122 



CHOLEEA, ASIATIC. 



selves. In Havana it raged with considerable 

 severity during the autumn and early winter, 

 several hundred deaths occurring from it. But 

 the most marked ravages of the disease on this 

 continent were in the Mississippi Valley and 

 the plains of Kansas and Nebraska. The 

 principal towns near the Gulf of Mexico were 

 visited by it, Pensacola, Mobile, 'and New Or- 

 leans, in particular reporting a very considerable 

 aggregate of deaths from it, though it was less 

 violent there than on former occasions. In Mo- 

 bile and New Orleans it was, a part of the 

 time, coexistent with yellow fever, beginning 

 before that disease, and continuing after it had 

 subsided. The entire number of deaths in 

 either city is not reported, but in New Or- 

 leans, from the 1st of August to the 24th 

 of November, there were 251 deaths from 

 Asiatic cholera. On the river ports of the 

 Mississippi, Natchez, Helena, and Memphis, 

 it raged with much greater comparative inten- 

 sity, in the latter city producing a very severe 

 mortality for several weeks. It also ascended 

 the Arkansas Eiver to Little Bock, and thence 

 to Fort Gibson and Fort Arbuckle. At Fort 

 Gibson it commenced in June, and there was 

 a mortality for several days of 25 per day in 

 that small population. It extended also among 

 the Cherokee and Creek Indians. In St. 

 Louis no deaths from Asiatic cholera were re- 

 ported, but during the months of August, Sep- 

 tember, and October, 851 from cholera morlus. 

 That most of these were genuine cholera, hardly 

 admits of a doubt. On the plains its ravages 

 were fora time frightful. It appeared about 

 the 1st of June in Fort Leavenworth, which 

 has always been a favorite seat of the malady, 

 having had eight epidemics of it since 1833. 

 From thence it extended to Forts Eiley and 

 Barker, and to the new town of Ellsworth, on 

 the Pacific Eailroad; and in all these places, 

 soldiers, army officers, railroad superintendents, 

 and laborers, died in great numbers from it. 

 There is much reason to apprehend that in the 

 spring and summer of 1868 it may appear with 

 great virulence on the Atlantic coast. 



On the EASTERN CONTINENT there have been 

 severe outbursts of the disease at various 

 points of Asia and Europe. Hurdwar, on the 

 southeastern boundary of the Punjab, in 

 Northern India, is one of the sacred places to 

 which in April of each year pilgrims resort in 

 large numbers, usually three or four hundred 

 thousand people ; and every twelfth year, from 

 one and a half to two millions. This twelfth 

 year came in 1865, and the frightful epidemic 

 which spread westward from thence, at that 

 time, is well known. But at each annual gath- 

 ering, of late years, cholera makes its appear- 

 ance, and is carried thence in all directions. 

 In April and May, 1867, it extended from 

 Hurdwar to Umballa, Lodiana, and Lahore, 

 Altock, and Peshawur, thence crossing the 

 western Himalaya to Cabul, Balk, and Bokhara, 

 and thence to Astrachan and Orenburg. In 

 the latter cities, the disease, having exhausted 



itself in its progress, found but few victims ; 

 but in the first part of its course every mile 

 was marked by hundreds and in some places 

 thousands of dead bodies. Other portions of 

 India were scourged with the pestilence, and 

 particularly the holy cities Gaya, Patna, Be- 

 nares, and Allahabad. 



In ETTKOPE, the cholera prevailed at Warsaw, 

 Poland, between June and August, and there 

 were bout 4,000 cases and 2,000 deaths. In 

 Rotterdam, Holland, there was an outbreak of 

 it in September, and for two or three weeks 

 there were 18 or 20 deaths daily. Zurich, 

 Switzerland, suffered severely from it, having 

 591 cases during the summer. It was brought 

 hither directly from Eome. Italy has again 

 been ravaged by it, there having been about 

 63,000 cases and 32,000 deaths from it on the 

 peninsula, and in Sicily (which escaped by a 

 rigid quarantine in 1866) 12,000 cases and 

 7,000 deaths in two weeks. The people, in 

 their ignorance, believed that the soldiers 

 through whom it had been introduced, and the 

 priests, were endeavoring to poison them, and 

 in several places they mobbed their supposed 

 enemies. 



Malta was also visited with the epidemic, as 

 was Tunis on the African coast. In Malta, 

 the first week in October, there were 140 

 cases and 90 deaths. In England and 

 France there has been no general epidemic. 

 In England, the little town of Pill, five miles 

 from Bristol, being densely crowded with sail- 

 ors and railroad laborers, and in a very bad 

 sanitary condition, was visited by cholera, with 

 great severity. The most active measures for 

 disinfection were immediately resorted to, and 

 in twelve days the disease was at an end. This 

 has been the result of prompt, thorougli, and 

 energetic disinfection in every case in which it 

 has been tried. 



A very ingenious and simple contrivance 

 for disinfecting night-pails, or vessels contain- 

 ing any of the excreta of cholera or any other 

 offensive matters, has been invented by a Mr. 

 Eankin, of Brooklyn, and is called the " Eeady 

 ' Disinfector." It is said to be simply a hollow 

 cover, capable of containing a considerable 

 quantity of liquid or powdered disinfectants, 

 which closes effectually the vessel, and by a 

 turn of the handle, without opening the vessel, 

 lets a sufficient quantity of the disinfectant drop 

 into it to completely destroy the offensive and 

 poisonous efHuvia, and thus permits no waste 

 of disinfectants. 



In regard to the treatment of the disease 

 there is not, perhaps, any greater uniformity 

 of views than in the past. Dr. Delfeau, an 

 eminent French physician of Collioure, France, 

 who has had large experience in cholera, gives 

 the following statement of his method, which 

 has at least the merit of being reasonable in its 

 theory. The indications, he says, are : 



1. Neutralize the morbid action of the cause upon 

 the blood. 



2. Excite the normal vitality of the vascular walls, 



