The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1893-11-10
CHOLERA'S HOME.
Arabia the Real Breeding Place Of
the Plague.
Terrible Mortality Among the Many Pill
grims Who Year After Year Journey
to the Holy Cities of
Arabia.

Shocking as are the statistics of NOR
tality among pilgrims to Mecca recent
ly reported in the New York Sun from
Tunis, where of nine thousand who set
out but half the number returned, the
death rate of this year is but little
greater than that of ordinary years.
The health officials of Bombay and
other Indian cities have for some time
been collecting facts and statistics to
show that India does not deserve the
ill reputation it has of being ''the en-
demic home OF cholera" but that Ar
abba is the home of the plague, and they
are preparing to make strenuous eff
forts to arouse the Arabian authorities
and convince them of the fact, and to
have them apply remedy. Some of
the statistics printed in the Bombay
Gazette reveal terrible state of af-
fairs.
According to the official returns of
the health officer of Bombay, of nine
ty-one thousand pilgrims who left that
city for Mecca during the past eight
years only sixty thousand have come
back. Thirty pilgrims in every hun
dred have perished in every year of
that period, and very many of those
who survived to return home have
come back only to die of disease con-
tracted on the pilgrimage. The facts
adduced go to prove that the pilgrims
do not carry disease with them from
India. There is rigid inspection at
Bombay before embarkation, and
every pilgrim is required to pass a
medical examination, to undergo a
certain quarantining process, and to
possess a certificate of good health.
The mortality on the voyage from
bombay to Arabia is very small. 1t is
after the pilgrims have entered the
holy cities, and during the return, that
the mortality is great.
A record is kept by the British con-
sui at Jeddah of the number of pill
grims arriving at and departing from
that port, with such particulars as will
insure general Identification. The
figures of this record fully corroborate
those of the Bombay officials An
average estimate of mortality of one
third among the Indian pilgrims in
each year, when there is no general
epidemic of cholera, is clearly estab-
lished, and the belief is expressed,
founded on such corroborative statis-
tics as are obtainable, that fully one
third of all pilgrims to Mecca perish in
every year.
The Indian officials assert that the
cholera plaques which periodically
sweep around the world shave their
in hn f146 %
Medina" There is great scarcity of
water in these places, and the quality
of the little obtainable is bad. The
famous Holy Well at Mecca offers the
most complete conditions for spread
ing disease. 1t ordinally contains but
little water. One of the most essential
devotions in the pilgrimage is to battle
in and drink of the water from this
well, and its brink is always crowded
with pilgrims, some drawing its water
and pouring it over their persons,
others dipping it up in cups aud
gourds and drinking it. The water
used for bathing runs directly back
into the well, and thus diseases are di-
rectly spread.
The authorities did for a time this
year close up the well. Drainage in
the city there is little or none, and the
most ordinary sanitary precautions
are utterly disregarded by the cholzed
crowds of pilgrims. Not alone cholera
is thus bred and spread, but the holy
cities are hotbeds of smallpox and
other like terrible diseases. The same
conditions are true of FL Tor, Jeddah
and Camaran, and the Indian health
officials will, for the protection of it's
people as well as for the sake of the
country's reputation, make strong en-
deavors to induce the authorities of
the holy places of pilgrimage to take
an interest in drainage and general
sanitation; to have more scavengers
even if they have to have fewer
priests. They think that the western
nations might profitably take an in
terest in the condition of things in
Arabia, and the result of their investi-
cations will be offered in the hope that
steps will be taken to crush out the
cholera plague in what they assume to
prove is it's real endemic home.