Arizona silver belt., 1894-10-27
CHOLERA IN CHINA.
The Result of Neglect of the Sam
 itary Regulations,
European Doctors Helpless to Enforce Modern Methods of Prevention on Account of Existing Super
 stftfonA

'
 Modern Methods of Prevention on
 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 diffi- 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 l plague appeared in severe form in Yunnan last winter. It has been known there for several seasons. It was ear ried to Canton in March by traders, The disease is not a new one, as it has appeared from time to time ID 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 a great plague for many years, but there is l 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 rigging among Moslem pilgrims Co Mecca. 1t is an acute fever accompanied by evidences of bloc poi l soning. The glands of the armpit and the groin swell up, and abscesscs 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 few hours the disease is often fatal Why the disease cxcites so much ter TOT is because there have been few op- portunities for carefully studying it. | The Russian doctors who studied the ! plague at AstralShan came to the con clusion that it was propagated by mi l crobes.
 One physician at Hong Kong attrib- ptes lts spread to purely vegetable 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. lt is certain that the rat, which So frequent lv burrows in the ground, was the first victim of the plague in both Canton and Hong Kong. Thousands were found dead before B single human be- ing was attacked. Then eats 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 source of contagion Tine moist climate of the scacoast also helps the spread of the discase
 In Hong Kong it was by a mere mat ter of accident that the European au- thuritics learned of the disease as the natives carefully concealed the spread of the contarion. One Chinese min ister is the sanitary board. Lau Wal Chpeu proved to be hard-hcaded. He insisted upon having patients sent from the great native hospital of Jung Wah to the European Hygeia, and then, after examination, to the hullts in the harhor. This was done for few days. Then the feeling among the Chinese became 50 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 husp4cloH or ali IOrclRu means or treat ment These placards warned all peo- pie not to go to Hong Kong nor to per init their wives and children to go, be- cause they would fall victims to the foreign doctors, who were chopping up all sick persons in order to make medi- cine out of their eyes and bones, No amount of explanation has yet sufliced to eradicate the deep-seated suspicion that all foreign doctors are on a still hunt for the eyes of dead Chinese. The people cannot understand that European medicine does not value cer- tain parts of body for medicine, be- cause their own physicians, who are mainly quacls, insist that by eating certain parts of the bodies of animals one may secure the best qualities of those animals They cling to this be- lief, and therefore such absurd stories as those of Christian missionaries kill ing native children to secure their eyes find ready credence.