290 NATURE AND LIFE. 



and travelers occasionally met some of them carrying one 

 or two hundred dead bodies. It is needless to say how 

 greatly these moving charnel-houses, by infecting the at- 

 mosphere, must have increased the energy of epidemic 

 manifestations. The International Conference urged upon 

 the Persian Government to prevent the extension of the 

 cholera-poison throughout its own territory by all possible 

 means. It insisted on effecting the suppression of customs 

 and practices which could only keep up the unhealthy state 

 of the country ; it demanded the formation of councils of 

 health commissioned to secure the carrying out of regula- 

 tions admitted to be indispensable to protect Persia itself, 

 and consequently to shield Europe against the attacks of 

 the scourge. Similar wishes had already been many times 

 expressed to the Shah of Persia by his physician, Tholozan. 

 In 1867 a formal edict of the prince forbade everywhere 

 transportation of bodies ; at the same time other sanitary 

 reforms were planned. The suggestions of the Conference, 

 therefore, could not have been otherwise than generally 

 well received by the government of Teheran ; but, if it made 

 no opposition itself, it has not been and it is not yet easy 

 for it to overcome that of the inhabitants. Not in a day, 

 especially among Eastern populations, can the suppression 

 of ancient customs be brought about, when they are bound 

 up with religious prejudices. The members of the Con- 

 ference seem not to have always given sufficient heed to 

 the difficulties of such an undertaking, and Tholozan urged 

 with much wisdom the need of using caution and modera- 

 tion. However that may be, Proust, physician of the Paris 

 hospitals, who was charged in 1869 with a mission to Rus- 

 sia and Persia, for the study of preventive measures against 

 cholera, could ascertain for himself the excellent inclina- 

 tion of the Persian administration. " Most of the measures 

 which the French Government would urge to have put in 

 practice," says Proust, " have already been begun upon by 



