The comet. (Johnson City, Tenn.) 1884-1916, 1894-06-21
rAg pAsslNa o. cAoLsaa.


II May Never Again Amount 40 "a ague /
ia ANY Civilized Land.
DR., Klein, T. r. s., lecturer on gen.
cral anatomy and physiology at St.
Bartholomew hospital delivered a
lecture on cholera at the London insti-
tuition recently,
The lecturer said, according to tho
London Times, that the prevention OF
cholera was beset with less difficulty |
than that of some of the communities
BILE diseases which in towns we had al
most constantly among US. He quoted
an account by Ernest Hart OF the great
religious festival of Kumbh fair at
Hardwar, town on the Ganges, at
which, in 1891, eight hundred thousand
TO one million pilgrims assembled. In
the opinion of many experienced Off
cials the most complete sanitary ar
rangement would be powerless to pre-
vent the spread of cholera ii the fair
was allowed to take place. The pill
grims coming from cholera-infected
districts brought the infection with
them, and two people died of undoubt-
ed cholera at Hardwar during the
most crowded period, Owing, how
ever, to the excellent and stringent
sanitary precautions the infection did
not spread. No moro cases arose in
the town or camp, nor did the disease
develop on the track of the dispensing
pilgrims. This was unquestionably
one of the most remarkable and bril-
liant achievements of sanitation In the
whole history of cholera.
Not only in India, but also in Eu-
rope, had it been demonstrated that
cholera was preventable disease. In
1899 cholera broke cut in Hamburg.
The insanitary conditions of its dock
and port population and the pol
luted supply of drinking water
brought for Hamburg the long
predicted day of reckoning, In
former years the establishment
of such a focus of cholera as Ham
burg, which had vast communica-
tions and intercourse with the whole
of Germany, would have been followed
by innumerable foci of cholera all over
Germany. Yet there was the remark
able fact that, with the exception of a
few cases In limited number of towns,
Germany did not suffer from any fur
Their epidemic outbreaks.
And the same fact was illustrated in
1892 in a perhaps more striking man.
ner in England. Sir John Simon had
years back insisted on the Importance
of considering cholera, and also ty-
phoid fever, as filth disease. 1t had
since become an axiom in sanitary
science to isolate the patient, to disin-
feet or destroy all articles soiled by
him, to prevent such filth from gain
ing access to drinking water and to
articles of food, and to insist that the
hands that had been in contact with
such soiled articles should be scrupu-
lousy cleaned In order to avoid self,
infection; in short, to prevent and to
avoid the contagion being swallowed.
BY carrying out these precepts 1t had
become possible to pre- vent the spread
of cholera epidemically, and this had
been successfully accomplished.
This success implied two things-(1)
the locality before the introduction OF
q case of cholera should be in a proper
sanitary condition, and (2) on the ap
pearance of case of cholera the
measures for isolation and disinfection
should at once be put in practice
There should be no attempt at hiding
or ignoring, but the fact should be
openly and boldly recognized and &C
ton taken accordingly.