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Show I T SferieTheSagM?poois of India i I : -otaSBS ! t i J 1 Medical Science Finds a mt Delicate Task in Regulating the H Hindu Fanatics Who Overcrowd H , Sacred Bathing Pools of the I JBii;er Ganges, and in Disinfect - I iiiflr fie Pious Mohammedan 1 Pilgrims from Mecca J PPICIALfl of the British Empire are 11 I 1 unitli a it ill cl an up feL the plague spots of India and the Orient generally, hitherto protected by I religious sentiment and associations KIT This ia one of the results of recent events H which bare brought many ni"ii of civilized nations in contact the myaterjoua sacred plague spots of the East and tin pressed these men with the urgent neces-slty neces-slty of cleaning them up R Cholera, plague and "Spanish influenza," LJ to mention oniy three out of many diseases, H arc constamly prevalent in certain local! Ifl tics of the Orient, and from these places they are from time to time spread out over Ihe whole world, causing Immense mor- j H "The epidemic homo of cholera," says H the London Lanret in a recent Issue, "Is H universally believed to lie in Lower Bengal Bj in the Sundarbans and the delta of the Lj Ganges. The problem of the eradication M of this disease, therefore, is not eompll- Hj cated by uncertainty as to Its place of I a oricin Tin- large size of the area in ques- H tlon, the engineering difficulties and the H cost with no direct financial profit, of Jf draining and 'sanitating' this vast region H all stand In the way of a radical solution I of the cholera problem. But these are not Insuperable difficulties. In a world awake I to the blessings of health can any cost be I deemed too great or nny obstacles be I thought Insuperable where the saving of millions of human lives and the prevention I of Incalculable suffering will be the re-l re-l wards of success?'' In attempting to clean up the plaguo j spots alone the Ganges River the British lg authorities will be Interfering with the mf most sacred localities of the Hindu religion The Ganges la the "Holy River" of that I religion. Merely to spend one's life In con-I con-I tomplatlon It Is called "yoga" of this stream Is the highest possible act of deyo-I deyo-I tlon Children and sick and old persons I have been left to die on its banks because I their relatives believed that was the surest I way of making them happy. Sometimes I the crocodiles come and swallow up the I abandoned ones they, too. are sacred. I At many places along the river there I are great bathing places, sacred to various I divinities of this complicated religion. In H some instances there are steps In the bank down which the pilgrims can go to lava themselves In the sacred waters At other places a pool is constructed near the river which supplies its water through a canal. At certain festivals and great anniversaries anniver-saries of the religion a many as a hundred hun-dred thousand per sons pass throng! rv-T one of these bath y-'-k ing places a day At L Benares, the won- fe &$3f derfully beautiful C u SPT Vjfc chief ho!y city of ; T i as the Mahamakan tank. Here over .'--00 pilgrim 'flH bathe at certain X. festivals, and the water is to say the ntmitS?rihow H.,Cat!? Are Wash sanctified It may While Pious Devotee be Bathe in the Sacred but into these .acred Fijthy River Ganges. bathing places the 6 pious pilgrims plunge without the slightest regard for health or cleanliness. Often diseased, covered with sweat and insects, suffering from sore eyes and other afflictions, afflic-tions, they rush in until the tank is nothing noth-ing but a wriggling mass of black humanity. human-ity. The religious fervor that Inspires them makes them feel that the experience has benefited them enormously. .Many of these pilgrims are walking cases of Asiatic cholera or some other disease dis-ease that is prevalent in Asia. The germs are distributed throughout the whole assembly, as-sembly, and they carry them home or die on the way, and in either case distribute the seeds of disease in various parts ol eass I the world. Many of them return to sea- Thei i ports and there they come in contact with jn lnd sailors, who are likely to carry the dls- stream , n ' ImX 'v. jSr"ft - -V ' , 5 $3.. 'i - tr-- ' r . ! .... , . -. & . . A Hindu Fanatic Taking a High Jump Into the Kiver Ganges, Which Would Be Fatal to Most Men, but Which He Believes Will Assure Him the Deepest Blessing of the Sacred Stream. to Europe and America. 000 Mohammedans In the countrv wnc e are upward of joo.ooo.000 Hindus have their own sacred places of pilgrim la to whom the flanges is h aered age and aid in the work of spreading h . There are also more than 60,000,- feclion. c.) in-;n ini, m i.r ; c. ,., ,. ... t, ... ,: 1 Hindu Devotees Swarming Into the Sacred River Ganges at Benares, Which They Believe Will Give Them Eternal Happiness, but Which Modern Science Has Shown to 1e 'he World's Filthiest Breeding Breed-ing Place of Cholera. In order to eliminate the dnncers from these bathing centres, the British authorities authori-ties will Lave to see that the pilgrims who uso them are cWin and free from disease and that no more than the proper number bathe at the 1 same time The overcrowd 1ng of a given body Of water woi-ld be a danger