CHAPTER XXIV. 

 ASIATIC CHOLERA. 



SPIRILLUM CHOLERA ASIATICS (Kocn*). 



General Characteristics. A motile, flagellated, non-sporogenous t 

 liquefying, non-chromogenic, non-aerogenic, parasitic and saprophytic, 

 pathogenic, aerobic and optionally anaerobic spirillum, staining by 

 ordinary methods, but not by Gram's method. 



Cholera is a disease endemic in certain parts of India 

 and probably indigenous in that country. Though early 

 mention of it was made in the letters of travelers, and though 

 it appeared in medical literature and in governmental 

 statistics more than a century ago, we find that little 

 attention was paid to the disease, except in its disastrous 

 effect upon the armies, native and European, of India and 

 adjacent countries. The opening up of India by Great 

 Britain in the last half century made scientific observation 

 of the disease possible and permitted us to determine the 

 relation its epidemics bear to the manners and customs 

 of the people. 



The filthy habits of the Oriental people, their poverty, 

 crowded condition, and peculiar religious customs, are all 

 found to aid in the distribution of the disease. Thus, the 

 city of Benares drains into the Ganges River by a mcst 

 imperfect system, which distributes the greater part of 

 the sewage immediately below the banks upon which the 

 city is built and along which are the numerous "Ghats" 

 or staircases by which the people reach the sacred waters. 

 It is a matter of religious observance for every zealot who 

 makes a pilgrimage to the " sacred city" to take a bath in 

 and drink a quantity of this sacred but polluted water, 

 and it may be imagined that the number of pious Hindoos 

 who leave Benares with "comma bacilli" in their intestines 

 or upon their clothes must be great, for there are few months 

 in the year when the city is exempt from cholera. 



* "Deutsche med. Wochenschrift," 1884-1885, Nos. 19, 20, 37, 38, 

 and 39. 



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