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Art. No. 2.
Abstract of Proceedings.
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Conference of Constantinople, having established facts which fairly,len.》》 to the inference that a theoretically perfect Quarantine is capable of arresting cholera, had conceived and adopted a scheme for applying Quarantine, which would keep cholera, as it was supposed, eventually out of Europe. This was to be done by maritime quarantine stations on the Red and Caspian Seas and Persian Gulf, and by land quarantine stations on the Turco-Persian and Russo-Persian frontiers, and ou the side of Boukhara. The scheme involved further complete temporary interruption (if necessary) of all communication between Egypt and any places in the basin of the Mediterranean. That Conference had also laid dowo general rules for quarantine (Régime Quarantenaire). Its scheme, as a general scheme, had never been put into execution, and indeed was in great part quite inexecutable; and it had this great defect, that it included no provision whatever for what, during the interval which had elapsed since the Conference had reported, had been the sole cause of anxiety with reference to cholers in Europe, viz., the spread of the disease in Europe itself.
The Conference of Vienna was not called upon specifically to review the several recommendations on Quarantine of the Conference of Constantinople, as it had been called on to review its conclusions on scientific matters; but certain broad general questions had been framed with the view of eliciting the opinion of the delegates assembled at Vienna as to the measures of restriction on the progress of cholera which were practicable, and likely to be efficacious, by land, by sea, or by river.
A-Land Quarantine.
The 12th question on the Programme was :-"Des établissements de quarantaine doivent-ils être construits sur terre contre le choléra ?" Unless this question were answered in the affirmative, the following one, the 13th on the Programine, which had reference to the details of such establishments, fell to the ground. A resolution was proposed answering it in the negative, and adopted by a majority of 13 delegations to 4; two delegations abstaining from voting. The terms of the resolution adopted set forth that, in view of the numerous modes of communication which existed and bercased from day to day, land quarantines were inexecutable and useless; and that on this account, and on account of the serious damage they did besides to commercial interests, they ought to be abolished, (Considérant que les quarantaines de terre sont inexécutables et inutiles, vu les nombreux moyens de communication qui angmentent de jour eu jour; considérant en outre qu'elles portent des atteintes graves Anx intérêts commerciaux, la Conférence rejette les quarantaines de terre). Up to a certain point there was absolute unanimity of opinion in the Conference, No one contended that laud quarantines on the continent of Europe, wherever a railway systera had been established, were practicable; but objection was taken to the universal condemnation of land quarantines which the resolution implied. This objection was represented in three degrees (if I may so say) by three amendments successively put and negatived. The one widest from the resolution was that formulated by M. Milossavlevitch, the delegate for Servia, which, commencing by a recognition of the general utility of quaran-
* The delegations which voted against this view were those of France, Greece, Portugal, and Servia. The delegations which abstained from voting were those of Luxenburg and Switzerland. If should be stated, however, that the delegations of Turkey, Egypt, and Spain had not up to this time taken their places in the Conference.
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AFP. No. 2.
tises, went on to say that, though land quarantines were not practicable in the centre of Europe, they ought to be established wherever topo- Abstract of graphical and social conditions admitted. This amendment received Proceedings. 4 votes against 13 negative; two delegations abstaining. The next, formulated by M. de King, delegate of France, was to the effect that the Conference was of opinion that land quarantines were in most cases impracticable, but that any States which deemed it possible to guard efficiently their land frontier by quarantines should have the liberty of doing so. This obtained 5 votes to 13 negative; one delegation only abstaining. The last amendment put, that of M. Orphanides, the dele- gate for Greece, proposed the maintenance of land quarantines in Greece and Turkey, on the ground that the reasons which called for the rejce- tion of such quarantines in Europe gezerally did not apply to those countries. This proposal equally obtained five votes only; but of the 13 delegations which had rejceted the former amendments, and which voted afterwards for the resolution originally proposed, eight abstained from voting on this amendment.* The effect was practically the same as though they had voted in the negative; an absolate majority of the delegations prescut being requisite for the adoption of any proposition,
* The exceptional circumstances of Creece were ably put to the Conference by M. Orphauides; but no statement whatever of sach circumstances was inade on behalf of Turkey (the Turkish delegation, it should be explained, had not then Arrived). On the other hand, the utter inexecutability and consequent inutility of the Turkish land quarantines were strongly stated by the Russian delegates, who, however, were amongst those who took to part in voting on this amendment. As M. Fauvel, one of the French delegation (who had not taken his place in the Con- ference at the time this question was discussed), has since insisted before the French Académie de Médecine on the practicability and value of these quarantines, it may not be amiss to add the following reliable description of them by Surgeon- Major W. H. Colvill, civil surgeon, Baghdal, who had himself heen subjected to them :-"On my way from England last autumn, to rejoin my appointment, by Russia and Persia, I had to spend 10 days in quarantine on the frontier at Rhaubin; and I can best give an idea of Turkish quarantine by trying to sketch what I saw. Khomikia is a town of about 2,000 inhabitants. Here the river Diayalah, crossed by a stone bridge, separates Turkey from Persia, auri at the "Persian end, a plot of ground, bounded on one side by a cunal, was marked out as "the quarantine camp, and here for two months before my arrival as many as 5,000 "travellers, Asiatic Russians, Afghans, and Persians, had at the same time been "encamped. Each company on coming in was supposed to pitch its tents a few feet "apart from the previous arrivals, though the people mixed freely together. I "arrived balf an hour before midnight, and the stench from dead quadrupeds and all manner of abominations was frightful; but that was not all, for if a person "were found dead from cholera his company had to begin the quarantine afresh, the "result being that no sooner was the breath out of the dying man than his friends "scraped a hole in the ground mudce the tent and pushed him in, white after them another company would arrive, pitch on the same ground, and probably do the In one case the friends were in such huery that they left the dead man's "beard protruding; the jackals care, and next morning his bare jawbones were "sticking through the ground. No account is kept of the arrivals, and no care "whatever is taken of the travellers, but that is no fault of the sanitary officers for **they have not the means
I was very much struck with the energy "and perseverance of the European officer here; but what could be do single- handed amongst 5,000, constantly coming and going, men from the north, not by any means in the best of temper, and whose language he could unt under- "stand? The provisions purchased through intermediates were dear. This camp, varying from 3.000 to 5,000, was simply a hot-bed of disease; while it did not 14 prevent cholera entering Turkey by that road, for it appeared at Kizil Bobat, a village of about 800 inhabitants, 16 miles on the way towards Baghdad, and for "10 days five to six people died daily; and yet this camp, behind the disease, was kept up for a couple of months after that, while no quarantine was established "between Kizil Robat and the interior, that is towards Baghdad."-(Transactiona of Medical and Physical Society of Bombay, N.S., No. xi. for 1871.)
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