River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1893-02-23
Temperance.
AN ALLY OF CHOLERA.
Intoxicating Drinks Render One More
Liable to the Dread Scourge,

~
The danger of cholera for the pres
ent year has passed away, but the
London Times sounds a note OF
warning for 1898. 1t cites many
facts to show that, in spite of an ap-
parent decrease in the number OF
victims in Europe just now, the dis
ease is really getting a firmer hold
and its germs are more and more
widely disseminated, to spring into
activity with the advent of warm
weather next spring. If this be So
and we fear that it is-then we can
hardly hope that the pestilence shall
be kept from our shores. 1t evaded
the strict quarantine in New York
bay, and few cases appeared in the
city. 1t is hardly possible that ii
can be held at bay for the whole
summer, if it breaks out in Europe
in the spring
In view of the strong probability
that the United States will suffer
from cholera epidemic next year,
we wish to call public attention to
the proved fact that intoxicating
drinks are the strongest ally of that
scourge. A Russian authority men,
tions it as remarkable that "persons
given to drinking have been swept
away like flies. In Tifiis, contain
ing 10000 inhabitants, every drunk
ard has fallen-all are dead-not
one remains. In Glasgow, in 1849,
a liquor dealer declared that cholera
carried off one-half his best custom
ers, and it was observed that after
every public occasion, on which the
populace always drinks, the mortal
ity lists were swelled at once. DIR.
Carpenter, a leading hospital physi-
clan of that city, wrote:
"In both epidemics which have visited
this country very large proportion-es-
timated by some physicians at five-sixths
of the individuals attacked by it, in
whom the liability to disease could not be
attributed 10 the foul condition of the To-
cality in which they resided, are known
TO have received their predisposition to
hahfftal
rate of mortality among those attacked
bore constant proportion to their pre-
vious abuse of alcoholic liquors."
When cholera was epidemic in
Montreal, a physician gave this tes-
timony:
"The desease has searched out the
haunt OF the drunkard, and has seldom
left it without bearing away its victim.
Even moderate drinkers have been but
little better off. Ardent spirits, in all
shapes and in all quantities, have been
highly detrimental"
A Montreal paper made this COM
ment after 1900 deaths had oc-
CURED in that city:
Not drunkard who has been attacked
has recovered from the disease, and al
most all the victims have been at least
moderate drinkers"
In 1882, five-sixths of those who
persisted from the cholera epidemic
of that year in Great Britain were
Incorporate; and in some villages,
every drunkard died, while no total
abstainer lost his life. In the same
year at a hospital in New York, out
of 204 patients, only six were non
drinkers. They all recovered, while
1872 of the others died. During the
last cholera epidemic in New Or
leans, only three deaths occurred
among members of the Sons of Tenn
perance. The death rate of the city
was 10 per thousand of population,
while in that order the rate was only
| in 40O-about one-sixth the aver
age death rate. Of the epidemic in
New York city, a leading doctor
wrote that chad it not been for the
sale and use of spirits there had not
been cholera enough in the city to
have caused the cessation of business
for single day"
These instances might be multi
piled until they would fill column
after column. The proof is clear
that the drink habit enormously in
creased the danger of infection by
cholera and fatal termination of
the case. In view of the probability
of the advent of the pestilence next
year, this fact cannot be given too
wide publicity. The time to begin
preventive measures on this line is
now. Temperance means personal
safety in the midst of a cholera
plague. If every drinking man in
the United States could have this
fact impressed upon him, the COM
mon sense of the vast mass of the
community would deal one of the
hardest blows ever given to pulver-
ize the rum power.-[Toledo Blade.