CHOLERA. 27 



the hospital on the left bank of the Isar, in Lindwurmstrasse, and 

 that on the right bank of the river in Ismaningenstrasse, and the mili- 

 tary hospital in Oberwiesenf eld. Cholera behaved in each hospital just 

 as it behaved in the houses in their immediate neighborhood. Cases of 

 cholera appeared in all three hospitals. In that on the left bank of the 

 Isar there was rejoicing on account of the supposed success of isolation 

 and disinfection until August loth, when the summer epidemic reached 

 its height ; then an epidemic suddenly broke out. This was at the 

 time that the epidemic developed in Lindwurmstrasse, in which the 

 hospital was situate, and the epidemic in the hospital subsided as the 

 epidemic in the street gave way. In the hospital on the right bank 

 of the Isar the rejoicings lasted longer. The Ismaningenstrasse took 

 no part in the summer epidemic, and neither did the residents of the 

 hospital. But in the winter epidemic the same course of affairs took 

 place as had occurred on the left bank of the river. The military hos- 

 pital escaped all along. Of the seven barracks in Munich any cases or 

 suspected cases of cholera were immediately sent to the military hos- 

 pital. Now and again a surgical patient or a patient suffering from 

 other illness than cholera was put among other patients, and later on suf- 

 fered from cholera. Such cases were of course removed to the cholera 

 division as soon as the stools betrayed the case. At times the cholera 

 division was very full, and many nurses were employed therein ; but 

 none of these fell ill or gave the least indication of cholera, though 

 many of them must have come in very close relation with the cholera- 

 stools. In the military hospital in Mullerstrasse the same facts were 

 observed as were met with in the case of the other hospitals. Seeing 

 how little contagious cholera is among the nurses, it appears very re- 

 markable that the washers of cholera-linen should suffer so much. I 

 think I hear a contagionist say that why nurses of cholera-patients 

 in hospitals are not infected may be easily explained when it is borne 

 in mind that great cleanliness exists, that there is much washing of 

 hands, that they do not eat with unwashed hands, and that what- 

 ever spurts on their clothes is rapidly dried, and dryness kills the 

 bacillus. On the contrary, among the washers of cholera-linen it is 

 easy to imagine that drops may be spurted into the mouth, or that in- 

 fective material may be conveyed on wet fingers to the lips, and if a 

 solitary bacillus gets into the intestines cholera may occur. How can 

 this be seriously discussed ? Can it be supposed that the nurses wash 

 their hands only in certain hospitals, and during certain times, and 

 that the chances of taking in the bacilli are less during the cleansing 

 and attention to a patient than in washing the clothes? Do such 

 nurses never put the moistened fingers to their lips ? Do their noses 

 never itch ? The explanation of the contagionists appears to me to be 

 very comical. And yet there are cases in which the infection must 

 have been derived from the linen soiled by cholera-stools. A very inter- 

 esting case came under my observation at Lyons in the washing-village 



