The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-09-21
IN THE GRASP
 OF CHOLERA Disease Is Increasing at St. Petersburg. AN ALARMING SITUATION Public Schools Transformed Into
 Hospital Wards. Supply of Disinfectants is We'll Nigh Exhausted-Dead Houses Over crowded and Many Coruses
 Unburied.
AN ALARMING SITUATION

St Petersburg, Sept, Zu-ot. feteIs- burg Is in the grasp of the Asiatlc cholera. which already has exceedeo in severity and numbers. the visitation of 1903.
 The disease is increasing daily at an alarming rate and unless the authori- ties show in the future a much greater degree of ability to cope with the situation than they have in the past there is every reason to fear that 1t Will get out of hand.
 The government has threatened to apply the provisions of martial law and this threat has driven the municipality officials to bend all their energies to the campaigns of clearing the city of the scourge. The aldermanic council today voted a preliminary sum amount ing to $250.000 to enlarge the hospital space. to purchase and distribute dis infectants. the supply of which in St. Petersburg 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.
 Under his authority as prefect of St Petersburg. General Dracheffsky, on Saturday prohibited the sale of liquor throughout the city, including the gov ernment vodka shops until September 22nd, and he has further ordered that
 
 suspended at 2 p. m. on Saturday un- til 10 a. m. Monday. This action has been taken in order to diminish alco- holtc excesses which materially in- crease the liability of cholera infec- ton and the general spread of the dis ease.
 Schools as Hospitals.
 A beginning was made today when publl5 schools were transformed into hospital wards.
 A number of the grammar schools were closed and four thousand of the students were sent to their homes The department of war has opened stores to supply immediate needs and army field Kitchens have been despatched to poorer quarters to di-pense free food.
 The situation. which has always been serious since the very first case was reported, assumes graver aspect from the appearance today of a very virulent type of the disease. in two cases of which death followed within fifteen minutes of the first symptoms.
 As announced by the official bulle- tins. the cases numbered 349 and the deaths 12S. during the twenty-four hours between Friday noon and Satur- day noon. This was a considera ble de- crease from the preceding day. but there is doubt of the accuracy of the official statement. The record for the same twenty-four hours ascertained from unofficial but reliable sources shows the actual number to have been far in excess of that. Whether or not, however. there was an actual decrease the disease resumed its march on Saturday. the statistics posted show ing that from Saturday noon until Sun- day noon. there were 39S cases and Al deaths. this being the largest number so far officially announced
 It Is feared that the cholera will make further gains for at least another basis of former epidemics. All varie- ties of Asiatic cholera have now devel- oped here. there being numerous cases of the Algid type. which is accompanied by the greatest suffering.
 The Metropolitan of St. Petersburg caused prayers for deliverance to be read throughout the diocese today in punishment for the peoples lawless- ness.
 sharply Reprimnnded.
 Premier Stolypin has sharply repri- manded the municipal officials for the appalling conditions. At Qbuchoff Hos pital which he visited Saturday ne found that three bath rooms were do-' ing service for 300 patients. The phy- sicians 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 insti- ,ution were stricken with the disease yesterday. making a total of nine nurses now under treatment for chol- era.
 Practically nothing has been done up to the present to put the city's mar ket places in a sanitary condition. They are places of indescribable filth, with the atmosphere reeking with foul odors. One hundred carloads of fruit have been auctioned of and forwarded to Warsaw, Wilma. and other towns. which the cholera has not invaded and the possibility of infection from this source is very great.
 As city St. Petersburg is woeful- ly unsanitary and the dread disease finds here the conditions most suitable for it's propagation.
 Cholera In Manila.
 .L.. fexht