PROGRESS OF THE CHOLERA IN EGYPT.

Timaru Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 2779, 20 August 1883, Page 3

PROGRESS OF THE CHOLERA IN EGYPT.

There were one hundred and nine deaths from cholera at Damietta, Egypt, on Juns 30th. The epidemic bad appeared at Saroarood, a email town fifty miles to the west-

ward, on a branch of the Nile. Four deaths had occurred there. At the same time it was officially denied that any cases had ooenrred at Cairo up to July Ist. The cordons were ordered to shoot all persons attempting to pass through the lines. The number of deaths reported on July Ist waa 141 at Damietta, 14 at Mamurab, ani 5 at Fort Said.

The Bpaniah authorities hare proclaimed a vigorous quarantine against all vessels leaving Egypt since June 22nd.

On July 2nd twelve deaths occurred at Mansurab, and four »t Sunvam.

The traffic between Port Said and Syria had been prohibited, and a panic prevailed at Jeddah because of the expected arrival there of five steamers from India with pilgrims en route to Mecca.

The Sanitary Council has ordered that the population of Damietta be removed from their dwellings and scattered m tentt. The infected quarter of the town was partly disinfected and partly burnt. 112 deaths occurred m that place on the same day. The sanitary cordon there marks a cirole of fifteen miles.

Sir Win. Gull, M.D., m a letter to Lord Granville on the 4th, expressed a belief that the cholera would be confined to Egypt.

One hundred and eleven persons died at Damietta during the 24 hours ended 8 o'clock July sth, and forty- three at Mansurah. Deaths had occurred among soldiers forming the cordon.

The British Government, on July 6th, issued regulations for the inspection of vessels arriving from Egypt. The disease reached Alexandria on July 6th, when one death eccurred. At the same date the mortality at Damietta wai 109 for 21 hours.

The lazaretto at Bfyrout was crowded with fugitives from Egypt, bo that the officers refused to admit any more.

Despatches of July 7th say the Continental Press had disguised with great bitterness the responsibility of England for the presence of cholera. For months the stench from Damietta had been experienced at a distance of ten miles, and the water supply for some lime was putrid with the carcases of dead cattle. When cholera appeared, the remedy applied was a cordon around the town and the imprisonment of the inhabitants, many of which bribed their way out, and the rest died at the rate of 120 a day. The abattoirs of Alexandria are reported to be m a filthy condition and extremely dangerous to health.

On July 9th it was reported provisions had given out at Damietla and tho people were starving. A number of Europeans made an attempt to break the cordon around Damietta, and several were shot and killed. The Khedive had made arrangements on the 9th for his flight to Naples, m ease the diseaie increased its area.

A despatch from Hong Kong, dated July 9th, says cholera had broken out at Jawatoa and was raging violently.

A number of Greeks forced the Damietta cordon on the 10th and escaped. Nobody i 8 allowed to leave Mansurah nor are proviiiona allowed to enter the town. The people were dying from famine rather than cholera. According to a despatch of the 10th, Sir Chas. Dilke had said it was not the intention of the Government to quarantine vessels coming from India and Egypt, and M. Lacour, the French Minister, informed Lord Lyons quarantine regulations would be enforced at all Frenoh ports against vessels from England, unless the Government adopted a closer s»nitary policy. Egypt baa distinctly refused Great Britain's offer of medical aid, as is learned by an Alexandrian despatch of the 11th. In connection with the appearance of the epidemic, Dr B. Jenkins, who claims the credit of having predicted the present outbreak of cholera eleven years ago, contends iv the Pall Mall Gazette of the llth July that the disease which has periodically visited England i» cot Indian but Arabian m its origin. Indian cholera, he says, has uniformly been exhausted m Bussia and Germany, whereas Arabian, m every instance where Egypt has been attacked, has been communicated to England. Dr Jenkins takes a gloomy view of the present outbreak m Egypt, predicting that before the year closes the disease will be making rnvagos m every quarter of the globe. On July 12lh it .was announced the disease had appeared at Zieft and Chihin, forty and thirty miles respectively from Cairo, and the British Government finally determined to send to Egypt the Surgeon-General, who hat had much experience m the treatment of the cholera m India. M, Leon Pasteur, a French chemist, at the tame time offered to organifo a mission to investigate the nature and origin of the present epidemic. The Hygienic Commission endorsed the soheme, and' Pasteur had applied

to Lord Granvills to furnish him with facilities to carry it out. Three deaths occurred at Malta on Ju'y

Since the outbreak of cholera at Mnnsurah eleven men and officers attached to the troops forming the cordon around that oity have died fr>m tho disease. The colonel and his staff took alarm at these deaths and fled. Tho colonel was arretted and replaced by a British officer.

