The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1895-09-03
CHOLERA CAME BY BELGIC.
Cause Of the Trouble as Seen By a
Writer.

but is carried across the ocean only
in vessels. And IL has been imported
mere, most likely by the steamship
Belgic, which arrived on the 9th in
slant from Japan and China. The
disease is carried on ships by persons
who have been exposed to il before
embarking, and have had the germs
planted in them, which grow and
develope in stated periods. Or it may
be taken from infected clothing in use
or cast off. If one or more of the
deaths which occurred on the Belgic
during her passage to this port from
Japan were from this disease, as is
believed, and the clothing of the de-
ceased was not burned or otherwise
destroyed, but by any chance was dis
tributed among other steerage passen-
gers, this of itself was sufficient to
convey the disease TO the quarantine
ground. The same remark may apply
10 the clothing of those who died while
in quarantine. If it was not destroyed
the disease was liable TO spread.
Then as TO the steamers freight,
particularly that from Kobe. Part of
it may have been of nature that
would convey the disease, even though
1t were only one parcel or box OF
clothing. A recent letter from Japan,
published in a New York paper, states
that there had been more than six
thousand deaths from Cholera in and
around Kobe during the past few
months. If so, then a portion of the |
Belgic's cargo came from one of the |
Oriental hotbeds of the scourge, and, |
wherever taken, it was liable to COM |
municate the disease.
The first cases which developed on |
shore must have originated in some !
way from the quarantine ground-just /
how may never be known. a bit of |
clothing from one of the dead men |
may have been carelessly thrown over
the fence and foated off on the surface
of the water, impregnating it with
the deadly virus, then picked up by a
struggling fisherman to retain his
crabs or fish, and in this or some other
way been the means of imparting the
disease to the natives who partook Of
the Iwilei feast.
When the cholera was brought
over from Europe two years ago to
New York harbor, and confined to
the quarantine ON Fire Island by the
almost despotic orders OF the Board
of Health, one single case developed
in the heart Of the city, and was inn
mediately taken charge of by the
health officers, no other case following
L
man took the disease has never been
satisfactorily accounted for, though
many suppositioDs were given.
lived in New York city during the
prevalence of the cholera in 1S47,
which lasted for several months.
There was close similarity in the
symptoms OF those attacked by it
from six to thirty hours. In many
cases physicians could not be found |
to attend the sick, owing to the /
fewness OF the former and the great
of the latter. At every hour
of the day and night hearses or
wagons with yellow flags might be :
seen moving, unattended by friends, ]
towards the Brooklyn ferries-the {
dead being buried mostly in section
allotted for this purpose on Long
Island, miles distant from the city. 4,
None were buried in New York or :
Such a scene as that is I
rarely witnessed more than once In a
lifetime.
a gentleman remarked several days /
ago-''If this be the cholera, why are :
there no more cases of it here-why :
were they not more on the Belgic :
and on our quarantine ground where I
800 persons are confined-and why has |
il not spread more rapidly on shore" I
The Bel0ic was less than two weeks >
on the passage hither from Japan,
and lost two or three lives before her +
Kobe cargo and Chinese passengers v
were put ashore here, including the d
two or three who probably had 5
the seeds of the disease when trans I
ferred to the quarantine ground. :
The change from the heated !
hold of the vessel to the .
fresh air, water and more healthy a
diet and surroundings, no doubt ar e
rested further development of the a
disease. It is TO be hoped that those n
The contagion, but this is by no means z
certain n
Epidemics, when entering a new /
field, are sometimes slow in finding @
heir first victims, owing to the Y
change of climate and in the dis
ease itself. Those who were in Homo :
lulu in 1854 may recall the Panama or D
'boohoo" fever brought here by pas a
;engers of the Inflated steamer Inde- p
oendence. 1t began its work very A
taking several weeks to find y
ts first victim, and another week or Z
,wo for its second, after which they :;
anne along faster. The physicians al
lid not mistrust an epidemic, and al
we're puzzled to know what the COM II
Dlaint was, it differed so much from II
,ther fevers. But when the patients ',
became more numerous, and the ply -
icIans hemselves-Lathrop, Hardy, n
Judd, Hoffman and others-had to
low down TO il, it was found to be the
Panama fever, modified by change
II climate. Finally almost every OF
person in Honolulu had to succumb q
% it, though there were no deaths ~
rom it. It Frustrated its victims, Or
from one to three or four Ar
weeks, but the change from the hot OF
md sickly atmosphere of Panama to p
he mild and more healthy climate of IL
changed its character very M
much. In Panama at that time u'
ieaths were very frequent from this "
Il q Id