Report of the committee appointed by His Excellency the governor, to inquire into and report upon the probable cause or causes of the recent outbreak of cholera in the island of Mauritius in March 1856.

  • Mauritius.
Date:
MDCCCLVII [1857]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report of the committee appointed by His Excellency the governor, to inquire into and report upon the probable cause or causes of the recent outbreak of cholera in the island of Mauritius in March 1856. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by King’s College London. The original may be consulted at King’s College London.

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    The conditions most favorable to health, in all cases, are an average degree of pressure, temperature, and humidity. A departure from these conditions at once tells upon the public health in a degree proportional to the amount of departure. Thus we see that in the country at large, in obedience to the laws of climate, an equal degree of health is not always to be enjoyed, nor an equal degree of mortality to be expected. The meteorological phenomena in relation to Cholera in the P. 116, 117. year 1832 furnish us with the means of comparison with the phe- nomena of 1849 and 1854, in relation to the general pressure of the atmosphere, temperature of the air, direction of the wind, fall of rain, clear- ness of sky, and frequency of electrical disturbances, but do not furnish other par- ticulars. In the year 1854 the pressure of the atmosphere was great, the temperature generally high At the time of the great- est mortality from Cholera the barometer reading was remarkably high, and the temperature above its average Weak positive electricity ; no rain. An absence of Ozone, and no electricity. The three epidemics were attended with a particular state of atmosphere During the height of the epidemic, in all cases, the reading of the barometer was remarkably high, and the atmosphere thick. In 1849 and 1854 the temperature was above its average , In places near the river, a deficiency of electricity, and, as shown in 1854, a total absence of Ozone, most probably destroyed by the decomposition of the organic matter with which the air in these situations is strongly charged. In 1849 and 1854 the first decline of the disease was marked by a decrease in the readings of the barometer, and in the temperature of the air and water. The co-existence of Cholera with coincident meteorological phe- P. 117. nomena, is, to say the least of it, remarkable ; so is the stagnant atmosphere prevalent during the time of Cholera in each of the three periods, and which would seem to be a necessary condition to the activity of the disease. What other causes are combined with those of meteorology to P. 117. aid the progress of this formidable epidemic, have yet to be ascer- tained. On hearing of the late fearful outburst of Cholera, the question P. 161. which we heard asked on all sides, and which naturally suggests itself to every inquiring mind, is What is the cause ? The very Importance of the question makes us difiident in replying to it, nor could we receive any satisfactory answer to it from the Medical practitioners,or from the more intelligent of the inhabitants in the District. The sewers—the air—the water, &c.—were each assigned as the cause, more particularly the sewers. For our- selves we have no new theory to oiFer. We are inclined to believe that there ex- isted a peculiar condition of the atmosphere, which has been called choleraic, wherein the exhalations from sewers, impure water, bad house drainage, overcrowd- ing, intemperance, fear, may operate on individuals so as to produce the disease ; nor can we call to mind an instance in which the sufferer had not been exposed to the action of some of those circumstances which, during the prevalence of epidem- ics, act as fuel on fire. ThuslJ as the poisonous emanations rose from the sewers, they 161, remained suspended in the immediately surrounding atmosphere, which was remarked at the time to hare little or no horizotttal