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infected ports. Under such circumstances, one or more medical???
visitors would have to be appointed, as it would be impossible fo???
me to undertake the duty.
A few imported cases of Cholera (even should they occur) need
not give us any undue alarm, provided we take every precaution
as to isolation and disinfection.
Cholera has been defined as a filth disease brought by filthy???
people to filthy places. It is very slightly contagious from the sick ???
to the healthy; but when local conditions, such as overcrowding???
and faulty drainage exist, then this disease becomes most virulently
infective. Choleraic discharges, if thrown without previous thorough
j
disinfection into drains and cesspools, have the power of infecting
the whole of the excrement therein contained, and under these
circumstances the sewer gas given off by such drains in a leaky
condition becomes capable of communicating the disease to persons
breathing the air so fouled. The infective power of the Choleraic
discharges also attaches to soiled articles of clothing and bedding,
and if such articles are sent out to be washed without previous
disinfection, they may easily be the means of spreading the
disease.
If through carelessness any of the discharges from Cholera
patients get access to water or milk, the minutest trace seems to
have the power of rendering infective huge quantities of liquid,
and may thus easily be the means of spreading the disease to ?
numbers of people at considerable distances : this, undoubtedly,
was the way in which Cholera was spread in East London by the
Water Company in 1866; and it has been repeated in Hamburg
at the present time.
Over the water supply we have (in this district) no control; but
we can make sure that all cisterns are cleansed, and that all connections
between drinking water cisterns and closets or drains are
cut off. It is the safest plan to boil milk and drinking water.
All filth and refuse must be promptly removed, and no accumulation
permitted, drains must be examined, and all leaky and
defective pipes and traps replaced by sound ones.