292 Professor J. Bur don Sander soil [May 16, 



crossed the Caucasus for the first time, the only ground for the state- 

 ment being that in that year it jDrevailed at about the same time at 

 Tiflis and at Astrachan. In reality, cholera seems to Lave reached 

 Astrachan, not over the Caucasus, but by creeping along the Caspian 

 shores from Kesht, which was the first place invaded. In the Caspian, 

 as in India, it found a suitable soil in the deltas of the Terek and the 

 Volga, and finally ascended the Ural, as has been already noted, to 

 Orenburg. Beyond these limits cholera failed to penetrate further 

 into Europe either by the Mediterranean, the Black Sea, or the 

 Caspian, its disappearance in Syria and in Astrachan being simul- 

 taneous. There seems good reason for believing that it was entirely 

 absent for six years (1823 to 1829), but in August 1829 it reappeared 

 in Orenburg without its being possible to ascertain with any certainty 

 whence it came. All that can be asserted is, that it was at the same 

 time widely scattered over Central Asia, in Afghanistan, at Teheran, 

 at Khiva and Bokhara, as well as on the shores of the Caspian, and 

 that in consequence it was on this occasion believed to have rather 

 come by Central Asia than from Persia. 



In 1830, the year after the Orenburg epidemic, cholera made its 

 first great advance into Europe. In August of that year there were 

 destructive epidemics at Astrachan (where there is good reason for 

 believing that the cholera had wintered), at Zaritzin, at Saratov, at 

 Kasan, and finally at Penza — all, with the exception of the last, on 

 the Volga. A few weeks later it was at Taganrog, Kertch, Sebastopol, 

 Cherson and Odessa, and finally, in September 1830, began the 

 epidemic of Moscow, which was rendered memorable by the self- 

 sacrifice and devotion of the Eussian Emperor. In 1831 cholera 

 for the first time spread over Central Europe. Beyond the broad 

 fact that Eussia was first invaded, it is quite impossible to say how 

 this momentous result was brought about, as the reader may at once 

 satisfy himself by comparing the following dates, which are derived 

 from Dr. Peters' ' History of the Travels of Asiatic Cholera,' 

 published in the Eeports of the United States War Department : — 

 Moscow, September 1830 to March 1831 ; and in the latter year, 

 Petersburg, June ; Warsaw and Cracow, April ; Dantzic, March ; 

 Berlin, August; Hamburg, October. In October 1831 cholera 

 appeared at Sunderland and became epidemic there and in the 

 neighbouring towns, Newcastle, Gateshead, Shields ; but it was not 

 until a large number of persons had been attacked and died that it 

 was admitted to be Asiatic. There is evidence that during the 

 preceding summer the disease had been introduced into the port of 

 London, and had even spread among the maritime population ; but 

 notwithstanding that no special precautions apiear to have been 

 taken, London itself remained exempt until early in the spring of 

 1832. 



In tlie summer of that year it prevailed in most of the seaport 

 towns of England and Ireland, and was carried across the Atlantic 

 by Irish emigrants. For when, in June 1832, the disease broke out 



