The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1908-09-21
ScOurge Of Asiaic Cholera Is
Causing Several Hundred
Deaths a Day
INCOMPETENT HEALTH
OFFICIALS ARE BLAMED
Situation Is Very Serious and Martial
Law May Be Declared If Prompt
Measures Are Not Taken
BY City Authorities.

st. Petersburg, September 2O.-St. Pc
tersburg is in the grasp of the Asiatic
cholera, which has already exceeded in
severity and numbers the visitation of
1908. The disease is increasing daily at
an alarming rate and unless the authori-
ties show in the future much greater
degree of ability to cope with the situa-
tion than they have in the past, there is
every reason to fear that 1t will get out
of hand.
The government has threatened to ap-
ply the provisions of martial law and
this threat has driven the municipality
officials to bend all their energies to the
campaign of clearing the city of the
scourge. The aldermanic council today
voted a preliminary sum amounting to
$250.000 to enlarge the hospital space, to
purchase and distribute disinfectants, the
supply of which in st. Petersburg is
well-nigh exhausted, and to expedite the
interment Of bodies, which has been no
toriously slow. The dead houses are
over-crowded and many corpses lie un-
buried
Under his authority as prefect of st.
Petersburg. General Dracheffsky on Sat
urday prohibited the sale of liquor
throughout the city, including the gov
ernment vodka shops, until September %.
and he has further ordered that here
after the sale of liquor shall be suspend
ed at 2 p. m. ON Saturday, until 10 a.
IN. Monday This action has been taken
in order to diminish alcoholic excesses,
which materially increases the liability of
cholera infection and the general spread
of the disease.
A beginning today when pub
lie sch rmed into hospital
wards
Hospitals.
nd grammar schools were
closed the students were sent
to theii The department of war
has OPT torres to supply immediate
needs, a rmy field kitchens have been
dispatch, to the poorer quarters to dis
pense free food
The situation, which has always been
serious since the very first case was re-
ported assumes grayer aspect from the
appearance today of a very virulent type
of the disease, in two cases OF which
death followed within Is minutes of the
first symptoms.
AS announced by the official bulletins
the cases numbered 349 and the deaths
12S during the "a hours between Friday.
noon, and Saturday, noon. This was a
considerable decrease from the preceding
day, but there is doubt or the accuracy
of the official statement The record for
fYa from
official but reliable sources, shows the
actual number to have been far in ex
cess of that Whether not, however,
there was an actual decrease, the dis
ease resumed it's march on Saturday, the
statistics posted showing that from Sat-
urday, noon, until Sunday, noon, there
we're 39S cases and 141 deaths, this being
the largest number so far officially an
nounced.
1t is feared that the cholera will make
further gains for at least another fort
night, this being figured on the basis of
former epidemics. All varieties of Asiatic
{, cholera have now developed here, there
being numerous cases of the Algid type.
which is accompanied by the greatest
suffering.
Prayers for People.
The metropolitan of st. Petersburg
caused prayers for deliverance to be read
throughout the diocese today, in which
the pestilence is described as a punish
ment for the peoples lawlessness.
Premier Stolypin has sharply repri-
manded the municipal officials for the ap-
palling conditions. At Obuchoff hospital.
which he visited on Saturday, he found
that three bathrooms were doing service
for 300 patients The physicians were
powerless to carry out the proper course
of treatment and the mortality at this
hospital has been three times that of
other hospitals. Three of the nurses at
this institution were stricken with the
disease yesterday, making a total of nine
nurses now under treatment for cholera.
Practically nothing has been done up to
the present to put the city's market
places in a sanitary condition. They are
places of indescribable filth with the at
mosphere reeking with foul odors. One
hundred carloads Of fruit have been auc-
toned off and forwarded to Warsaw,
wilma and other towns which the cholera
has not invaled, and the possibility of in
fection from this source is very great.
AS city st. Petersburg Is woefully
unsanitary, and the dread disease finds
here the conditions most suitable for its
propagation.
The authorities had every warning Of
the coming of the disease, and their ut
ter inability to take proper precautions
to prevent it's spread has brought out a
storm OF indignant criticism. AS an ex-
ample of the inefficiency and negligence
displayed, 1t is sufficient to cite the fact
that many cholera cases have been con-
veyed to the hospitals in city cabs, which
are very numerous in st. Petersburg,
after which these same cabs were per-
mitted, without disinfection, to return to
their work on the streets.
virulent Disease.
The cholera was first reported this year
about the end of July. 1t was Of a viru-
lent type and the percentage of mortality
was high. The disease spread rapidly into
the provinces along the Volga, down both
coasts of the Caspian and in the territory
of the Don Cossacks in other words, in
the eastern and southeastern districts of
European Russia. BY the end of August
there was an average of 1900 cases re-
ported each week, with a mortality of
!. upward of so per cent.
y On August IA 1t was announced that st.
Petersburg was threatened with the
scourge, and on September 8 it was defin-
itely established that the disease was in
the capital. The record Of cases and deaths