In Canada quarantine waa declared against Mediterranean ports on July 14th. Great exoitement was caused m London on July 15th, by a report that several caies of cholera had'occurred m the east end of that city. The panic at Alexandria was renewed on the 15tb, and the people left th» city m large numbers. At Cairo on tho tamo date, cholera raged, particularly m tho Arab quarter. Tho Sanitary Committee endeavored to purify tho place and to isolate the infected houses, but if tho disease takes a firm hold, the probabilities were it would be allowed to take its course, and that great precautions will only be taken to check its progress. By Baker Pasha's advice, the cordons around the infected districts were abandoned as useless. Despatches from Cairo agree that the number of deaths there far exceeded that given m the offioinl reports. Sixty are known to have occurred m one day.

A despatch from Alexandria, dated July 16th, stated the cholera was spreading generally throughout the country, and the Sanitary Commission lml hadtoieolalethecity named. A despatch from Marseilles, dated July 16th, says several cases had developed at Pal ma, m Majorca, and many families had fled to the mainland of Spain. Tho Spanish Government had appropriated 400,000 pestas to defray the cost of all possible measures to guard against the introduction of the epidemic The Egyptian Government finally, on July 19th, accepted the offer of England to send twelve doctors to the infected districts.

The Sanitary Commission decided on the 22nd that all passengers leaving Egypt mußt undergo medicel examination. At that time the disease) was spreading everywhere m the country, and the mortality was increasing hourly, northward as well as southward. The disease is very sudden m its effects, as people frequently fall dead m the streets. The deaths at Cairo really numbered 480 between 8 a.m. and 6 p.m. on Sunday, July 22nd.

The general opinion is that unless the English authorities tike the direction of affairs there ia no prospect of checking t'io epidemic. It was brought to light at Alexandria on the 21st by an European Volunteer Committee that the canal which supplies a quarter of the city with drinking wa'er, communicatod m the native cemetery with places used for washing corpses. Tho coffins m which the natives are buried at Cairo are covered with only a few inches of earth, and the Ministry have declined to insist on deeper interment.

A Post despatch from Alexandria, dated July 23rd, was to tho effect that all business and agriculture was suspended. The Customs receipts were decreasing, and two months' delay m legal judgments had been granted. In the interior the rinderpest was worse, and the natives coulJ not eat the diseased mea'.

The epidemic broke out m Suez among the soldiers of the 42nd Regiment, recently arrived from Cairo, on July 23rd. Two members had died at that date. It was reported that oholora bad also appearod among the soldiers m Cairo.

The scene m Cairo on the night of July 24th, when tbe deaths of the preceding twelve hours had been 243 is considered as most terrible. It was impossible to walk one hundred yards without meeting a coffin or an ambulance.

On. the 26ib, the cholera wa» shifting towarda the more thickly populated quarters of Cairo.

The latest from London, dated July 26th, cays a case of sickneaa, supposed to be cholera, had been discovered m London docka, and another m Wales, and proper precautions would be taken m connection with each case. Forty member* of the Army Hospital corps have been ordered to Egypt. The Khedive having been attacked by a slight sore throat, a false report was spread that he had been seized by cholera. The number of deaths reported m Cairo has been 2611, at Ghizeh 58. Chibin 47, MebalU 20, Tantah 30, Mansurah 12. Km nil 27, and Hnme«e\ 11.

Mr Cross, Under Secretary for India, stated m the House of Commons on the 261h,

that 1161 deaths had occurred from cholera m the Bombay Provinces during the first week ia Juae.

The Secretary of tho United Btates Treasury, cabled to the American Consul-General at London, and the Consul at Liverpool on July 23rd, to appoint at once a sanitary insp-ctor, whose dnty it shall be to inspect b!1 v«isels leaving the United Kingdom for the United State*, and to notify by cable to the health authorities m America any such vessels having disease on the voyage. This action was taken m consequence of a rumor which reached Washington that cholera had appeared m tho London Docks.