A STRANGE EPIDEMIC.

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume X, Issue 581, 18 November 1880, Page 1 (Supplement)

A STRANGE EPIDEMIC.

On the Bight of Tuesday, June 15, a remarkable epidemic fell upon several towns in Western Massachusetts, the " town of Adams suffering most severely. Out of a population of 6000, several hundred—variously estimated from 600 to over 1000— were prostrated by a disease resembling cholera morbus'. The symptoms were first dizziness, then great nausea, followed by vomiting and prolonged purging, and in some cases delirium. A belt of country two or three miles in "'idth and several miles long was -thus afflicted, beginning at the west, the whole number of victims being estimated at 1200 to 1500. No deaths are reported. The cause of the epidemic is not known, but seems most likely to have been atmospheric. For some time tlie weather had been dry and liot. A heavy local rain fell during the evening, and was followed by or attended with a sudden and great lowering of the temperature. A chilly fog hung over the belt of country by the disease, and a heavy ' swampy' odour and taste were in the air. The malady reached its climax in about twenty-four hours. I't was first suspected that tho water supply had been somehow poisoned, but many people who had not used the water were prostrated, while others who used it freely escaped. Adams has Hitherto been regarded as an exceptionally healthy town, and the surrounding country is high and wholesome. —' Scientific American,'