ABOUT CHOLERA 245 



The version is Sir Theodore Martin's. Mephistopheles 

 might be a bacteriologist explaining the difficulty of 

 dealing with disease germs. In any case, it is the 

 Mephistophelian spirit of annihilation, and flame as its 

 instrument, which man brings to his service in the contest 

 with cholera germs. 



The great carriers of cholera are human beings them- 

 selves travelling in caravans, pilgrimages, shiploads. For 

 the fact has now been established that a man may harbour 

 inside him the cholera-bacillus without its multiplying 

 largely or rendering him seriously ill. Once it is brought 

 by such an individual into a favourable locality, it is 

 spread by water contaminated by him, and yet used for 

 drink and domestic purposes ; and also it is spread by his 

 touching things in which the bacillus can grow, such as 

 cooked food, fruits, etc., swallowed subsequently by un- 

 suspecting purchasers or employers. You have, in order 

 to avoid cholera (and similar infections), not only to have 

 very clean fingers yourself, but to see to it that your 

 servants' fingers are clean also, or else that anything they 

 touch is afterwards heated for a few minutes to near 

 boiling-point before you let it enter your mouth. A little 

 history illustrative of the need of this precaution is on 

 record. In Egypt during a recent outbreak of cholera 

 there was a very wealthy lady who lived alone in an 

 isolated palace under the charge of a physician. She 

 had a delicate appetite ; her food was most carefully 

 prepared. She drank and used only boiled sterilised 

 water; no one was allowed to approach her except her 

 servants, who never left the palace grounds, and were in 

 good health. She sickened of cholera and died. It was 

 a puzzle as to how she had acquired the infection. Her 

 physician at last discovered that she daily partook of cold 

 chicken-broth, prepared carefully by her cook. The cook, 

 though practically well, was found to be infected with the 



