Notes on the origin, nature, prevention, and treatment of Asiatic cholera / by John C. Peters.

  • Peters, John C. (John Charles), 1819-1893.
Date:
1867
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Notes on the origin, nature, prevention, and treatment of Asiatic cholera / by John C. Peters. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    and in this foul atmosphere the inhabitants of the town had to live, Avith an addition of two hundred thoiTsand strangers. The carts in which the pilgrims came to the feast became saturated with the poisonous atmosphere. The clothing of the poorer saints, tainted by prolonged wear, and the various contaminations likely to arise during an orgie of days, rendered each of the miserable dev- otees, upon his return to Madras, the possible nidus of future disease. Exhausted, weary of excitement, with all the sus- taiuing hope of religious zeal to support them gone, they hastened back to the presidency town, itself notorious for in- sufficient cleanhness, thus perilling the lives of all. In connection with the foregoing facts regarding the con- dition of a town, when the scene of a rehgious festival, we will next turn to the consideration of the effects left behind by bands of pilgrims traversing the land. Some of these come from the provinces of Upper and Central India, collect- ing from distant stations in bands more or less numerous, but sometimes amounting to thousands. Many of these, poor, ill- fed, and diseased, start on their tedious joiumey of some fifteen hundred to two thousand miles. The miserable caravan slowty wends its way, which, for obvious reasons, is that of the grand trunk roads of Southern India. Visiting the sacred shrines of Trichinopoly, weary and exhausted, they still pass on, till at length their courage is revived by the longed-for sight of the sacred island of Ramieseweram ; for visits to this island, and bathing in the sacred waters, where the two seas mingle, are supposed to free from sin and give a passport to immortality. This belief explains the strong motive that impels aU these pilgrims, who, so long as their religion lasts, will continue to flock to Ramieseweram, and to bo a conslant source of disease, 2*