650 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



which no infection shall be allowed to be exported. It is, how- 

 ever, idle to expect a Government such as that of Turkey sponta- 

 neously to undertake the task. The affair is too expensive to be 

 undertaken by a ruler to whom ready cash is worth more than 

 prospective suffering. Nor would his people support him in such 

 a crusade. To them Allah is great, and cholera is his will ; nor 

 perhaps does the evil seem to them so grievous as it does to us. 

 To those who have to suffer Turkish rule a little cholera now and 

 then may seem but a flea-bite. 



It seems probable that no single nation can effectually inter- 

 fere, although if any one nation could do so, it would be England 

 or Russia. The danger belongs, however, to Europe ; and if any- 

 thing is to be done, Europe collectively should take action with- 

 out delay, with the aim to cleanse the ports of the Red Sea, reor- 

 ganize Mecca and its greedy crew, and supervise the pilgrims in 

 all their course.* With the increasing care, and the increasing 

 intelligence with which that care is being exercised, in regard to 

 cholera in Europe, and with the facilities given by the telegraph 

 for watching the progress of cholera when it approaches via 

 Russia, and the growing willingness shown by that great state to 

 block the way when it invades her vast dominions, the Red Sea 

 remains the route from which Europe and America have most to 

 fear, and Mecca with its insanitary surroundings, its filthy rites, 

 its crowds of devotees, stands as the half-way house between Eu- 

 rope and the home of cholera. Can we not for once think of the 

 good of man rather than of nations ? With railways and steamers 

 linking us so closely in one family, we can no longer afford to 

 fold our arms and look with indifference even at the strange 



* There are many indications that such representations, made in a suitable manner and 

 by authoritative personages to the Sultan, would be warmly backed up, not only by his own 

 personal feelings and sentiments, but also by those of an enlightened and considerable por- 

 tion of his subjects. The Scotsman of January 6th says : " Queen Victoria having the largest 

 number of Mussulman subjects, the Government of Bombay was some years ago moved by 

 the hardships and mortality to which so many of them were exposed on the pilgrim voyage 

 to Mecca every year. A contract was accordingly made with Messrs. T. Cook and Sons, 

 under which the Hajjees are conveyed to and from the Red Sea ports in safety and comfort. 

 But that avails little if they are to perish from the filth of Mecca itself, and take from it 

 those cholera germs which they spread all over eastern Europe and Asia." Encouraged by 

 an article on the subject in the Nineteenth Century, written by Mr. Ernest Hart, the Moham- 

 medans of Madura, near Cape Comorm, have held a public meeting and memorialized his 

 Imperial Majesty the Sultan of Turkey " to adopt suitable measures for improving the sani- 

 tation of Mecca and other places of pilgrimage." They make the sensible suggestion that 

 every year during the Hajj the leading Hajjees from every country should meet and draw 

 up a report on the state of the city and shrine to the Sultan and ask for the needed reforms. 

 If the Sultan were not afraid of another war with the Shereef, who is the real master of 

 Mecca, he would insist on such a share of the pilgrim fees and offerings as would make 

 Mecca the healthiest place in his dominions. 