even though the persons were fairly clean and healthy To achieve their objects the reformers re-formers will have to deal with the tenderest suscf-p Lbilltle of an Ignorant and fanatical mass of people. Nevertheless, Neverthe-less, science has made some progress even among the Hindus, and there is now a feeling that sufficient efforts have not been made to educate them English 'Territorials.' soldier of the Intelligent middle classes, different from the old regulars. rc stationed In India in large number;- during the war and, having hav-ing suffered themselves while there, they hav demanded that sanitation in England's Eng-land's great dependency shall be brought up to European standards. The greatest centre of pilgrimage In the world and the greatest source of disease infection Is the sacred city of Mecca, In Arabia. Every pious Mohammedan is required re-quired by his religion to pay at b ast one visit to Mecca and Its companion city Medina before he dies About 20 000.000 Mohammedans make the pilgrimage annually an-nually in normal tims They come from all parts of Asia and Africa, and even from Europe, as there are many Mohammedans In European Turkey and Us former territories. terri-tories. The prescribed time to make the pilgrimage pil-grimage is at the period called the "He-Jira."' "He-Jira."' which corann-morates Mahomet's flight from Mecca to Medina. The period begins on July 6 At this time countless Bwarms of Mohammedans camp about the ancient, mysterious, sacred cities, which are entirely without modern sanitation and i ontaln no conveniences for travellers. The pilgrims form camps in the desert of ns many as 20.000 at one time They go through a long series of ceremonies, chief among which is making the circuit of the Kanlia and kissing the black stone which jc Relieved to have dropped straight from heaveu. Another act of devotion Is drinking a cup of water from tho sacred well called Z( I 7em. The pilgrims crowd around this In such numbers that they make it a dangerous centre of infection. Some of the most fanatical pilgrims, after performing perform-ing 'ill necessary acts of devotion, blind their eyes in order that they may never look upon unholy Bights. During the war Mecca and Medina beta be-ta me through the efforts of England part of an Independent kingdom known as tho Hejar. The King of the Hejaz Is said to be a very Intelligent man and. although he is not -o well disposed toward the. British as at first. It Is believed the Powers can 1 Induce him to establish sanitary conditions in conneetlon with the pilgrimage to Mecca &nd Medina. Nearly three fourths of the Mohamme- Europear Doctors Examining Mohammedan Pilgrims Returning from Mecca, So That They May Not Carry Cholera and Other Diseases Away With Them. dun pilgrims on their way to Mcca pass through Egypt, where they add to the vast H mass of disease already existing there and H also gather up new infection. Dr Andrew Balfour, late President of H the Egyptian Public Health Commission, H recently gav an English scientific met-Ing met-Ing an appalling picture of the unsan.tary conditions prevailing in Egypt, even ia localities where Europeans live. "The natives." he said, ' inhabit villages . . which though often picturesque, transgress well-nigh every law of health: congeries of Hat roofed, ill-ventilated mud-dwellings, some of them partly underground, crowded !ik la'ibii warrens, and where the houses are shared alike by man and his domostio a.'iima's -dOnkeys, cattle, buffaloes, sheep, goat?, cats. dogs, rabbits, fowls md pigeon The roofs are usually piled high with grass or garbage. The lanes or pas-sages pas-sages between ihe houses are narrow and H not Infrequently blocked by stacks of manure No sanitary conveniences of any Kind exist, but rats swarm and at certain periods there i6 a plague of flies. "In Alexandria, which Is largely a Eu-ropean Eu-ropean city, we find slum quarters, or . cchoches, of the worsl description, centres of typhus and relapsing fever, often cheek by jowl with better class dwellings, often close to areas inhabited by well-to-do Eu-ropeans. Eu-ropeans. The conditions at the hammams, or Turkish baths, are scandalous, for at 'liese places inn town refuse, often ill-smelling ill-smelling and foul, is used as fuel. and. be-ing be-ing stored anyhow and everywhere, Is most offensive and dan reus." There is another disease which science I'.'.H demands should be attacked at its AsiatiO place of origin. That is 'Spanish influ- H enra," which during the last four years is stated to have destroyed Incomparably "," '- H more human lives than the great war Dr. Simon Flexner, director of the Rocke- H feller Institute for Medical Research, made this statement before the recent Congress ... American Physicians nnd Surgeons- saZZ 'I "influenza took its origin in u region sonfewhere near the Russian border of TiirkVstan. spreading along the trade routes as rapidly as transportation moved. The endemic focus is somewhere on the east-ern east-ern border of Russia. "It is not too much for a reconstmctive medical profession to conceive the clearing up of a region which by Its inaccessibility and its neglect has every twenty-five or H v years originated waves of disease spreading over the globe." j |