One hundred years ago
RUSSIA is threatened with another ter- rible calamity, — an outbreak of cholera, which is officially admitted to be spreading itself from Meshed, through the Khanates, southward into the Caucasian provinces. Great efforts are made to keep it out of Southern Russia; but quarantine and preventive cordons are always ineffectual, as they only stop the sick too late, and never stop infected water; and if the pesti- lence reaches the Volga, the conse- quences among the famine-stricken peasantry may be frightful. It is not probable that the disease will reach Western Europe this year, and, as we have argued elsewhere, there is no occa- sion for panic, especially as the sanitary conditions here have been infinitely improved. Travellers in Eastern Europe will, however, do well not to drink unboiled water, and to avoid places known to be unhealthy. We must all die, and we hardly know why a rapid disor- der like cholera is so dreaded; but even in India, where it is endemic, an "out- burst" appals the Europeans — though there is, we believe, no recorded panic — perhaps through a latent sense that the disease, if it strikes the house, may leave some one inmate alone, suddenly isolated among mankind. We doubt if cholera picks it victims, or if any precau- tion, except a total avoidance of infect- ed water and food which may be rotten, is of any avail whatever. Pluck is the grand prophylactic, and healthy diet the next best.
The Spectator 2 July 1892
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