Commercial. No. 29 (1883). Despatch from Sir Edward Malet, inclosing a report by Surgeon-General Hunter on the cholera epidemic in Egypt.

  • Edward Malet
Date:
1883
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Commercial. No. 29 (1883). Despatch from Sir Edward Malet, inclosing a report by Surgeon-General Hunter on the cholera epidemic in Egypt. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service. The original may be consulted at London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service.

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    0-0215 gr., which gives for one litre (1215 gr., a result identical with that of experiment 14. Of experiment 16, that the water contains putrefying matter besides the infusorial vibriones, which are only observed in infusions. In fine: 1. The proportion of mineral substances contained in the water analyzed is normal, as it is only 0‘270 gr. to the litre; drinkable water may contain up to 0*500 gr. to the litre. 2. The water contains a great quantity of organic matter which is probably of animal origin, seeing that there is ammonia in the water. 3. It contains jiutrescent matter. 4. It contains infusorise, especially those of the order Vibrio, and fragments of vegetable substances. Prom what precedes, and seeing that one of the essential conditions for water to be fit to drink is that “it should be free from organic matter capable of putrefying,” I think that I may fairly conclude that the water submitted to examination is unfit for public use. (Signed) Ibrahim Mustapha. Alexandria, July 21, 1883. P.S.—The microscopic examination mentioned in this Report was made in the presence of Dr. Abbate Pasha. I. M. Annex No. 3. Sir, Suez, July 17, 1883. In reply to your letter of the 12tli instant, I have the honour to communicate] to you the following information :— The English steamer “Timor,” commanded by Mr. John Anderson, arrived at this port from Bombay on the 17th June last about 6 a.m., after a passage of seventeen days; she had a crew of thirty men and a mixed cargo; no business was transacted by the ship in this port. As soon as this steamer arrived I went on board as usual to transact the customary quarantine business; I asked the master for the bills of health which had been given him by the sanitary authorities where he had last touched, and I found the bills clean and in order, without any note. Purther, I asked the master if there had been any illness or any deaths on board during the voyage, and whether he had spoken, &c., any other ship at sea. On his replying in the negative, I asked the master to bring all the officers and crew before me, and I found them all in perfect health. When these formalities had been gone through I sent the steamer to Moses’ Wells for twenty-four hours of quarantine of observation, in accordance with the orders received from the Maritime Sanitary and Quarantine Board for vessels coming from Bombay. The next morning at the same hour, when the above-mentioned time of observa- tion had expired, the ship returned to this anchorage, and I went on board to order the ship to be disinfected; I then subjected all those on board to a strict medical examination, confronting them with the statements in the ship’s papers, and, finding them all in perfect health, I admitted the ahove-mentioned steamer to free pratique, after repeating my questions to the master, who gave favourable answers, and signed the bill. The same day at noon the steamer “ Timor ” entered the Canal, and it could not, therefore, have reached Port Said on the 18tli June, as Dr. Plood states in his Report to the Public Health and Sanitary Board, of which your Excellency sent me a copy; but the “ Timor ” reached Port Said on the 19th June at 4*30 p.m., as shown by the note sent to me at my request by the Suez Canal Company. Having thus shown the errors in the dates given by Dr. Plood in the information he furnished to the Board relative to the arrival of the above-mentioned steamer at Port Said, I take the opportunity of giving your Excellency some explanations in regard to the phrase of which Dr. Plood makes use in his Report, viz., “ Perhaps there were cases of cholera on board the * Timor ’ after she left Bombay.” On this subject I hasten to inform your Excellency that when I gave pratique to the steamer already mentioned, I not only verified the number of the crew by the declaration of the master, but without trusting to that I asked, as has always been done, for all the ship’s papers, amongst which I found the ship’s articles, and they agreed with the declaration made. [1523] O