Arizona republican., 1894-10-25
CHOLERA IN CHINA.
The Result of Neglect of the San.
 itary Regulations.
European Doctors Helpless to Enforce Modern Methods of Prevention Account of Existing Super
 stitiOns.

Account of Existing Super
 stitions.
 Many details of the great plague in Canton and Hong Kong are interesting as showing the attitude of the natives toward foreign doctors and the diff culty of enforcing the simplest sani- tary regulations. From all accounts, had the European doctors been per mitted at the outset to enforce house. to-house inspection the death list would never have risen above fifty a day and the disease would have been restricted to Hong Kong.
 As it is, says a Shanghai letter in the New York Sun, cases of the deadly disease are appearing in all the neigh boring country places, and it is appar- ent that victims of the plague may be found at any time in Shanghai or other ports that have close connection with Hong Kong.
 In regard to the origin of the disease there is no question that the present plague appeared in severe form in Yunnan last winter. It has been known there for several seasons. It was car ried to Canton in March by traders The disease is not a new one, as it has appeared from time to time III Persia and Arabia between 1853 and 1878. The latter year was memorable because the plague reached Europe. It broke out then in Astrakhan, but the Russian government suppressed it by prompt measures.
 China has not been visited by great plague for many years, but there is good authority for the statement that the plague which ravaged Europe in the fourteenth century broke out in China.
 The medical returns from Hong Kong show that the present is the true plague. All the symptoms are those described by medical experts who have seen the disease raging among Moslem pilgrims to Mecca. It is an acute fever, accompanied by evidences of blood poi soning. The glands of the armpit and the groin swell up, and abscesses and carbuncles frequently appear; there are hemorrhages under the skin and from some of the organs. The strength of the patient oozes away, and in a few hours the disease is often fatal.
 Why the disease excites so much ter TOT is because there have been few op- portunities for carefully studying it. The Russian doctors who studied the plague at Astrakhan came to the con- ol,,CiOp tbat if xroS ,,,o,,o na +ad Inv, mi crobeS.
 One physician at Hong Kong attrib- utes it's spread to purely vegeta ble poison which arises from the earth and proves fatal first to the small domestic animals which are nearest to the ground. Whatever be the cause, it is certain that the rat which so frequent ly burrows in the ground, was the first victim of the plague in both Canton and Hong Kong. Thousands were found dead before a s1ngIe human be- ing was attacked. Then cats and dogs suffered, and finally men and women. The story that the plague was spread by the Chinese eating rats is not very plausible. Of course, the eating of in- fected rats may have aided in the spread of the disease, but the infection was brought from Yunnan by caravans of traders, and everything which the victims had used became a source of contagion. The moist climate of the seacoast also helps the spread of the disease.
 In Hong Kong it was by mere mat ter of accident that the European au- thorities learned of the disease, as the natives carefully concealed the spread of the contagion. One Chinese min ister is the sanitary board. Lau Wal Chueu proved to be hard-headed. He insisted upon having patients sent from the great native hospital of Jung Wah to the European Hygeia, and then, after examination, to the hulks in the harbor. This was done for a few days. Then the feeling among the Chinese became so bitter that the pro- cedure had to be abandoned. Native members of the sanitary board actually stimulated this hostility to European methods.
 Placards were brought to Hong Kong from Canton, which reveal the deadly suspicion of all foreign means of treat ment. These placards warned all peo