accident and developed
what the professor delightedly called "typi-
cal case" He recovered by a narrow squeak.
Cholera bacilli, like other disease producing
bacteria, produce . poison in tine process Of
their growth and multiplication. This poison
finally kills them aud that is the reason why
any bacterial disease, sooner or later. comes to
stop, often before the patient has succumbed.
IL Is rather startling to learn that the human
body itself is all the time manufacturing pois-
ons The tissues of the body are continually
DYING and being replaced. Such death OF the
tissue produces poisons. When man in think
ing sets his brain cells in motion a certain
amount OF wear and tear 10 caused, and
POISONOUS alkalold called '.nervine' il formed.
such poisons are eliminated from the body in
health; but, II they accumulate they are de-
structive.
BIRTHPLACE OF THE PLAouE.
Cholera has its birthplace in the delta Of the
Gauges. 1t is fetched to Mecca by the pious
Mohammedan pilgrims from Bombay, and from
Mecca it has an easy path into. Europe, fol-
lowing the lines OF travel Conditions in India
are admirably adapted for the breeding of
plaques. Hindoo superstition regards the hu-
man excreta as unholy and unfit to be touched
except by certain caste, the ''mehters."
Accordingly they will in no case remove
such waste themselves. The mehters are few
in number and set high price on their ser
vices. The natural consequence follows The
native villages are usually masses Of huts built
without roads, without drains. and never cleaned
They are commonly abodes of misery and filth
fiji nurseries of sickness and disease The sup
plies OF water are drawn from green and Shiny
ponds. whose bubbling surfaces exhale poison
Gus gases. These tanks" receive all the filth
OF the population, poured in from cutters
which ramify through the village.
1t has been observed in many epidemics that
the great majority Of cases occur among the
hlgh-caste people, who obstinately cling to the
use OF river water as q religious belief. The
dirtiest ponds in India are the hottest and most
W WHICH NtONut Oh pllRrlmb resort on
periodical occasions OF high feast and festival
to battle and wash away tn sir sins. Such waters
are supposed to cure leprosy, to remedy bar
renness In women and to drive out evil spirits.
From these spots Of pious assembly the people
carry infection to all parts of the country. II
they alone suffered nobody else would object
Japan in modern times has suffered more Sc
verely from cholera than any other country
within the belt of the temperate zone Hardly
had her territory been opened to the western
world. in ls60, when the plague invaded 1t an d
DESTROYED tens OF thousands annually ND to
1867, when it died out. Those who persisted at
the ports were thrown into tine sea. In 1877
another epidemic started, and in 1879 there
were sc. 900 cases. In 1885 there were 154 900
cases and l0l 900 deaths One feature
of sanitary science in Japan, quite
eclipsing other nations in that respect, is the
prompt cremation Of all dead from cholera.
Extensive crematories for this purpose have
been established in different parts OF the en-
pire. They are on such large scale in the city
of kioto that 500 bodies can be burned every
twenty -four hours.
Cats suffer from cholera as well as human
beings. A feline epidemic of the plague not
long ago accompanied epidemic in human
beings at Ahmedmuggar, being derived from
the same source apparently. In 1875 there was
an epidemic of cholera in cats in Delhi
RENE BACHk