THE CHOLERA IN EGYPT,

Inangahua Times, Volume VIII, Issue 1291, 31 August 1883, Page 2

THE CHOLERA IN EGYPT,

There were 109 deaths from cholera at Oamietta on June 30th. The epidemic,, had appeared at Saniadood, a small town fifty nfiles to the westward, ou a branch of Uib Nile., Four deaths had occured there, but at the same timeit ? was officially, denied that any cases had occurred at Cairo up to July Ist. Gordons were ..there ordered to shoot all persous attempting to pass through the lines. A. number of deaths were reported on July 1, 141 being at Damietta, 14 at Mansurah, and. five at Port Said. The Spanish authorities have proclaimed vigorqus quarantine against all vessels leaving Egypt since June 22. On July 2, twelve deaths occurred at Mansurah and four at Sinvano. Traffic between Port Said and Syria had been prohibited. A panic prevailed at Jeddab. because of the expected arrival there of five steamers from India with pilgrams en route to Mecca. The Sanitary Council ordered that the population of Diamietta be remove from their dwellings, and scattered in tents. The infected quarter of the town was partly disinfected and partly burned ; 112 deaths in that place occurred the same day. The sariitary cordon here makes a circle of fiifteen miles. Sir William Uull, M.D., in a letter to Lord Granville on the 4th, expressed the belief that the cholera would be confined to Egypt. One hundred and eleven died at Damietta during the 24 hours ending 8 o'clock July 5, and 43 at Mansurah. Deaths also occurred among the soldiers forming the cordon. The British Government, on July sth, issued regulations for the inspection of vessels arriving from Egypt. The Lazaretto at Beyrout is crowded with fugitives from Egypt, so that the officers refused to admit any more. The Continential Press has discussed with great bitterness the responsibility of England for the presence of cholera : I — "For months the stench from Damietta had been experienced at a distance of ten miles, and the water supply for some time was putrid with the carcases of dead cattle. When the cholera appeared, the remedy applied was a cordon around the town, and the imprisonment of the inhabitants, but the rich bribed their way out, and the rest died at the rate of 120 a day." The abbattoirs of Alexandria are reported to be in a filthy condition, and extremely dangerous to health, On July 9th it was reported that provisions had given out at Damietta, and " the people were starving. A number of Europeans made an attempt to break the cordon around Damietta, and on July 9 several were shot and killed. The Khedive had made arrangements on the 9th for flight to Naples in case the disease increased its area. A number of Greeks foiled the Damietta cordon on the 10th, and escaped. Nobody is allowed to leave Mansurah, nor are provisions allowed to enter the town. People were dying from famine rather than cholera. Sir Chales Dilke stated in the House of Commons that it was not the intention of the Government to quarantine vessels coming from India and Egypt, and M. Challemel Lacour, French Minister, informed Lord Lyons that quarantine regulations would be enforced at all Frencli ports against vessels from England,! unless the Government adopted a closer sanitary policy. Egypt has distinctly refused Great Britain's offer of medical aid, as is learned from an Alexandria despatch of July 11. In connection with the appearance of the epidemic, Dr D. B. Jenkins, who claims the credit of having pi'edicted the present outbreak or cholera eleven years ago, contends in the Pall Mall Gazette of 11th July, that the disease which has i so periodically visited England is not Indian, but Arabian, in its origin. Indian cholera, he says, has uniformly been exhausted in Eussia and Germany, whereas Arabian, in every instance where I'-gypt has been attacked has been communicated to England. Dr Jenkins takes the gloomiest view of the present outbreak in Egjpt, predicting that, before the year closes, the disease will be making ravages in every quarter of the globe. On July 12, it was announced that the disease had appeared in Ziffc, in Chibin, 40 and 30 miles respectively from Cairo, and the British Government finally determined to send to Egypt a Surgeon-General who has had much expeiience in the treatment of cholera in India. Mr Leon Erasteur, a French chemist, at the same time offered to organise a mission to investigate the nature and origin of the present epidemic. The Hygienic Commission endorsed the scheme, and M. Pasteur applied to lord Granville to furnished him with facilities to carry it out. Three deaths occurred at Malta on July 13th. Since the outbreak at Mansurah eleven men and officers attached to the troops forming the cordon round the city died from the disease. The colonel and his staff took alarm at these deaths and fled. The colonel was arrested, and replaced by a British officer. Great excitement was caused in London on July 15 by the l-eport that several cases of cholera had occurred in the east end of the city. The panic at Alexandria was renewed on the 15th, and the people left the city in large numbers. At Cairo, on the same date, the cholera raged particularly in the Arabs' quarter. Sanitary Committee has endeavored to purify the place, and to isolate infected houses ; but if disease takes a firm hold, the probabilities are that it would be allowed to take its course, and that great precautions would only bo taken to check its pvogross. By Baker Pasha's

advice, cordons around infected districts have been abandoued as jiseless. Despatches from Cairo agree that the number of deaths there far exceed that gvviffii in the official report. Sixty are known to have occured on July 16th. t A despatch from Alexandria on July 16th, says that cholera is spreading generally throughout the country, and the Sanitary Commission had isolated the city. Several cases have developed at Palraa Majorca, and many families have fled to the mainland of Spain. The Spanish Government has appro priated 4,090,000 piestas to defray the cost of all possible measures to guard against the introduction Of the epidemic into Spain. The Egyptian Government finally, on* July 19th, accepted the offer of England to send twelve doctors to the infected districts. The disease is very sudden in its eliects, as people frequently fall dead in the streets. The deaths at Cairo really numbered 480 between 8 a.m. and 6 p.m. on Tuesday July 22nd. The general opinion is that unless the English authorities at once take the direction of affairs, there is no prospect of checking the epidemic. It was brought to light at Alexandria by a European Volunteer Committee that the canals which supply the crowded quarter, of jhe city with drinking water, communicated in the native cemetery with places used for washing corpses. The coffins in which victims are buried at Cairo are covered with only a few inches of earth, and the ! Minister of the Interior declined to in- j gist on deeper interment. All business and agricul ture is meanwhile suspended, the Customs receipts are decreasing very much, and two months 1 delay of legal judgments has been granted. While the rinderpest was at its worst in the interior, the natives continued to eat the diseased meat. The cholera had appeared at Damanhour. The epidemic broke out in Suez amung soldiers of the 42nd, recently arrived from Cairo. It is also reported that it had appeared among the soldiers in the Cairo cordon. The scene in that j city on the night of July 24 when the deaths for the preceding twelve hours numbered 248, is described as a most terrible one. It was impossible to walk lOl) yards without meeting a coffin or an ambulance. On the 26th the disease was shiftiug towards the more thickly populated quarters 'of the city.