The morning call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1878-1895, 1893-07-07
A NEST OF CHOLERA.

In Arabia, about fifty miles east of the
eastern bank of the Red Sea. nearly in
the latitude of the City of Mexico, stands
the ancient and sacred city of Mecca. Its
normal population is supposed to be ZOO
or 60, COO and the annual influx of visitors
to the Kaaba is reckoned to be as MANY
more. Probably at no time does the city
contain over $4,000 people. Yet we hear
that last month the mortality for cholera
was 1000 per day. That is as if 1900 deaths
occurred daily in San Francisco from an
epidemic.
Mecca has always been nursery of
cholera. Periodically the disease breaks
out among the pilgrims. There is abs0-
lutely no drainage there and the city re-
ceives and retains the overflow of the
mountain range on the east The air is
constantly full of miasma. arising from
putrefying otfal and flesh decayiDg in the
sun. Travellers arrive there in every stage
of uncleanliness. They have no means of
performing their additions in their travels
through Arabia; water is priceless in the
surrounding desert. though the city itself
is supplied by an aqueduct. There is
every reason to suppose that from the be-
ginning Of history Mecca has been a
slaughter-house.
The great m osque-the Kaaba-is said to
have been built by Abraham; that is to
say. the original mosque was the pa,ri-
arch's work, and when it was burned down
at the time of the hegira it was replaced
on his plans. But recent antiquarian re-
search renders it prob9bie that Mecca was
place OF religious resort long before the
time Of AS.anam, and that the rites of the
Syrian religions were celebrated within its
walls. 1t is quite possible that pilgrims
have been drifting to Mecca in order TO
pray at a holy shrine for as long period
as that which has elapsed since the build
ing of the first pyramid. And it is not
only possible but probable that during all
that period their visits to the holy city
have been marked by outbreaks of cholera
which have decimated the ranks Of the
successive sects of believers. In fact,
ing at Mecca as it is. and noting the
invitation which il must have always held
out to disease. it is no eXaggeration to say
that it has probably been the grave OF
more human beings than any other spot
on earth. and has served curious purpose
10 checking the tendency of Asiatic peo-
piOo w huieipir DCy Ohu viz tapoSitJ VI
the country to support them.
The few Christian travellers who have
succeeded in effecting an entrance in to the
sacred city have shown disposition to
connect the unhealthiness of Mecca with
the Moslem religion. There is no jusitca-
ton for such reasoning Cleanliness is
ore OF the cardinal doctrines of Moslem-
ism one CT the standing complaints which
the Spaniards made against the Moors was
that they were always washing them
selves. But man cannot wash il he have
water to wash in, and between Tidda
on the Red Sea and Mecca there is not
stream or pool. The predecessors of the
followers of Mohammed - worshipers Of
Astarte, Syrians, Canaanites, or what not
must have been as su bject to disease as the
faithful. 4 band Of men and women.
toiling over that torrid sand desert for
four days. under a blstering sun and with
scanty food, must throughout all time have
arrived at Mecca IN condition Of filth and
exhaustion hardly to be described. Plunged
into an atmosp here surcharged with fever
and cholera bacilli, they must have sue
cumbed in battalions. whatever their re-
lipjouS faith Wa