The Cholera

In a report made by Iir. Edwin M. Snaw, of Providente, Rhode Islam), to the Board of Aldenïiea of that city, the doctor says : " tío far as the city of Providence is concerned, if quaruntiuo regulafjons were of any value, they would be Ubel'csa het o vvhilü wo have cominunication a dozen timus daily witli New York and other cities, but there is po principie more ceitainly establisbed in the mu.'ls of all otedligeut observers of the disease, than t?iat qaarantine regulutions are ab solutely and utterly useless to prevent tho introdaction and spread of Asiatic cholera. " Tho cholera cannot prevail as an epidemie without the presence of a certain mysterious conditiou of the atniospheie. Of this atrnospheric condition little is known ; but it is known that ts presence or absence is not affeuted or r;gulatefd In the si ghtest possible degree by quarantine nieasures. Vessels may have the cholera on board, and may hmd the sick on ourshores; but the disease will uever become epidemie, nor Bpread among the people uritil that mysterious atmospheric condition is preseflt, But thut atmospheric cause may come and rnay be present, and the disease may spread epidemically, without any connection with the arrival of vcsseis froin ports where the disease exists. " If uot a single vessel sliould arrive in our ports duriug tho next five ycars, it would not Qiake a eiugle day's difterence, in the presence or absence of the cholera as an epidemie. " The doctrine stated so pusitively in the document f rom the United States legation at Constantinople, that cholera is contagious is equally opposed to the opinions of' physicians and otherí who have seen the disease, and is calculated to vvork mo.st serious iujury, if fuily believed, in any cunnnuuity where the disease exiats. If the .-bolera was actually contagión?, in the ordiuary acceplation of the term, a punió woiild exist, and it would be difüci; li to obtain nurses or medical atteudanco for the sick. But no intelligent medical obtserver of' the diseaae in thia country, at the present day, belicvas that cholera is eonta gious. I have rayself', in two epidLMjiics ot cholera in this country, een a greut nurnber of cases of the diwease, and havo caref;il'y observed and studied ii.8 causes and progjr.epg, and I may say, in coinmon wilh mauy others who pave made similar observations, that cholera is not contaL'ii'Us. " The cuues of cholera a,rc,Jlrtt the mvsterioua atmospheric conditiun of which we havo spoken; üftd econd, local eoDditions of filtli and impure air. The disease cannot prevail without the coin bined presence of thesa two cauces. - The first cause is beyond in;man control; it advances aad recedes in obedieoce to laws of which we know nothing; it crosses continents and oceana as freely as the winds of heaven, anti it wouhi be as reasonable to attempt to control the movements of the eust wind as to attempt to control the movements of this cause of' cholera, by quarantine restrictions. But the second cause of cholera, and without which the first wuiild be comparativeiy powerless for evil, is to a very greut extent within our control, and hete iö whei'e our duty lies." From tlio London NVekiy Uispatch, Oct. 15. Dr. Wonns, head physiciau to tho military hospital of the tíros Caillou, in Paris, eome days back, read a paper to the acarlemy of medicine, uflöriüg what would appear to be very nearly a specitic in cholera casos. In July, 1849, Dr. Worms gave the resalta of bis experietice ni a letter to the Gazotte Medícale. After describing the failure of olher remerJies, he had recourso to the administration, in the cure of patients already prostrated, but uot in tho last stage, of "mineral lemonade," suppressing all other medicament. This lemonade is a preparation of' two, threo, or at most, tour grammes of concentra ted sulphuric acid, with 1,000 grammes of eoinmon water, and 150 of simple syrup. At the time, he was unable, tbrough tho abatement of tho disease, to test bis remedy upon patients in its worst stage. But i: three more recent visitations he wan enabled to extend his cxperienoe, and it is sumod 'm tho assortion that "Recently lie has witnessed tho infalibility of t Iris simple treatmcut, and ho desires to sao t guneraüzed." lp confirm.ed cholera, tho pc tien t is loft u the most complete repose. He ia shampooed only in oase of cramps. Ho takes a glass of the lernonado, frorn iive to ten grammes ol acid per litre every ha.lt' hour; he may do thia iintnediaiely after vomitiug, which is ïutonUtid to be promoted wbilö diarrhcea in stopped, the vomiting beirig a sign oí lanenduient. White wines, champagne, ice, ruay be frutly used, but not boer, brandy or alkaline mineral wnters. Withiu our owu circlü we receive tásíimony córróbornUng the principie óf t his retnedy. An Engüsh praeütioner has resorted to leiuon and salt for the last 20 yeura or more, with easuotial succoss. Late intelligenee oí a serious outbreak of cholera at Eppiug, fatal in five instanccs, buis us be on the wateh. Nothin; more necd be Raid On the value of pure air and cluanlines. - But medical tteieaco has hitheito ben at fault. Every orgun of publicily should, therefore, put before its readers whatever may appear to offer a hope of better success, ihat those edneatod to tho heahng art. may in no itistanco miss a Buggestiou that may prove fruitful. About nine tenthsol the Veteran Roserve Corps will be muatered out, under the lato order permitting the oflicera and meu to choose between remaining io tho service and quitting it.