Mr. Morris to Mr.
Seward
No. 120.]
Legation of the United States of
America,
Constantinople[, undated].
Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the
receipt of despatch No. 90. I regret to be obliged to state that the
cholera continues to extend its ravages, notwithstanding the efforts
making by the government to arrest its progress. Whatever may be the
opinion of medical men, it is evident that it is propagated by
contagion, as it fixed itself in the locality where the first deaths
from an Egyptian man-of-war took place, and has thence gradually
extended itself over the Christian quarter of Pera, and through
Stamboul, (Constantinople proper.) In the most infected region, Cassim
Pacha, where it originally broke out—a quarter inhabited chiefly by
workmen connected with the navy yard, and situated in a low valley
encompassed by high hills, with imperfect drainage—it has been very
fatal, having attacked almost the entire population. Such have been its
ravages there that the government has ordered all the large khans and
buildings occupied by many persons together to be vacated, and has
provided tents for them on the heights surrounding the city.
Had proper quarantine measures been taken at first, the introduction of
the cholera from Egypt might have been prevented. It seems to me, from
our experience here, that it will be advisable in the United States to
guard against it by the most rigid quarantine regulations. Otherwise, if
it once enters the country [Page 299] it
will be very fatal, in consequence of the great destitution prevailing
in Virginia and other of the ‘southern States, and of the diseases which
always follow in the train of war.
The published number of deaths per day is about 160, but they are known
to largely exceed that number. The whole number of deaths from the
origin of the disease to the present time is about 2,000. A great panic
prevails among the population, particularly the Christian portion of it,
and people are fleeing by thousands in every direction from the city. It
is to be hoped, however, that the sanitary measures adopted by the
government and pursued with great energy will have the effect sooner or
later to arrest the epidemic.
With great respect, your obedient servant,
Hon. William H. Seward, Secretary of Slate.
The cholera.
To the Editor of the Levant Herald:
Sir: During the prevalence of the cholera
morbus in the different ports of Turkey, any remarks that may tend
to the better knowledge of the mysterious disease and its
development may be acceptable, and I have, therefore, taken the
liberty of addressing you the following—the result of my
observations:
Cholera can be communicated—
1. By persons direct, who carry the seeds of the disease (or vitiated
air) with them.
2. By clothes or other articles used by the sick.
3. By infected vessels or lazarettos, which, though isolated, are too
near healthy towns, and these generating vitiated air, it soon
passes the imaginary boundaries of quarantine.
In proof of these assertions I may remark:
1. The cholera in the present instance was introduced into Arabia by
pilgrims from India, bringing with them the seeds of the disease. It
did not develop itself until the period of the Courbam-Baivam, when
the thousands of animals sacrificed, of every size, from a camel
downward, were left to putrefy; the effluvium, combined with the
ascent of the holy hill by the pilgrims bear-headed in a burning,
tropical sun, and the free use of all kinds of unwholesome fruits
and vegetables, was immediately succeeded by the outbreak of the
disease. At Djeddah it assumed a comparatively mild form, only ten
per cent, of the cases proving fatal. The pilgrims in their passage
through Egypt communicated the disease, which unfortunately proved
to be of a much more fatal type.
The cholera was also introduced into Turkey at the commencement of
the Crimean war by a French steamer with troops from Algiers. On her
arrival at Gallipoli it was whispered a few cases had occurred
during her voyage. The troops were, however, landed; in a few days
cholera raged, and the French lost upwards of 2,000 men from the
disease in this town alone. From Gallipoli the disease was
introduced into the French hospital at Abydos by a few patients
attacked with the malady sent from thence. Neatly the whole of the
other patients were shortly after taken with the cholera.
2. The disease from the Abydos hospital was communicated to the
Dardanelles. The first persons attacked were the washer-woman and
her daughter, who washed the dirty linen sent to them from the
hospital; they died, and the malady soon spread in the town.
3. During the present outbreak of cholera, the precaution of placing
in quarantine vessels and passengers from Alexandria has not
prevented the malady from spreading beyond the vessels and
boundaries of the lazarettos, as instanced as Constantinople,
Smyrna, and the Dardanelles, where it commenced chiefly in the
immediate neighborhood of the lazarettos. It is certain the Egyptian
frigate should never have been admitted into the vicinity of
Constantinople, nor the steamer from Alexandria allowed to anchor
near Smyrna or the Dardanelles, still less the passengers landed in
the different lazarettos. Security, as far as we can judge of this
mysterious malady, can only be attained by an early attention in
preventing vessels from infected places performing their quarantine
near healthy towns; for although the disease may not develop itself
with the same intensity in one place as another, owing to
atmospheric and other causes, still there is no doubt that cholera
can be communicated (when the vicinity is too close) through the
medium of the air, malgré quarantine and all its present
regulations. Some distant point should have been chosen for the
complete isolation of vessels coming from Alexandria, and there to
perform their quarantine; for instance, one of the numerous islands
of the Archipelago, far away from any of the thickly populated towns
in Turkey.
I am, &c.,
