The San Francisco call., 1908-09-21
St. PETERSBURG IN
GRASP OF CHOLERA
Schools Turned Into Hospitals,
but Death Rate Increases
and Corpses Lie Unburied.

ST PETERSBURG, Sept. 2O.-St
Petersburg is in the grasp of Asiatic
cholera. Already the disease has ex-
ceeded in severity andzin numbers the
visitation of 1893. The scourge is in
creasing daily at an alarming rate and
unless the authorities show in the flu
ture a much greater degree of ability
to cope with the situation than they
have in the past there is every reason
The government threatens to apply
martial law
The aldermanic council today voted
s25000o to enlarge the hospital space.
to purchase and distribute disinfec-
tants, the supply of which in St.IPet-
ersburg is well nigh exhausted. and to
expedite the interment of bodies,
which has been notoriously slow. The
dead houses are overcrowded and many
corpses lie unburied.
The prefect of ST. Petersburg, Gen
eral Dracheffsky, Saturday prohibited
the sale of liquor throughout the city,
including the government vodka shops,
until September %.
HOSPITALS OF SCHOOLS
Public schools were today trans
formed into hospital wards. A number
of the grammar schools were closed
and 1000 students sent to their homes
The department of war has opened
stores to supply immediate needs and
army field kitchens have been dis
patched to the poorer quarters to dis
pense free food.
The situation-assumes a graver as
pect 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 symp-
toms
Statistics posted show that from Sat-
urday noon until Sunday noon there
were 39S cases and 191 deaths, this be-
ing the largest number so far.
Premier Stolypin has sharply repri-
manded the municipal officials for the
appalling conditions At Obuchof hos
pital, which he visited Saturday, he
found that three bathrooms were do
ing service for 800 patients
AUTHORITIES HAD WARNING
The authorities had every warming of
the coming of the disease, and the ut
ter inability to take proper precau-
tions to prevent its spread has brought
out q storm of indignant criticism.
Many cholera cases have been conveyed
to the hospitals In city cabs, which
are very numerous in st. Petersburg.
after which sthe same cabs were per-
mitted, without disinfection, to return
to their work on the streets.
Cholera was first reported this year
about the end of July. 1t was of a
virulent type and the percentage of
mortality was high. The, disease spread
rapidly into the provinces along the
volEa, down both coasts of the Cas-
plan and in the territory of the Don
Cossacks; In other words. in the east
ern and southeastern districts zof Eu-
ropean Russia BY the end OF August
there was an average of 1900 cases re-
ported each week, with a mortality
of more than so per cent
Advfces from all parts of Russia
show that the alarm Is very general
and that there Is good reason for it.
Twenty-nine cases and six deaths
were reported from Odessa SATURDAY..
German authorities have taken pre-
cautions to prevent the disease from
crossing the frontier. Austria has
done the same thing; Sweden and other
near by countries have declared quar-
antine against Russia, and France is