We have learnt by the last arrivals from St. Petersburgh that one of
the most celebrated and intelligent of the physicians in the Russian
service has been employed in tracing the progress of the cholera, and
the inference at which he has arrived is, that the disease is
propagated exclusively by contagion, and not in any degree by
atmospherical influence. In the spring of 1830 it appeared at Corason,
the residence of Abbas Mirza, in Persia, where several of the Russian
mission died of it, and Prince Dolgonrowky, the minister, narrowly
escaped after a severe attack. In July it broke out in the Russian
province of Schirvan and Bacon; whence it found its way by land to
Tifflis, and by sea, from the port of Bacon to Astracan. In these
towns it made its appearance nearly at the same time, viz. about July
20th. No precautions were taken, and it extended rapidly throughout
Georgia, always following the course of the principal roads; and in no
instance did it appear in any village, or in houses, unless
individuals from the infected towns visited them. A Moravian village
almost in the immediate line of road, thus entirely escaped, while the
disease raged around it. Alarm having been excited at Bacon, many
persons fled along the Volga, and carried the disease with them, which
appeared at Jondayersk on the 22nd of July; at Krasnoyar on the 25th;
at Tzarilzin on the 6th of August; Donbooka and Saratoff on the 7th;
at Khvalnisk on the 19th; Novogorod on the 27th; Koshoma on the 3rd of
September; Yaroslaff 6th; and at Rybinsk on the 10th. In all these
places, the first victims were navigators of the Volga, or others
arrived from places where it already raged. A Cossack, sent to buy
food at Doubooka, on the Volga, died on 7th, after his return to
Katchalinskaia, on the Don; and thence the disease rapidly spread
through the Cossack villages.
The first deaths at Novitcherkask, the principal town of the Cossacks,
took place on the 18th of August; and at Tagonrog, September 9th.
From Saratoff multitudes of the inhabitants escaped again into Persia,
but the disease followed them, and it was carried to Moscow by a
student from Saratoff, whose servant had died on the road, and who was
himself the first victim in the Russian capital. All communication was
instantly cut off between the military school at Moscow and the rest
of the town; not one case of cholera occurred in the establishment. In
no instance was the propagation of the disease traceable to goods; it
was dependent on the actual presence of individuals labouring under
it. It never broke out after a quarantine of twenty-one days; and, in
the great majority of cases, the attack took place within a week after
exposure to the contagion.
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