CHINA. 



CHOLERA, ASIATIC. 



107 



Hongkong authorities, in pnrticulnr, entered 

 upon a vigorous crusado against the pirates, and, 

 in September, executed a noted chief, Chat-tai. 

 An ordinance was passed enforcing tho registra- 

 tion :ui(l examination of native crat't frequenting 

 tho harbor, and tho gunboats were rigorous in 

 their search lor j.initieal craft. This greatly exas- 

 perated the pirates, who swore that they would 

 revenue tlie death of their leader on the crews. 

 That they were in earnest they soon showed 

 by killing the captain and several of the crew 

 of the American vessel Lubra, and planning the 

 death of all tho crew. The reason why no 

 greater progress is made in the suppression of 

 the evil is found in tho reiuissness of the local 

 authorities in tho Chinese ports, who cannot 

 bo induced to proceed against the pirates with 

 vigor. 



The progress made by Protestant and Cath- 

 olic missions produces great dissatisfaction 

 among a large class of the natives. In Pekin, 

 some ill-feeling was created by the erection of 

 a temple by the French missionaries at a spot 

 where it conld overlook the emperor's grounds. 

 They are said, however, to have allayed his an- 

 noyance by promising not to raise it sufficiently 

 high to overtop the palace wall. In Hoonan and 

 the adjacent provinces a proclamation was ex- 

 tensively posted, denouncing at length tho in- 

 terference with established customs, and calling 

 on all loyal subjects to rise and exterminate 

 tho missionaries. All foreigners are yclept 

 u English " by Chinese who have not learned 

 at a treaty port to distinguish between the 

 different nationalities ; so on the head of the 

 English by name are the thunders invoked. 

 An English writer is made to say: "We 

 come from a 'contemptible mud-bank in the 

 ocean, are ruled sometimes by a female and 

 sometimes by a male, and our specific charac- 

 ter is half man, half beast.' Allowed by tho 

 extreme kindness of the emperor to trade at 

 Canton, we have not been satisfied, but have 

 penetrated into every part of the empire, 'giv- 

 ing free course to our wild and insane imagina- 

 tions.' " This sweeping denunciation having 

 been delivered against the English i. ., for- 

 eigners generally the whole flood of the Chi- 

 nese writer's wrath is directed against mission- 

 aries: "Those who have come to propagate 

 religion, enticing and deluding the ignorant 

 masses; print and circulate depraved composi- 

 tions, daring, by their deceptive extravagancies, 

 to set loose the established bonds of society, 

 utterly regardless of all modesty. * * * 

 Although the adherents of tho religion only 

 worship Jesus, yet, being divided into the two 

 sects of Roman Catholics and Protestants, they 

 are continually railing at each other. * * * 

 Daughters in a family are not given in mar- 

 riage, but retained for the disposition of tho 

 bi-hop, thus ignoring the matrimonial relation." 

 A hundred other enormities are alleged against 

 these teachers of a new creed; and, in conclu- 

 eion, the "village elders" are exhorted to as- 

 semble the populations "that tho offenders 



may bo hurled beyond tho seas to take their 

 place with the strange things of creation. * * 

 Their country is fifteen thousand miles from 

 China, beyond a triple ocean. How cui. 

 life or death of men be overruled at a distance 

 of fifty thousand le across the ocean ? " 



CHOLERA, ASIATIC. This epidemic, which, 

 before the close of the year 1865, had committed 

 gijoat ravages in Europe and Northern Africa, 

 appeared in the United States during 1860, 

 aud caused great mortality in some of the West- 

 ern cities. It had, indeed, appeared at the New 

 York Quarantine on the ship Atlanta, in No- 

 vember, 1865, as stated in the ANNUAL CYCLO- 

 PAEDIA for 1865, and, as subsequently appeared, 

 had caused twenty-seven deaths at the Emi- 

 grants' Hospital on Ward's Island, but there 

 were no farther indications of its presence for 

 several months. Before proceediug to give a 

 detailed account of its ravages in tho United 

 States, we give the results of the deliberations 

 of tho International Cholera Conference, which, 

 in accordance with the call of the French min- 

 ister, held its sessions in Constantinople in the 

 spring of 1866. The members of this confer- 

 ence were twenty-three in number, twenty-ono 

 of them being the most eminent members of the 

 medical profession in the principal States of 

 Europe, and the other two diplomatists, who had 

 given long and profound consideration to tho 

 subject of cholera. Their report is too long to 

 find a place in this volume, but it closes with 

 the following conclusions, which contain the 

 result of their investigations, and in which they 

 concurred with almost entire unanimity : 



1. That the Asiatic cholera, which at different times 

 has run over the whole world, has its origin in Infiia, 

 where it had its birth, and where it exists perma- 

 nently as an endemic. 



2. That the Asiatic cholera, wherever it appears, is 

 never spontaneously developed, and has never been 

 observed as an endemic (care must be taken to dis- 

 tinguish secondary foci, more or less tenacious in 

 their character) in any of the countries which have 

 been enumerated (Europe, etc.), and that it has al- 

 ways come from abroad. 



3. That there are in India certain localities, com- 

 prised principally in the valley of the Ganges, where 

 cholera is endemic. 



4. That pilgrimages are in India the most powerful 

 of all the causes which tend to develop and propa- 

 gate cholera epidemics. 



5. That all these facts demonstrate conclusively 

 that cholera is propagated by man, and with a rapidi- 

 ty in proportion to the activity and rapidity of his 

 own movements. 



6. That the transmissibility of Asiatic cholera is an 

 incontestable verity, proved by facts which do not 



.admit of any other interpretation. 



7. That no fact has proved, up to the present time, 

 that cholera can propagate itself at a distance by tho 

 atmosphere alone, whatever may be its condition; 

 and that besides it is a law, without exception, that 

 never has an epidemic of cholera exteudea from one 

 point to another in a shorter time than was necessary 

 For man to carry it. 



8. That if all modes of conveyance from countries 

 affected with cholera are not likely to propagate the" 

 disease, it is none the less prudent, at present, to con- 

 sider all such means of conveyance as suspected. 



9. That man affected with cholera is himself tho 

 principal propagatiny agent of this diseuso, ai\d 



