CHOLERA IN COLOMBO.

Globe, Volume III, Issue 273, 27 April 1875, Page 3

CHOLERA IN COLOMBO.

{Ceylon Observer.) We are indebted for the following return to the acting principal civil medical officer. It reve&ls an alarming rate of increase in the number of persons affected as well as in the mortality during last month, and we regret to find that there is no appearance up to date of an abatement:—ln the Gravets of Colombo—January—2o cases reported and 16 deaths; February, 92 cases and 59 deaths; total, 112 cases and 76 deaths. The disease has evidently become epidemic in the more crowded parts of Slave Island, in and adjoining the Bazaar, and we yesterday heard a very bad account of the Grandpass district. It seems that the market there is nearly deserted, the people on the further side of the river being kept away by the news of the spread of the disease. It is

evident that the municipal officers and the Government medical officers will have to use their best endeavors to combat with the dire visitant for some time to come. The fall of rain, though in the end beneficial, may at first induce an increase of the evil; but there is no doubt that the cleansing of the streets, drains, and compounds in the districts affected or likely to be affected, the adoption of the dry earth system, and the supply of good drinking water to the people, are the best preventives against the continued spread of the disease. The removal of all patients affected to a comfortable hospital, as sanctioned by Government, ought to be carried out with the least possible delay. We trust the special effort now made to stop the spread of the disease and to stamp it out will be speedily crowned with success, and that for all time to come the Municipal Council will see to it that the allimportant work of scavenging is primarily and properly attended to. Whatever else is neglected or postponed, this work ought not to be intermitted for a single day or hour in a city situated as Colombo is, at so low a level and without a sufficient water supply. We regret to say that a case of cholera, which proved fatal, is reported to-day from Kandy.