On the origin, habits & diffusion of cholera and what may be done to prevent or arrest its progress and to mitigate its ravages / by Sir J. Fayrer.

  • Fayrer, Sir Joseph, 1824-1907.
Date:
1886
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the origin, habits & diffusion of cholera and what may be done to prevent or arrest its progress and to mitigate its ravages / by Sir J. Fayrer. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    admit the importance of, i.e., purity of drinking water. For my own part, I am unable to accept this theory as a sufficient explanation of all the facts and phenomena, and would seek the solution of the problem in causes of a wider and more general character, looking for prevention to sani- tary measures, and rejecting all others—especially of a coercive or oppressive character. Nevertheless, until con- tagion is absolutely disproved, I think the authorities are justified in adopting measures, which avoiding all oppres- sion and undue interference with personal liberty, take precautions against possible sources of infection, but at the same time give full effect to all known practical measures taught by the sanitary science of the present day. The evil results of the contagion theory have been mani- fested not only in the rigours and hardships of quarantine, whereby great suffering, much disease and incalculable damage to commercial interests have been effected, but in the general state of panic and demoralization which has deranged and degraded society generally. The state of the South of Europe during the recent cholera was pitiable, and the measures of fumigation, isolation, and general in- terference with personal liberty would have been ridiculous had they not been so pernicious. The same feeling still prevails in some parts of the world, and I quote an absurd example from the limes of January, 22, 1886. Two Japanese sailors died from cholera during the short journey from Kobe to Nagasaki. Their dead bodies were thrown overboard. The Japanese authorities immediately forbade fishing along the coast.— Sanitary Record. It would not be difficult to adduce others equally absurd. It is satisfactory to see that a considerable modification of these proceedings took place in Southern Europe during the latest manifestations of cholera last year; whether this be due to the conviction, forced upon people by recent events, of the futility of such proceedings, or to the im- pression made by the British and Indian delegates at the Roman Conference, in their emphatic declarations on the subject, I do not venture to say ; but we recognize the change with satisfaction, for it points to a more thorough reform .still, and gives hope that in time, methods which arc worthy of the dark ages will give place to those adopted here and in India. With reference to the question of the occurrence of the disease in the lower animals, Corrca observed it in animals