'GAZETTEER OF PERSIA. VOLUME I' [‎277v] (571/820)

532
MES—MES
Considering the very insanitary conditions prevailing in this town,
General health which are worse than in most oriental cities on
account of the peculiar customs connected with
the disposal of the dead, the general health of the inhabitants is surpris
ingly good. It is impossible, owing to the absence of statistics, to form
any reliable estimate of the average mortality, but it is believed to be
not very high. Occasionally severe epidemics break out, such as cholera,
brought by pilgrims from some other part of the country, but they die out
again and do not remain endemic.
In 1868, 1892, and in 1904, severe epidemics, and in 1893 a mild epidemic
Common diseases. of cholera ’ visited the city but between these
years it was free from this disease.
The epidemic of 1892 is estimated to have carried off considerably
more than 5,000 victims ; that of 1893 did not spread and carried off only
125 persons ; but the scourge of 1904 literally decimated the town, for out
of a population of about 80,000 it destroyed not less than 8,000.
Plague outbreaks have occurred at • intervals in Khorasan and Meshed
during the past two hundred years.
There wSre restricted epidemics of this nature in the province and in
. the neighbourhood of Meshed in the years 1831, 1876, 1877, 1881, 1882,
and 1887. This last occurred in a village about 20 miles from the city.
Small-pox is probably always in Meshed, and occasionally there are wide
spread epidemics in the town.
Small-pox inoculation as a preventive is commonly practised among
the natives, but vaccination with calf-lymph is known only to the better
classes and practised only by the European physicians.
Influenza visited the city in December 1889, and again in October 1891,
at the same time that the disease was over-running Europe. Mild epidemics
appear to recur at intervals, and probably the disease is always present
in the town. , :
Measles, whooping-cough and mumps are common every year, often in
the spring.
Severe outbreaks of “epidemic sore throat” occasionally visit the city
and neighbourhood. It appears to be the “ internal erysipelas, ” or,
angina, which is now seldom seen in England. It is never accompanied
by ‘‘ false membrane.” It spreads rapidly and causes a high mortality,
particularly in the early period of the epidemic. It is said to have first
nvaded Khorasan in 1884, having come from Kirman. In the year
1889, Kuchan was so severely ravaged by the disease that the whole
population left the town.
Diphtheria breaks out sometimes in epidemic form. A recent outbreak
at lurbat-i-Shaikh Jam was at first reported by the local authorities
to be plague !
Malignant pustule sometimes occurs, but the attacks are confined to
the workers in raw wool. Although met with in this class of worker in
Meshed, it is more frequent among the wool-workers near the Afghan
frontier. These people understand perfectly the value of active cauteri
zation of the pustule which they effect by making a paste of wet gun
powder, applying it to tne affected area and then setting light to it.