Connecticut western news., 1893-04-13
CHOLERA IS COMING.
AN EARNEST WARNING FROM MEDl-
 GAL SCIENTISTS.

Pure Drinking Water, Clean Cities and Un- ceasing Vigilance at the Ports of Entry
 Are Absolutely Necessary-EveD With These safeguards the Cholera May Come. PHILADELPHIA, April s.-The Medical News, an established journal of medical science, publishes the following article as 8 note of warning to the nonmedical public:
 Medicine now calls the people and warns that there must be municipal and national house cleaning, that despite all quarantine the possible epidemic is proba- bl and that at last the only safety lies in internal health and sanitation-in an abil- ity to deal with cases of cholera wherever and whenever they arise within the coun- try. This ability cannot exist without a purified water supply, clean cities and an everywhere existing machinery of local medical policing, that, to speak plainly, nowhere exists
 '"The spectacle now presented in New York and in the croton watershed-the Daly raid-will long remain in future an- nals as one past wonder and belief. In a spasm of fright and awkwardness the city is to pay millions of dollars, without at all surely and completely securing what she seeks and needs It is commonly agreed that this clownish and brutal method of purifying the croton water supply will not certainly purify it, and will have no result in limiting its function as a disseminator of cholera germs if they come among us. The energy of the rest of the American people seems to have expended itself in a lazy confidence in the exclusion policy.
 Danger In the Cities.
 Tn Philadelphia our purlieus, back al- leys and slums are certainly not in good condition, and we are resignedly happy not only to drink the sewage water of several hundred thousand people, but of the water within few miles of the city} and even within the city limits, no effort Is made to stop a further contamination, suspected as being quiteias bad as neces- sary.
 "In Chicago, spurred by the fact that the entire success of the exposition depends up- on the sanitary condition of the city, the energetic work of preparation has been able to reduce the death rate in & great and praiseworthy degree. This proves what may be done with interest and determin- ation.
 Should . single case of cholera occur in Chicago during this year it would be a
 
 with which any expense of prophylaxis would be trivial. The local boards of health should everywhere be spurred to action, isolating hospitals should be made ready and tie mechanisms. financial, of ficial and medical, for every contingency prepared.
 Guard the Gates.
 At our ports of entry it is especially necessary that the preparations be most clear and effective.
 But 1t is not only our seaport cities that need to be guarded. It is already. plain that, fearful of our more stringent quaran- tine regulations, immigration is being de- fected to Canadian ports, and that if negli- gent of the Canadian frontier. infection may slip into our homes by this back door while we are effectually guarding the front.
 finland cities and towns should also be ready. Wherever an immigrants trunk is unpacked there may be sown the seeds of disease and calamity.
 ''We should also note well that the prob able source of much of our immigration material is to be profoundly suspected. The tyranny of Russia has reduced her people to 8 destitution wherein they are an easy prey to disease, and it is believed tbat she is concealing much of the truth as to the cholera and her internal condition. When with warmer weather the condi- tions of travel and of germ development become more favorable, all the possible rigors of quarantine can hardly prevent sporadic cases, at least, arising within our borders and every means of meeting the danger should be well provided for in ad- vance We are indeed forewarned but we are far from forearmed. The care of the | public health must be taken out of the hands of ward politicians and put into the keeping of men who are fitted by study, by experience and by morality to solve the tremendous problems of the prevention and cure of disease. "