3 o THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



have failed because they simply treat the individual, the possible case 

 of cholera. But the germs of cholera may be transmitted in the ab- 

 sence of the disease as manifested by illness. Even perfect sanitary 

 cordons and quarantine would be also valueless, for the reason that 

 they are commenced too late. It is true that quarantine and cordons 

 may prevent a certain quantity of the germs of cholera from entering 

 a country, so that it will serve as much purpose as a good custom-house 

 against smuggling. But there is a great difference between articles 

 of commerce and germs of cholera. The germs of disease are capable 

 of multiplication, and so the smuggling through of a few may, under 

 suitable circumstances, be the means for the development of millions 

 and billions. The epidemics at Toulon and Marseilles afford excellent 

 illustrations of my argument. Paris has not yet been attacked, while 

 all the regulations have failed to prevent the appearance of cholera at 

 Naples. No doubt inspection of ships is a good regulation as tending 

 to discover unhygienic conditions, but it is useless as preventing the 

 transmission of cholera. Inspection of places where cholera prevails, 

 the disinfection of articles coming from localities where cholera is, as 

 well also as the places where the dead are laid, are important matters, 

 but too much is not to be expected from these measures. The preva- 

 lence of contagious diseases like small-pox can not be much dimin- 

 ished by attempts to limit intercommunication. Protection from 

 small-pox by vaccination, which leaves human intercourse free, has been 

 followed by success. But we have not at our command a simple and 

 sovereign remedy by means of which the individual predisposition to 

 cholera may be done away with, and yet we can do something in this 

 direction. Everything which tends to lower the general health and 

 cause depression, but especially those conditions which induce diar- 

 rhoea, predisposes to cholera. To these matters every one must look 

 for himself, and his own efforts may be aided by the advice of doctors. 

 The organs of public health may also effect much. Medical treatment 

 should be obtained for the earliest cases of cholera and of diarrhoea. 

 Care must be taken by the authorities and by the community to take 

 measures for the treatment of the sick. But the difficult point in the 

 prevention of cholera is the predisposition in time and place. It is no 

 use urging, as the contagionists do, that we can not change the nature 

 of the soil. One of the established facts concerning epidemics of 

 cholera is the tendency of the disease to rage in those quarters where 

 the greatest filth prevails. All towns which have been provided with 

 good drainage and water-supply have lost their susceptibility to cholera. 

 England affords the best example of this fact. In 1849 there were 

 recorded 53,237 deaths from cholera, in 1854 the numbers were 20,097, 

 and in 1866 only 14,378, while from 1872 to 1874, when several epi- 

 demics prevailed on the Continent, cholera did not reach England. I 

 do not imagine that this immunity was due to the want of predisposi- 

 tion to cholera as regards conditions of time. The case of Fort Will- 



