On the channels through which cholera is communicable / By John Murray.

  • Murray, John, 1809-1898.
Date:
1873
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the channels through which cholera is communicable / By John Murray. 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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    the European troops in the Bengal Presidency, from the year 1814 up to the present date. The influence of season on cholera is here clearly demonstrated; and it cannot be considered accidental, as it includes a period of fifty-eight years, and a total strength of 1,095,549. The second line in the table shows the returns from the native troops since 1826, on a total strength of 3,930,546. The third line shows the re- turns from the native prisoners since 1854, on a total strength of 980,546; the fourth, the returns from the native population since 1867, on a total of 221,042,902. It will be observed that the season favour- able to the spread of the disease differs with the locality. In Bengal, and on the coast, the season is March, April, and May; whilst in the North-West Provinces and the Punjaub it is July, August, and Sep- tember. The influence of season is marked also in Madras and Bom- bay ; the period coincides more with the season in Lower Bengal than with that of the Upper Provinces, The vicinity of the sea may exert some influence. These separate divisions of the country show varia- tions in the season; but season has merely a modifying influence on the atmospheric channel. These tables are valuable, as showing its ex- tent; but they also indicate that there are other powerful influences bearing on the diftusion of the disease, as some of the most severe epi- demics in the Upper Provinces have occurred at the seasons which these tables indicate as almost exempt from cholera—viz., the great epidemics at Hurdwar in 1782 and 1867, which both broke out in April; and the attack in Lord Hastings's camp in Bundelcund, which commenced in November in 1817. I have also seen some sharp local attacks, and had reports of many others, during the cold season in the Upper Provinces—a time when these tables show an almost total absence of the disease. July, August, and September are the months in which cholera has raged most severely in London; but the attacks over the country are not so prescribed. As a general rule, the season for the disease in England and all temperate climates appears to be autumn, though instances of its spreading at other times are nu- merous. It is very probable that pure air has a disinfecting or purify- ing property. At any rate, articles that have been excluded from the air have retained their infecting power for weeks or months. This has been shown when people were attacked after examining boxes contain- ing the clothes of those who had suffered from cholera some time be- tore. The influence of certain impurities mixed with the air in in- creasing the multiplication and facilitating the dissemination of the poison is very marked, whilst others are supposed to restrain its action or destroy the poison. The admixture with the air of the gases pro- duced by animal and vegetable decomposition, evidently favours the development of cholera as much as plague, typhus fever, and other epi- demic diseases. Some even suppose that defective sanitary arrange- ments may induce cholera; but there is no proof of this, and I do not believe in the spontaneous production of specific disease. This is a point of great practical importance, as it shows the value of those pre- cautionary means which may be employed to intercept the communi- cation of the disease through those channels which we are now con- sidering. It is supposed by some that even discussing the contagious nature of cholera, far more authoritatively sanctioning such a view, would act injuriously on the public ; that the sick would be deserted, and panic increased. But this is far from my experience. Concealing the truth does no good ; and it is already the popular idea that the dis- ease comes from the sick person, and that there is danger in his vicinity. It creates confidence to be assured that, though the poison may be, and