A HISTORY OF CHOLERA EPIDEMICS.

Dunstan Times, Issue 1115, 14 September 1883, Page 3

A HISTORY OF CHOLERA EPIDEMICS.

j . Majl Gazette). ~ , It is idle, no doubt, to speculate at prcsotit upon the whence and! the whither of the epidemic of cholera reported from Egypb As becomes a place which lias experienced 16 attacks 1 of cholera (some of them very severe) within the last 50 years, Mecca, upon j the occurrence of an outbreak, ordinarily takes precedence among the gravely-suspected sources of disease. During the whole of last • summer cholera prevailed to ah unusual extern in Japan. There was also about the same time a very destructive epidemic raging in the Soulou and Phillipihe Archipelagoes. For the last 100 years or more cholera has been treated as an “ institution " of India, and the mortality bills there are on a largo scale. The last notable outbreak, in India was amongst an assemblage of pilgrims at AJlahabadiu January last year. Tfie first historical epidemic, so far 4s l?urQpe is CDiicemed, commoncqjd towards the close of 1829, Chbleria then reappeared iu Persia, and gaining a fooling in the Caucasian provinces, bordering upon the Caspian, it entered Russia in Europe. The capitals, old and new, and other parts of the great Empire came under the scourge. Grave alarm spread over Europe, where the dread disease had put itself in evidence for the first time. It passed from Russia to Austria, Hungary, and Germany, the victims in the latter country alone numbering more than 900,000. Upon October 26, 1831, it was brought in a ship from Germany to Sunderland; on February 6, 1832, it appeared in Edinburgh; and on February 13 in Rotberhithe and Limebouse, and on March 13 it was reported from Dublin, and during the year it prevailed extensively throughout almost the entire kingdom. The exact numbers are unknown, as there was then no registration of deaths, but the deaths of 52,547 persons wore reported through various sources to the’ Board of Health. Franco, Spain, and Italy afterwards got their iturn. Between , March and August 18,000 persons died of the disease in Paris, where, as in Hungary, the people being suspicious of occult poisoning, were “excited to madness and murder.” From France the cholera crossed the Atlantic, and spread through North and Central America. From Germany it had previously travelled into Turkey. A little while afterwards it presented ! itself in Arabia, Egypt, and the N ilo district, ■ and it was general | throughout North Africa in 1835. In 184 i a great epidemic broke out in India and. China, mid developing upon the lines of the former epidemic, it reached Europe in 1847, and, passing over the Continent', travelled to America ami the West Indies, there being 40,000 cases iu Jamaica iu 1850.- It was in October 1848, that the.first cases became known in England. On June 3, 1849, the deaths in Paris numbered 119. On June 11 the General Bi rrd of Health in England reported that since the latter end of March the disea o had broken out in 12 different parts of the metropolis, in 27 towns in England and Wales, and 17 towns in Scotland. Up to this time there had been in the country about 70"0 deaths out of 15,500 attacks. During the week ending September 15 the deaths in London were 3183, the ordinary average then being 1008. By order of the Queen the following day (Sunday), prayers were offered up in all the churches for the removal of the scourge. The number of deaths from cholera from June 17 to October -2 in London alone was 13,161, The sickness disappeared iu the middle of October. Out of a population of 17,564,636 in this country 53,293 died of cholera, and 18,887 of diarrhoea. .

England has experience of four epidemics of Asiatic cholera. The two remaining outbreaks of which we have to speak were much milder in character titan those already described. On September 4, 1853, .the disorder again broke -out with?great severity in Newcastle, and' North Shields and other adjoining towns sufferered greatly. In July, 1654, it again made its presence felt over the whole of the metropolis. The epidemic reached its height in the second week in September, almost on the same day that the epidemic of 1849 occasioned the highest mortality, Indeed, as Dr Sutherland reported to the general Board of Health, there was a remarkable similarity throughout in the progress and development (if both epidemics In the week end ing September 9, there were 2050 deaths from Cholera in London. The epidemic reached its maximum in nine weeks, but the mortality did not fall to that of the first week until 13 Weeks after the maximum period From July ■ 1 to December 16 the total mortality from Cholera in Lon don was 10,675, and from Diarrhoea 2601 ; while from typhus it was 1847. On the north side of the Thames there was one death to 353 inhabi-

tants; on the south side the proportion was ono to every 1013. During the A utumn the terrible disease appeared in many parts of the Kingdom and in some the epidemic was severely felt. It was in the September of this year that Lord Palmerston issued his famous rebuke to the Presbytery of Edinburgh, which had suggested a national fast. “ When man

Il.tH < lout; Ijis uijUUISb lot' Ills 0-Vll B iiaty,” sail] the Home Secretary, * then is the time to inv >lce the hissing of heaven to giv s off ut. to his exerts n.” In Jul» 1853 the alarming intelligence reached England time the cholera had appeared among our troops in the Crimea. llegiments were reduced to 3uQ or 40') sickly men. It took the Guards two marches to got over the 10 miles of grounds lying between Alladyn and Varna. Duri g an expedition to Kostendji nearly 3000 Frenchmen were swept away For two years the epidemic prevailed extensively on the Continent, 10,000 persons dying at, Naples, and it also spread with great virulence over ' orth and youth A merica. Ten years elapsed before the awful scourge again visited Europe. From June to July 1865 it had raged at Alexandria, and in August it was causing deaths at the rate of 2000 a day in Constantinople. The deaths in Constantinople had reached nearly 50,000 when the great lire on September 6, which destroyed 1500 houses, besides mosquis and other public buildings, pretty summarily closed the career of the epidemic. At this time, also, it was to bo found in Russia, Italy, Spain, and France, and Austria lost 10,000 lives. In April 1866 the cholera reached England, via Bristol and Liverpool; but tho number ot deaths, it was a great satistacdou to those persons who had been interesting themselves between epidemics in the pvo'raotion of sanitary reform to know, did not materially affect the returns of mortality for the whole kingdom for tho year In the London district, however, 5973 porsens died of cholera, and 3197 of diarrhoea, principally in the East End, In describing '• the catastrophe in which 4500 perished in East London,” Dr Farr hints not obscurely that it was very largely traceable to tho character of the water supply. Within a few weeks £70,000 was raised for the rofief of tho distress in London, the Queen subscribing £SOO. The close of tho year saw it extinct in London, but a longer time elapsed before it was banished from the Continent. Sinco then only isolated groups of cases have been reported in our quarter of the globe.