Notes on the origin, nature, prevention, and treatment of Asiatic cholera / by John C. Peters.

  • John Charles Peters
Date:
1867
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Notes on the origin, nature, prevention, and treatment of Asiatic cholera / by John C. Peters. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    41/256 page 23
    In this conviction, Captain Cloete is doubtless correct. Madras was unquestionably saved from an epidemic by the timely sanitaiy precautions observed at Conjeiveram. Of the particular caste of persons willing to do the scavengery necessary, none were to be found in the place, and they had to be forwarded from Madras, forty-five miles distant. This absence of the sweeper caste in Conjeiveram causes an accumulation of rubbish, house refuse, and excreta, to remain piled up in the yards, even of the wealthier classes, which alone is sufficient in a hot climate to breed disease. But even the scavengers did not bring back the disease to Madras. Mr. Kinsley says, in a report on these sanitary meas- ures : During the ten days of the festival the town remained free of cholera, and no cases occurred that year, although tra- dition says that ever since cholera was first known in India, it has never failed to make havoc among the Hindoo popvilation at this festival. So notoriously was, and is, this the case, that it is said people from distant places, before starting for this feast, take solemn leave of their friends in anticipation of their never returning. Similar precautions were observed in 1865 with a like favorable result, although the year was notoriously unhealthy. We are now prepared to point out the principal factors of an epidemic of cholera: Isi. An atmosphere impregnated with the products of fermenting human excrement is at once the most obvious and constant concomitant of the disease. 2d. An elevated temperature with a still, stagnant, and peculiarly oppressive condition of the atmosphere (more oppressive than the elevation of the thermometer can ac- count for). During almost all cholera epidemics the nights
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