El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1910-10-04
CHOLERA NATIONAL
MENACE SAY
EXPERTS
Federal Health Facilities
Inadequate to Cope with
Threatened Danger.

| Washington d. c.. Oct. 4.-The spread
of Asiatic cholera from Russia, wher,
! 10000 cases are repOrted-s into German!
| and other countries of Europe, ha
NuSed the government to redOuble tn,
! precautions taken at the port of New
! York, and has again directed attention tt
the inadequacv OF our national facilitie:
for combating an assault of cholera OIL
plague.
The port doctors are able to exclude
any person showing symptoms o
cholera, but the real danger is from
healthy Americans, returning from
abroad, and from robust immigrants
| who easily pass the quarantine, but who
may, nevertheless, carry enough cholera
germs in their bodies to pollute the
rivers of a whole state.
"'Excretions during an epidemic OF
among persons coming from an infected
| region are dangerous, says Professor
! Chantemesse, of the French Academy OF
Medicine, in a dispatch regarding the
outbreak in Europe. These eXcretions
titles. They may contaminate wells ana
springs. Whole rivers may become con-
taminated in this way, and when, by any
means, this polluted water finds itself in
the digestive tube, the cholera micrObe
! finds a new home and multiplies."
Congressional Action Likely.
The possibility of an act by congress
at the next session to give better pro-
lection against an outbreak of an cpl
demic in this country by stopping the
pollution of interstate waterways in
which excretions are dumped is fore
Swallowed by the recent remarks of Col.
Roosevelt In speaking of putting sewage
into the great lakes:
ssANa r. ho n oi1-iIIzod -1a0DIo ord
civilized people ought to know how to
dispose of the sewage in some other
way than putting it into the drinking
water. We need action by both the
state and the nation to put complete
stop to the pollution of the great lakes,
action by the state so far as our own
boundary is concerned, and action by the
nation, because other states besides our
own are interested"
Bubonic Plague Also a Menace
DIR. Chas. S. BraddOck, formerly chief
medical inspector for the Royal Siamese
government at Bangkok, where he had
extensive experience FIGHTING cholera, has
said regarding the cholera menace.
When we can control the food and
water supply and secure reasonable sani-
tary conditions, wonderful results as to
prevention are obtained"
But DR.. BraddOck further states:
In my opinion we need not fear
cholera SO much as bubonic plague, since
the prevention of the latter disease is far
more difficult TO attain"
According to senator Owen. who intro
duced into the senate the national de-
partment of health bill. one of whose
functions shall be the suppression of
bubonic plague and similar national
menaces, The most dangerous epidemic
known to the world has been the bu-
bOnic plague, germ disease capable OF
almost explosive epidemic
Plague SYMPTOMS.
after an incubation of from four to
seven days with headache, vertigo, and
mental depression there comes a chill,
raging fever, great prOstratiOn, Occa-
sional vomiting of bile and blood; the
glands in the neck, under the arms, at
the elbows, in the groins, under the
knees, all over the body, become red and
swollen, tender, and extremely painful.
They turn dark, become filled with pus.
If not opened, burst spontaneously. The
disease Is sometimes attended with abb
scesses, boils, and carbuncles. About
this time the agony of life and the sting
of death are both overcome by merci
human putrid flesh ceases to breathe
and the heart is stilled.
This was the ''black death" of Lon
don, killing about 10000 people with in
credible speed-a thousand dying a day.
At Marseilles $1,000 died; 100000 in
Moscow.
eIt is the most dreaded and dangerous
of all international epidemics. In the
Bombay outbreak, of 100000 cases, 1884,
600 deaths occurred.
California Rats Infected
'FThe Bubonic plague is now among
the rats and ground squirrels of the
Pacific coast" senator Owen further
states. His bill, which will be reported
again at the next session, aims to bring
under one department, for economy and
the various health agencies of
-he government.
When the bubonic plague broke out in /
San Francisco in 1900, the city board of |
health quarantined the Chinese district, |
saws senator Owen. The United States i
circuit Judge. on June Is, 1900. declared !
he city quarantine illegal.
Bubonic plague was then $1,000 only |
N the citv. Not having been properly |
it is now scattered over the |
Pacific coast at points a thousand miles |
tpart, and is requiring enormous sums of |
money IN the attempt to stamp it out. !
1T has not been stamped out" says SEN
llOr owen, DGL Is now ell0oDlc ana I
spreading through the infection of /
ground squirrels and rats, which con-
.inually infect each other and spread the |
germs of the disease over enlarging /
areas. At any time it may break out in |
Jur thickly cOngested centers with tragic /
7esults that may stagger the nation"
The California Quarantine
A federal quarantine OF the state of /
California was finally declared bv the
official of the public health and marine |
hospital service at Washington but this |
-esulted in activities on the part of the (
California commercial interests to have |
The marine hospital service suppressed |
through the secretary of the treasury. in !
which department the public health and !
marine hospital service is now placed. A |
alse case was proved so senator Owen
says, and it was made to temporarily |
stand as the truth before the country.
furnishing evidence and proving that |
here was no bubonic plague in San
francisco.
In actual fact. however, bubonic
plague was there in sober fact, as has
ince been proved.
Says Truth Was Suppressed.
The point senator Owen emphasizes is
hat this bureau of public health, the !
ublic health and marine hospital serv
&c. was not strong enough to stan.l mp |
gainst the mower of a state demanding |