The Pioche weekly record. [volume] (Pioche, Nev.) 1877-1900, 1894-01-18
cHoLERA's ENDEMIC HOME.
Not India, Bat Arabia, Is the Real
BreedIng Place of the Plague.

Not India, Bat Arabia, Is the Real
Breeding Place of the Plague.
Shocking as are the statistics OF
mortality among pilgrims to Mecca
reported in the Sun from Tunis a few
days ago, where of 5000 who set out
but half the number returned, the
death rate of last season is but little
greater than that of ordinary years.
The health officials OF Bombay and
other Indian cities have for some
time been collecting facts and sta
tistics to show that India does not
deserve the i'll reputation it has of
being 1.-The endemic home of cholera"
but that Arabia is the home of the
plague. and they are preparing to
make strenuous efforts to arouse the
Arabian authorities and convince
them of the fact, and to have them
apply remedy. Some OF the statis-
tics printed in the Bombay Gazette
reveal a terrible state of affairs.
According to the official returns of
the health officer of Bombay, of
$1,000 pilgrims who left the city for
Mecca during the last eight years
only 10000 have come back. Thirty
pilgrims in every hundred have per-
ished in every year of that period,
and very many who survived to re-
turn home have come back only to
die OF disease contracted on the pill
grimage. The facts adduced go to
prove that the pilgrims do not carry
disease with them from India. There
is a rigid inspection at6ombay be-
fore embarkation, and every pill
grim is required to pass a medical
examination, to undergo a certain
quarantining process and to possess
a certificate of good health. The
mortality on the voyage from Bonn
bay to Arabia is very small. 1t is
after the pilgrims have entered the
holy cities and during the return
that the mortality is great.
A record is kept by the British
consul at Jeddah of the humble of
pilgrims arriving at and departing
from that port, with such particulars
as will insure Identification. The
figures of this record fully corrobo-
rate those of the Bombay officials.
An average estimate of mortality
of one-third among the Indian pill
grims in each year, when there is no
general epidemic of cholera, is clearly
established, and the belief is ex-
pressed, founded on such corrobora-
tive statistics as are obtainable, that
fully one-third of all pilgrims to
Mecca perish in every year.
The Indian officials assert that the
cholera plaques which periodically
sweep around the world "have their
origin in the filth of Mecca and Me-
dina" There is great scarcity of
water in these places, and the quail
lty OF the little obtainable is bad.
The famous holy well at Mecca offers
the most complete conditions for
spreading disease. 1t ordinarily
contains but little water. One of the
most essential devotions in the pill
grimage is to battle in and drink of
the water from this we'll, and its
brink is always crowded with pill
grims, some drawing its water and
pouring it over their persons, others
dipping it up in cups and gourds and
drinking it. The water used for
bathing runs directly back into the
we'll and thus diseases are directly
spread.
The authorities did for time this
year close up the well. Drainage in
the city there is little or none, and
the most ordinary sanitary precau-
lions are utterly disregarded by the
choked crowds Of pilgrims. Not
alone cholera is thus bred and
spread, but the holy cities are hot
beds of smallpox and other like ter
rible diseases. The same conditions
are true of Ell Tor, Jeddah and
Camaran, and the Indian health
officials will, for the protection of its
people as we'll as for the sake of the
country's reputation, make strong
endeavors to induce the authorities
of the holy places Of pilgrimage to
take an interest in drainage and gem
eral sanitation; to have more scaven-
gers, even If they have to have fewer
priests. They think that the West
ern nations might prof tably take an
interest in the condition of things in
Arabia, and the result of their in
vestigations will be offered in the
hope that steps will be taken to
crush out the cholera plague in what
they assume to prove is its real en-
demic home.