350 . ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY. 



5. That it is not propagated through the water. 



6. That it is propagated through the earth. 



*7. That the earth receives and develops the cholera contagion from the 

 excrements of diseased persons. 



8. That excrements from a diseased person thrown into a sink or privy, are 

 capable of transforming the whole mass into a hearth of cholera contagion. 



9. That the gases disengaged by the decomposition of organic substances, 

 especially of excrements, penetrate the earth, rise to the surface, and become 

 then the cause of fevers and of cholera. 



10. That there has not been a single case of cholera observed in Bavaria 

 that could not be traced to that species of infection. 



11. That the stools of persons afflicted with cholera, or that peculiar species 

 of diarrhea which usually precedes cholera, are more infectious than those 

 who are actually seized with the disease. 



12. That cholera is always carried to a place where it has not yet appeared 

 by a diseased person, and communicated through excrements brought in con- 

 tact with the earth; and that there is no other way of propagating the dis- 

 ease. Immediate contact with the patient, inhaling the air of the sick-room, 

 washing of the dead body, na}', even dissecting it after death, does not com- 

 municate the disease. 



13. Not every species of earth acts on the process of decomposition in like 

 manner, and the capacity for spreading the contagion in the manner above 

 stated varies in consequence with the composition of the soils on which 

 dwellings are built. On rocky foundation, granite or sandstone, cholera never 

 becomes epidemic. An alluvial soil, underlaid with lime or clay, or any other 

 cause which keeps the ground moist, may become a teeming womb for the 

 cholera contagion. 



14. The cholera poison may be in a person from one to twenty-eight days 

 without manifesting itself. This fact furnishes a measure for the distance to 

 which it may be carried from one place to another. 



15. The disease which is not communicated by contact is carried to the 

 inmates of houses, sleeping in rooms exposed to the cholera poison as above 

 engendered. 



16. If tho cholera, as proved in London, is more intense and fatal in the 

 plain than on elevations, it will, on investigation, be found that it is owing to 

 the better drainage, by which filth is removed before it is decomposed, or 

 before it enters, as in damp and wet soils, into process of fermentation. Dr. 

 Pettenkober found some of the worst cases of cholera on hills where the 

 privies of houses still higher situated emptied into sinks or sewers of improper 

 full. The upper houses were generally exempt. 



17. To prevent contagion, the stools of cholera patients must be disinfected 

 before they are emptied. The best disinfecting agent is vitriol of iron. Chlo- 

 ride of lime only purifies the air, but does not destroy the cholera poison. 



18. When strangers from cholera districts are expected to arrive, tho 

 privies of hotels and boarding-houses where they are expected to put up, 

 ought to be disinfected with vitriol of iron say once a-week. In the rooms 

 and corridors of hospitals, turpentine may bo spread on paper and exposed to 



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