GREAT EPIDEMICS ASIATIC CHOLERA. 393 



between Persia and Turkey, from Mount Ararat to the 

 Persian Gulf, the Ottoman Government keeps up vigilance 

 stations, which it turns into quarantines at need. Now 

 these posts, costly to the treasury, harassing to the in- 

 habitants, especially to the Persians, have hitherto been 

 powerless to keep the Ottoman territory safe from inva- 

 sions of cholera. This results from the fact that there is a 

 great number of nomad tribes on this frontier Koords, 

 Bactrians, and others who in summer drive their flocks to 

 pasture on the high table-lands of Persia, and in winter 

 come down toward the plains of Asia Minor. There is 

 thus kept up on this line a constant movement of migra- 

 tion which there is no possibility of subjecting to quaran- 

 tine regulations. Tholozan believes, with reason, that in 

 this quarter the measures proposed by the International 

 Conference could not be put in force. 



A more useful quarantine system is that which prevented 

 the spread in Egypt of that epidemic which raged in 1871 

 on the west coast of the Red Sea. A part of this country, 

 that in which Medina and Mecca are situated, was swept 

 by the cholera about the end of 1871. In view of the 

 danger threatening Egypt the moment the pilgrims should 

 return, the sanitary administration of that country resolved 

 at once that if necessary all intercourse by sea between 

 Hedjaz and Egypt should be stopped ; but, not finding the 

 danger urgent, it afterward modified this determination, 

 and ordered that all pilgrims returning from Mecca by 

 Egypt should first go and perform quarantine at El-Wedj, 

 a small port on the coast of Arabia, situated three hundred 

 and fifty miles from Suez, after which they might cross the 

 isthmus by canal without going into Egypt, or else undergo 

 another inspection at the station established for that pur- 

 pose at the Springs of Moses. A lazaretto under canvas 

 was then arranged at El- Wed j, under the direction of two 

 physicians. A special commission was stationed at Suez, 



