THE CHOLERA SCOURGE.

Te Aroha News, Volume III, Issue 121, 26 September 1885, Page 3

THE CHOLERA SCOURGE.

Shocking Scenes in Spain. Madrid, August 22nd. —There were 444$ new cases of cholera and 1441 deaths repor ted throughout Spain yesterday. Returns from the populous Province of Navarre, however, are still incomplete. King Alfonso has donated £4.000 to the Granada cholera fund. The money was badly needed at that place. During the past twelve hours twentythree new cases of cholora and eleven deaths were reported in this city, and in the province outside of the city 100 hew cases and thirty, one deaths were reported. The condition of remains pitiable. Hundreds of people are attacked by the cholera in the streets nearly every day. There ai'e no doctors and no authorities to look after the victims, who often pass through their agonieß in the street and expire unattended in the gutters. Most of the uninfected populace have fled, and the few healthy citizens that remain are disheartened and apathetic. Corpses remain unooffined and unidentified. The very misery wrought by the plague has forced a resort of the desperate expedient of compelling soldiers and convicts to carry on. the work of removing from , the public ways and interring v the bodies of the, unknown dead. - ,-, _„.-* i , ' ' ; A .terrible incident connected with ,tbe cholera, epidemic is .reported from J3p.ajiL ;$. ..prjieet;, who had. .laboured < uZ&4o\£Bljyamong th,a prpl-

trate'd by the scourge hiriaeelf! * The'cUse&ifl passed through all its regular p4ag^Bt;|nd the priest apparently. died.< * The frjgh't6ne4 people who were* about him "made a hasty examination of the' body and placed it in a coffin, screwed down- the lid,andle£t it over night to be buried, the. next clay. <Wljen the bearers came in the morning to remove the body a fearful sight presented The coffin had been upset and ha&telfen from the table to the floor, andthe .body was twisted around and partially doubled up, showing that lit had been writtiinj^ra; mortal agony. The face was appalling, in its expression of hopeless horror, and the hands were bleeding. It is feared that many cases of premature burial may have occurred during the present epidemic in consequence of the great fright among thepeople, which causes them to get rid of the dead at the earliest possible moment. - r ' The cholera has for some time existed in I the gawl at Cartagena, but every effort: bai been made to suppress outside knowledge of the fact. Yesterday it leaked outthat, no less than 200 criminals imprisoned within the gaol were down with the scourge.* Ihe discovery produced a fearful panic, among the other convicts and they rose in revolt and made most desperate efforts to get away-f rom the prison. They were, how- ; •ver, tiiialy overpowered by the soldiery and compelled .to resume their quarters,. Several inmates of the gaol at Granada are alpo ill with cholera. • , I There is great excitement in Seville over I the Government proposal, to, abolish the power of local authorities during shp prev r alence of cholera, because of t»heir-ineffi; ciency in sanitation, and ip itself assume the direction of the cities' Jocal affairs. The populace are hostile to the doctors and averse to any interference in family affaire, and they strongly support the local authorities. A great crowd assembled in all the pubic places last evening to discuss the -icuation, and the civil guard was 1 called upon to disperse them. Travellers in many districts are quarantined five to twenty days, and undergo " great hardships, being lodged in barns, or in the open air, and suffering from lack of , food. Some villages are strictly cordoned. Trenches have been cut to stop travel on the roads, and villagers threaten strangers and compel them to leave. The Government has ordered the Governors of the provinces to suppress lazarettos, but the Governors are in many instances powerless to carry out the orders. - - -■ v. >< The press calls upon the Government and • higher classes to combine in .their efforts - to alleviate the' national calamity. The King and Queen have sent large donations to SiU-agossa and Granada. The epidemic is visiting all the fashionable seaside re- • sorts. At each place vi&ited a panic ensues, and the placB is deserted in forty-eight hours. The total number' of deaths' from cholera in Spain since the outbreak of the disease has been 72,347 out of a total of 187,565 cases. '

The Cholera in France. Paris. August 4. —The existence of cholera in Marseilles is now officially admitted. Horror prevails over the prospect of a repetition ot last year's experience. The cases of cholera here are mostly among the poor classes. The Portuguese Consul has succumbed to the disease. Minister Leejrande and Dr. Bronardel have arrived here to organise a system of sanitation. The municipal authorities have conferred with the foreign Consuls here respecting the establishment of quarantine. The local doctors are not yet agreed as to what place Marseilles may thank for thereturn of the plague. Some think it was imported from Tonquin. United States Consul Mason, at Marseilles, in a cablegram to the Secretary of Sfcate to-day says the cholera in that place is Afiatic and very fatal. The deaths number forty daily and the disease is spreading to the interior. Marseilles, August 23.—There was a marked decrease injthe cholera mortality for the last twenty-four hours, only twenty-six deaths being reported in the Pharo Hos piral. Eight patients died, 16 were admitted, 6 were discharged cured, and 88 remained under treatment. The cholera is assuming a form which the doctors are unablo to cope with. The victims die suddenly, without diarrhoaa vomiting. The patients feel a coldness which cannot be counteracted by the use of reactives, or even by the most violent friction. Two hours after death the body becomes black. Although the epidemic is not contagious, it is feared that 100 deaths daily will soon be recorded. Marseilles, August 27.—There was a sudden increase in the mortality of this city to-day, S5 deaths being reported, 43 of which were caused by cholera. A panic is hourly expected. Since the outbreak 6,000 persons have fled from the city. Marseilles, August 28.—There were twenty-eight deaths from cholera in this city to-day. At the Pharo Hospital four patients died, nine were admitted, six discharged cured and five remain under treatment, A hundred coffins have been sent from this city to Toulon, the supply at the latter place being short. Toulox, August 27.—Seventeen persons diod here yesterday from cholera. All the theatres here are closed and the hotels and shops are closing The people are despondent. Twelve new cases of cholera and six deaths from the disease were reported at Salon to day. Several deaths from cholera have occurred at Lancon, Cornillon, St. Chan, Chama?, Grona and Bonne. At Bonne a member of the Chamber of Deputies and the Mayor of the town have died of the disease. Toulon, August 28.—During the paSt twenty-four hours thirty-four deaths from cholera have been reported in this city.