Page:Science vol. 5.djvu/46

 [Voi_ v., No. 10]

��The second iliagrain pre.^etits it] a graphic mntiiier llie ciimparalive rale of lunrullty In Hmt out of the hospitals. From ll ve Hnd that the total number of deaths from cholera from Nov. 3 to Nov. 30 was 916, and that Hi of thvsii took place in ilie city nt Urge. We regret exceedingly ibal the lotal nitmlier of cases in llie city is iint at hand tor piiriiosea of ciimpariaon witii those ill Ibe hospital:!. The question of the ad- vantages of hospital troiitnient for such cases is still an open one in certain quartets, and may he settled In some measure by a study of this epidemic.

The conclusions to be drawn froin the charts are that the outbreak was not an extended one, ulthougli it was widely dilTused throughout the poorer parts of the city; that Its virulence, as a whole, was equal to that of otherii, the rate of mortality being fully up to the average; and that the recent atlvances in sani- tary science are not yet so thoroughly perfected and crystallized that their application to practical pur- poses produces a visible effect in the restraint of a pestilence, when occurrhig in a lai^ cily.

What niity be done in a small community which ta thoroughly under medical control is illiislraled by an account, by Mr. Glbert. of an outbreak of cholera at Yport, uear Havre.' This epidemic is as iiilercstliig and complete in its details as a laboratory experi- ment. The community la small and isolated, con- tnlns sixteen hundred inhabitants, and la out of the direct line of travel. The source of the disease was traced with precision to two sailors who reached the village Sept. 2B. One of them had had an attack of cholera at Ceite; and on the day after his arrival at Tport be soaked his soiled clothing, and hung it out to dry in front of his house, allowing the dirty water to niD along the street.

Prom this nidus the disease sLurteil, and there oc- curred forty-two cases with eighteen deatlu. Without following the account further, it will be Interesting to read Giberfsconciusions— justifiable, apparently, from the account which he gives. They are,—

1. That cholera was brought to Tport.

2. That It was brought by insufficiently disinfected clothing, soiled by cholera di-jecta,

3. That, after ttiia clothing was washetl. It became the agent of severe and raplil coiitami nation,

4. That the cholera was propagated, by means of contagion, from house to house, without Its being possible to attribute a single ca'e to the titnsporto- tlon of the specfiic germ by the air.

5. Tiiat the sanitary meaaurea taken, although Incomplete, Inasmuch as it was not possible to sepa- rate the sick from the well, were sufficient to Ktainp out the epidemic.

8. That the complete destruction of the cholera dejecta, and the disinfection or destruction of all ef- fects foiled by them, seem to lie sufficient to stamp out an epidemic of the disease, when it has not at- tained toil great proportions.

7. That contagion by the air (the common accepta- tion of the term} appears to be an error; for at Y|>orl three nuna and three phyaicians, or students in med- icine, lived for a month under the most favorable

��conditions for taking the disease by iliit channeL 1 They all escaped, with no (urtlier precautions thaa 1 taking their meals at a distance fruin the cholera J patients, and arolding the handling of nioisl i soiled clothing.

8. The question of water has no bearing in thia I ease, for the very good reason that the Yporlais never I drink any.

��^iV AMERICAN COMMUNE.

TiiEHE ia nt present a wide-spread Tecling, both nmong scliolara and men of affairs, that Ibe time lins eome for an abaodoDment of that economic melbod which consialed largely in verbal quibbles and scholaslic controversies about detiiiitions of concejjtions, and for a aub- Btitution in its place of a careful examination into tbc pbenomena of thia wonderful life of man in society which baa receivjcd ao little at- tention from science. The qiieation ia aekcd, " Why not aliidy economic phenomena as we study tbe phenomena of plant or animal life?" And aurely it seems as interesting and as im- ixtrtant toobaerve the social life of man as that of ants in nn ant-hill. It was with this convic- tion th.tt Dr. Shaw undertook the preparation of this little volume on Icaria ; and lie wat fully conscious of the fact tbat he was treating communism IVom a new stand-point, as is shows by tlieae words taken from the preface : —

" A great number of books and articles have been written in recent years. dlsPU"sinKS'K;iallam and com- munism in the abstract: ■. . and there would be no reason fur the present moiiugrapb if it also undertook to enter the Geld of general discuasion. Such Is mil lt> purpose or plan. Certainly the most common <l»- feet in the current literature of social and political questions confisla In the tendency to generalise too hastily. Ton little diligence Is &iven tosearcbins for the faclB of history, and to studying with minute at- tention the actual exiierlencpsof men. In the follow-

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��. miniature social and political o. ganiam; to show what are, in actual experience, the difficulties which a communistic society encounters; and to !-how by a series of pen-portrxlta what manner of men the enterprise has enlisted."

To piepare himself for his task. Dr. Shaw read the works of the French communist Cabeti the founder of leoria, the publications of other Icat'ians, and passed a week with them. This volume is. tben. a careful study, conducted in the spirit of modern science.

Icaria, with its romantic and interesting his- tory, is an example of pure communism, and ' as such has important lessons lo teacb.

BiiA«r i'h.l"-' n'pw Vort'ani! llDdunT^"p."p«lHai,:''"n>,

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