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Spain, they deem it desirable to bring under the attention of the
Sanitary Authority the Memorandum of the Board's Medical Officer,
on the precautions to be taken against the infection of Cholera, of which
copies were forwarded to the Sanitary Authority in July of last year.
The Board direct me to enclose a reprint of that Memorandum, and
to urge upon the Sanitary Authority the importance of their taking
such measures of precaution as the sanitary condition of their district
may demand.
I am, Sir, Your obedient Servant,
HUGH OWEN, Secretary.
To the Clerk to the Sanitary Authority.
PRECAUTIONS AGAINST THE INFECTION OF
CHOLERA.
1. The Order of the Local Government Board, of July 12, 1883,
now in force, gives certain special powers to the Sanitary Authorities
of the sea coast, enabling them to deal with any cases of Cholera
brought into port, so as to prevent as far as possible the spread of the
disease into the country. But as cases of Choleraic infection have
widely different degrees of severity, it is possible that some such cases
slightly affected, will, notwithstanding the vigilance of local Authorities,
be landed without particular notice in English sea-board towns,
whence they may advance to other, and perhaps inland, places.
2. Former experience of Cholera in England justifies a belief that
the presence of imported cases of the disease at various spots in the
country will not be capable of causing much injury to the population,
if the places receiving the infection have had the advantage of proper
sanitary administration; and, in order that all local populations may
make their self-defence as effective as they can, it will be well for
them to have regard to the present state of knowledge concerning the
mode in which epidemics of Cholera (at least in this country) are
produced.
3. Cholera in England shows itself so little contagious, in the sense
in which small-pox and scarlatina are commonly called contagious,
that, if reasonable care be taken where it is present, there is almost
no risk that the disease will spread to persons who nurse and otherwise
closely attend upon the sick. But Cholera has a certain peculiar
infectiveness of its own, which, where local conditions assist, can operate
with terrible force, and at considerable distances from the sick. It is
characteristic of Cholera (and as much so of the slight cases where
diarrhoea is the only symptom as of the disease in its more developed