The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1895-08-31
Concise Directions Concerning
Cholera Treatment.
CLEANLINESS EsrPREvENrIT
Thoroughly Aired and Free From
RubbIsh-Be Careful of Infected
CIothing-General Precautions, Etc.

When the cholera scourge threat
ened the United States in 1892, the
State Board of Health of Maine is
sued circular entitled, practical
Facts Concerning Cholera" in
which is given a concise statement
of the character of the disease and
the best methods Of handling it.
The following extracts are made at
the suggestion of the Board of
Health:
Cholera, as it appears in America,
1t an exotic disease; that is, never
arises spontaneously on our soil. AL
ways, when it has appeared here, it
has been possible to trace it back to
European ports and towns where
cholera prevailed, and from there to
India, where 1T always has it's origin.
Whenever it has left its Asiatic home
and overrun and prevailed in Europe,
as it did last year, it has invariably,
sooner or later, found its way to our
own country.
NATURE OF THE MALADH.
1t is a specific disease, caused by
specific organic poison or disease
germ, derived directly or indirectly
from pre-eXisting cases of the same
disease.
SYMPTOMS.
The cholera almost always begins
with a premonitory diarrhea. Later
come vomiting, cramps, exhaustion
and collapse. In some cases the adj
vent of the disease is sudden, and it's
course and termination rapid.
HOW 1T Is SPREAD.
Cholera is an infectious disease, but
it is infectious only in certain ways.
1t is not Catching" as smallpox
and scarlet fever are understood to be.
In Calcutta, where cholera is always
present, hundreds of cases have been
treated in the general hospital, and
often in the same room with patients
sick with other diseases, without ever
being a source of Infection to them.
Physicians and nurses who care for
the sick, are little, if any, more liable
to take the disease than others. And
yet, on the other hand, single case
may poison many other individuals,
and give rise to wide spread and very
fatal explosion of the disease. How
can we account for this paradoXical
behavior of cholera? In this way:
The cholera poison exists principally
in the discharge from the bowels and
in the vomited matter. This eXcreted
contagium is said not to be in an ac-
lively poisonous condition when it
first leaves the body, but requires
little time to go through a fermenta-
tive stage during which it's malignity
is developed. Conditions which favor
the development of the poison are eX-
clusion of fresh air, darkness, mois-
ture and warmth, and, more than all
else, filth condition.
If this poison is completely Destroy
ed as soon as it leaves the aIimentaTy
canal, there is no danger of the pa
TENTS being a source of infection to
other persons, But, if the objections
are thrown, for instance, into the
privy vault, the cholera germs find all
the favoring conditions above named
for their development and increase.
From the privy vault or from the sur
face OF the ground the poison may
percolate through the soil, many feet
it may be, and gain access to wells or
other water supply.
Let it be distinctly borne in mind
that, to take cholera, you must eat 1t
or uFlQk IL. In1S Is 0OJ aH dSSlueIlC
statement of a generally recognized
fact, but it is hoped to make it en-
phatic.
Farther facts in relation to the ex-
tent of cholera are these: Privy vaults,
cesspools, sink drains, heaps of manure
filthy-sodden earth, and other unclean
places, once contaminated with the
cholera germ may remain sources of
danger for some time, giving off their
poison, which, by being bTeathed in,
may be mixed with the saliva and be
swallowed.
Articles of clothing from cholera
regions, especially if sOiled with the
cholera excreta, may carry the disease
long distances. During the epidemic
of 1873 clothing packed up IN Holland,
Sweden and Russia made the ocean
voyage and railway journey with no
harm to persons on the way, but
started cholera epidemics in the far
west when the articles We're opened.
Be reassured by the fact that cholera
comes not from mysterious epidemic
constitution of the atmosphere, but
that it comes, as explained above, in
accordance with certain laws which
are now well understood. Remem-
bering this, all necessary alarm may
be avOided-Only that salutary fear Is
desirable which shall lead each indi-
vldual to avoid and remove those con !
ditiOns which favor not only cholera,
L. I IL