The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1905-09-28
PRESENT THEORY OF CHOLERA.
Enables Authorities TO Control its
Ravagcs I'm Mild Climates.

When It Is remembered that near
ly 100000 persons have recently
died in the Philippines during a two
years epidemic without any infec-
tion Of the United States, review of
the growth of knowledge regarding
cholera during the last seventy-five
years, which has enabled the au-
thorities to control its ravages at
least in temperate climates, becomes
of considerable interest.
In the fall of 1881, at the time of
the first serious invasion of the Uni
ted States by cholera, DR.. Joseph
Mather Smith, then professor of the
theory and practice of physic and
clinical medicine at the College of
Physicians and Surgeons in New
York City, delivered lecture to his
students on the epidemic cholera.
Apropos of quarantine measures he
said:
Against the invasion OF meteora-
tious epidemics all public enact
ments are in effect nullities. The
causes Of these diseases being GER
tain influences which pervade the
general atmosphere, are as uncon-
trollable by human agency as stormy
clouds and tempests. That the cause
of cholera of this sort cannot be
doubted; and in this conviction we
must regard the sanitary measures
recently adopted by our municipal
authorities as impotent and nuga-
tory. They serve but to dissipate
popular apprehensions."
To-day DR.. Smiths so-called me-
teoratious diseases have been rele-
gated to the limbo of exploded
myths, and the quarantine measures
which he pooh-poohed plus careful
sanitation. protect the western
hemisphere from those great epi-
denies which used to sweep across
the world and slaughter men by hun
dreds of thousands.
The epidemic, or, as II Is now
called, Asiatic cholera, Is known to
be caused by a germ, and the most
pestiferous winds and emanations
are impotent to produce an epi-
demic unless this little organism is
swallowed. There must be an act
ual transference Of the parasite from
sick to well to spread the disease.
There have been five serious epi-
denies of cholera in Europe during
the nineteenth century in 1880,
1846, 1865, 1884. and 1892; cases
from every one of which have at
least reached our Atlantic ports, and
from several of which the United
States has been seriously affected
The delta Of the Ganges Is the
true home of cholera, and 1t can al
ways be found there. There are a
few other places-in India, Indo-
China, China, and Japan-where it
is usually present. The origin of all
the European epidemics, however,
has been the Ganges delta. "By no
occult or mysterious power, by no
trade wind or electrical agency, but
in every case by man himself has 1t
been carried out OF this pesthole and
spread over the world"
Until 1888, although cholera was
thought by many to be a germ dis
ease, there was no proof of this. In
that year Koch, while working in
Egypt, isolated his so-called comma
bacillus" and proved that 1t was the
specific cause of cholera 1t is a
small organism, from less than one
to three twenty-five thousandths OF
an inch long, and appears under the
microscope as a comma or S shaped
body; some writers, however, be-
thaSa mt q ri n1 rn
only fragments of a larger spirillum.
To test the truth of Koch's conclu-
sions, Pettenkofer and his pupils,
and also Metchnikoff, deliberately
swallowed cultures of the comma
bacillus. They suffered from the
symptoms Of a mild attack of chol-
era, and the germs were found In
their excretions.
This microbe can live in ordinary
drinking water for six or seven days;
In milk, where 1t grows vigorously
without at all altering the appear
ance or taste of the later, 1t will live
at least four days, and 1t has been
found alive in butter forty-eight
days after infection.
Even very dllute acld5 are Vlru-
lent poisons to the germ, hence 1t is
killed by the fluids of a normal
stomach.
Regarding treatment there is little
to be said; the physician can only
treat symptoms, and unless the pa
tient is seen very early In the attack
even these can be but little miti-
gated. Regarding the various meth
DDS OF preventive incubation from
that of Ferran down, the outlook Is
not encouraging. Haffkine and sew
eral other investigators have claimed
some considerable success with their
sera, and DR.. Richard P. Strong of
the government laboratories in the
Philippines is hopeful Of an antitox-
in which has been used there.-New
York Post.