SPIRILLUM CHOLERA ASIATICS . 471 



the one held. The localists throw aside all quarantine 

 regulations, all arrangements in order to afford protec- 

 tion against infection, and all disinfection ; on the other 

 hand they pay special attention to the diminution of 

 the y properties of the soil, of which the contamination 

 of the soil is that which is most easily avoided and 

 altered ; drainage, or a proper method of removing the 

 sewage, is supposed to lead to such a condition of the 

 soil that it is no longer suitable for the epidemic spread 

 of cholera. 



From the standpoint of the contagionists all the 

 measures discussed ahove which can protect the indi- 

 vidual from infection are of the first importance. Hence 

 the prevention of the introduction of the disease is the 

 first protection against an epidemic of cholera. As 

 cholera is generally brought to us over the sea from 

 India by patients suffering from the disease a strict 

 medical inspection of ships coming from India in the 

 Suez Canal is of immense importance. It is only in 

 sea-port towns that any good result can be hoped from 

 quarantine. If cholera has once broken out on the 

 Continent nothing more can be expected from quaran- 

 tine regulations. In that case each town must take 

 care above all that the first case of cholera is quickly 

 brought to the notice of the authorities, and is diagnosed 

 with certainty. The latter can be almost always done 

 by means of plate cultivations, and the sanitary autho- 

 rities must therefore know how to make them. A great 

 deal also depends on proper treatment of the first case 

 or cases. These should be nursed wherever possible in 

 hospitals, or at any rate by trained nurses ; the linen 

 and clothes of the patient should be disinfected with 

 steam in an institution for the purpose which should be 

 present in every town ; the dejecta should be rendered 

 innocuous, and all other suspicious substances should 

 be disinfected with carbolic acid, sublimate, or concen- 

 trated hydrochloric acid ; the sick-rooms are most 

 readily freed from infective germs by opening the 

 window, and shutting up and heating the room for 

 some days ; in this way the comma bacilli will be 



