ST. PETERSBURG IN CHOLERA GRASP.

Evening Post, Volume LXXVI, Issue 108, 3 November 1908, Page 10

ST. PETERSBURG IN CHOLERA GRASP.

DRASTIC ACTION TAKEN. CONDITION -IN THE CITY'S .-MARKETS. St. Petersburg, wrote the correspondent of an American paper on 20th September, is in the grasp of Asiatic cholera, which already has exceeded in severity and numbers the visitation of 1893. The disease is increasing daily at an alarming rate, and unless the authorities show in the future a much greater degree of ability to cope with the situation than they have in the past, there is every reason to fear that ifc will get out of hand. The Government's threat to apply the provisions of martial law has driven the municipal officials to bend all their energies to clear the city of the scourge. The aldermanic council to-day voted 250,000 dollars to enlarge the hospital space, to purchase, and distribute disinfectants, the supply of which in St. Petersburg is well-nigh exhausted, and to expedite the interment of bodies, which has been notoriously slow. The morgues are overcrowded, and many corpses lie unburied. Under his authority as Prefect of St. Petersburg, General Dracheffsky prohibited tho sale of liquor throughout the city, including the Government vodka shops, until 22nd September, and he has further ordered that hereafter the sale of liquor shall be suspended at 2 p.m. on Saturday until 10 a.m. on Monday. Tjiis action has been taken in order to diminish alcoholic excesses, which very materially increase the liability to cholera infection and the general spread of the disease. SCHOOLS- BECOME HOSPITALS. A beginning was made to-day, when public schools were .transferred into hospital wards. A number of the grammar schools were closed and 4000 students were sent to their homes. The Department of War has opened stores to supply immediate needs, and aimy field-kitchens have been despatched to the poorer quarters to dispense free food. The situation assumes a graver aspect from the appearance to-day of a very virulent type of the disease in two oases, of which death followed within fifteen minutes of the first symptoms. ! As announced by the official bulletins, the cases numbered 349 "and the deaths ] 128 during the twenty-four hours between Friday noon and Saturday noon. This was a considerable decrease from the preceding day, but there is doubt of the accuracy of the official statement. The record for the same twenty-four hours, ascertained from official bulletin sources shows the actual number to have been far in excess of that. Whether or not, however, there was no actual decrease, the diseose resumed its inarch un Saturday, the statistics posted showing that from Saturday noon until Sunday noon there were 398 cases and 191 deaths, thib being the largest number so far. ALL TYPES PRESENT. All varieties of Asiatic cholera have now developed here, there being numerous cases: of the Algid type, which is accompanied by the greatest suffering. The Metropolitan of St. Petersbuig caused prayers for deliverance to be read throughout the diocese/ in which tho pestilence is described as a punishment for the people's lawlessness. Premier Stolypm has sharply reprimanded the municipal officials for 'the j appalling conditions. At Obuchof Hospital, which he visited, he found that ! three bathrooms were doing service for J 300 patients. The physicians were powerless to carry out the proper course of treatment-, and the mortality at this hospital has neen three fimes that of other hospitals. Three of the nurses at this institution were stricken with the disease yesterday,! making a total of nine nurses now under treatment for cholera. IN THE MARKETS. Practical^ nothing has been done up to the present to put the city's market places in a sanitary condition ; they are places of indescribable filth, with the atmosphere reeking with foul odours. One hundred carloads of fruit have been auctioned off and forwarded to Warsaw, Vilna, and other towns which the cholera has not invaded, and the possibility of infection from this source is very great. As a city St. Petersburg is woefully unsanitary and the dread disease finds here the condition most suitable for its propagation. It first made its appearance among the poor people herded in, wretched tenements, but it is now spreading to the better classes, and it has broken out in the barracks among the troops. The authorities had every warning of the coming disease, and the utter inability to take proper precautions to- prevent its spread has brought out a storm of indignant criticism. As an example of the inefficiency and negligence displayed it is sufficient to cite the fact thaE many cholera cases have been conveyed 1 to the hospital in city cabs, which are very numerous in, St. Petersburg, after which these cabs were permitted, without disinfection, to return to their work on the streets. Cholera was first reported this year about the end of July. In the eastern and northern districts the mortality was high. The disease spread rapiclly into the provinces along the Volga, down both coasts of the Caspian, and in the territory of the Don Cossacks ; in other words, in the Eastern and Northern districts of European Russia.. By the end of August there was an average of 1200 cases reported each week, with, a mortality rate of more than 50 per cent.