The Sun.
London, England, 1831-06-16 00:00:00

CHOLERA NIORBUS.

TO THE LORD HIGH CHANCELLOR
OF ENGLAND.
NIA- LORD 8R0UG11.131,--it being reported that his
Majesty's Ministers have thought fit to take the ad-
vice of the College of Physicians, concerning the
threatened spreading of cholera morbus, and t•ecol-
lecting some unsatisfactory official medical opinions
on former occasions, I have thought it possible that
your Lordship's penetrating mind would be better
enabled to direct practical measures respecting this
important subject, after a review of several state-
ments.
My pretensions to your Lordship's notice are
those of a public man possessing extended expe-
rience, and whose professional cogitations are
founded on a desire to unite scientific precision to the
complicated circumstantial evidences form the com-
mon fluctuating theories of the healing art.
I consider the long.coniinued verbose medical
disputes about infection, contagion, epidemics, and
endemics, to be the unprofitable jargon of schools,
unworthy the notice of men of science, and as mysti-
fied impediments to students, and as being of no use
among sensible practitioners.
Abundant evidences to be found among the con-
flicting doctrines of medical writers, and the narra-
tives of travellers, show that the very same disease
may, under different circumstances, assume the va-
rious characters of being contagious in one place or
climate, and not so in another; similar differences
and vicissitudes also occur in the technical distinc-
tions about infection, epidemics, and endemics. The
Just and broad view of these apparently opposing
evidences is, that they are reconcileable under a ra-
tional admission that the communicable diseases in
question admit of variable degrees of intensity, so
as to render them more or less apt to be propagated.
Happily for mankind, the morbific materials of these
diseases are required to be in a definite quantity
to produce their respective maladies, and the
composition of all these morbific poisons seems to be
of transient duration. Hence, by continued dilution,
or by a gradual abatement of their acrimony, these
pestiferous ferments become inert, and eventually
their corresponding diseases cease. This appears to
be the best reasoning for the establishment of the
laws and regulations of quarantine, and experience
has sufficiently proved that a rigorous and continued
purification of suspected persons and goods is the
only means for preventing the progress of cholera
rnorbus. Should, however, this direful visitation
afflict our country, it cannot be looked upon as
equally fatal with the worst kinds of pestilence : and
its prevention, as well as its curative treatment,
promise to be more within medical controul.
In addition to the strictest cautions of quaran-
tine, it may be well to ascertain the states of human
health which render individuals more or less liable
to have this disease, and whether any system of
dietetic regimen tends to favour or to avert its
attack, or to render the event more propitious. From
personal interviews with many medical and other
gentlemen who have undergone this dangerous
ordeal, I am convinced that inordinate cases of ca-
lomel given on the presumption of disordered liver,
and also an equally violent and mischievous practice
of extensive blood-letting, have added greatly to the
number of deaths. Both these hypotheses appear
to be conjectural, and the fatal efftcts of the prac-
tices justify a public prohibition.
The usual violence at the commencement, and the
sudden prostration of the vital powers in cholera,
seem to depend on two sensible causes,---the first, a
manifest abstraction of fluid from the volume of cir-
culating blood through the excessive alimentary dis-
charges ; the second, a notorious change in the qua-
lities of the blood itself, whereby its natural colour
and texture, which are essential to health, are strik-
ingly deeriorated ; and since the ordinary stimulants
of ardent spirits or wine have either failed to uphold
the sinking frame, or have seemed to be hurtful,
the employment of ammonia and opium have been
adopted with better success. lltit a suggestion,
communicated to me by Dr. Ainslie, the learned and
laborious author of a valuable book entitled Iliateria
Indica, deserves immediate and serious attention ;
and as the Doctor had sent his proposal to theß ussian
Government some weeks ago, he has a right to prece-
dence in this important matter, if happily his method
should prove effectual. The Doctor viewing the
sudden sinking of strength, and the disordered state
of the blood, as the most urgent symptoms, advises
the immediate trial of inhaling a super-oxigenated
air, for the purpose of revivifying the blood, until
other remedies, such as ammonia, shall have time to
act upon the morbid materials in the alimentary
passages. I am more disposed to place reliance
upon the immediate sad often-repeated doses of
ammonia, because of the attending spasms in the
limbs, an occurrence which is generally connected
with alimentary acidity. So that, in addition to
the cordial effects of ammonia, it may probably act
as an antidote. Craving your Lordship's pardon for
this hurried address, and the mode adopted for its
publication, I have the honour to be your very obe-
dient servant,
Langham-place, June 15. ANTHONY CARLISLE.

The ravages of the cholera continue to oc-
copy much attention in the city, where the question is
viewed under the double aspect of its injurious conse-
quences to commerce, and the danger of its introduction
into this country. The subject even connects itself with
politics, as it seems likely to influence in a very remark-
able degree the conteat between the Poles and the Rus-
sians. If the commerce of Russia suffers as it must do in
the first instance, her finances next feel the effect, and the
movement of large bodies of troops becomes every day
more difficult. It may prove therefore, in the end, the
best ally of the brave Poles. In regard to the interruptions
to commerce arising from the..cholera, or rather the precau-
tions taken to prevent its 'introduction here, we do not
meet with much complaint, because every one feels the
necessity of them ; but we have heard the regulations pre-
scribed at the Custom-houses objected to as partial and un-
fair, from the circumstance of their allowing the steam-
vessels and the passengers by them to escape all detention
or quarantine. We think, however, that this objection
does not apply, as the steam. vessels seldom carry goods at
all, or if any, not such as are calculated to convey the in-
fection ; and it is obvious that to detain their passengers
would be not only an useless and vexatious regulation, but
would utterly destroy the property embarked in that mode
of conveyance. All that seems material is, that due vigi-
lance is exercised to prevent steam-vessels from carrying
skins or other goods likely to communicate contagion,
which they are little likely to do, as it would bring them
at once within the operation of the quarantine regulations.
The cholera, by the last accounts from Memel, is said to
have been prevalent there as well as at Riga and Dantzic,
but no symptoms of it have yet appeared at Hamburg.
The steady progress of this disorder is one of the most re-
markable features attending it. It is about two years since
its first appearance in Bengal, and it has subsequently tra-
velled northward across the continents of Asia and Europe
at a rate nearly equal. There appears to he no doubt of
its having acquired increased malignity in its progress, be-
ing at first an epidemic only, and then becoming both epi-
demic and contagious.— Times.
,
A. correspondent informs us, that in most o£
the shops westward, silver is extremely scarce, and points
out the singular coincidence that tlte Bank of England
Should, at the very same time, be so overstocked with
silver as to be compelled to melt it into bars at an enor-
• mous sacrifice. He suggests as a remedy, that an office
in the Bank should he set apart for the purpose, where
any one on application might obtain silver in exchange
for sovereigns or notes, in sums of not less than Five
Pounds. This hint seems worthy of the attention of the
Directors, and is an accommodation they owe the public,
even if it did not at the same time do them a service, for
we haVe heard that the loss in melting the silver falls on
them, the Government having refused to bear any portion
of
MR. GALT'S NEW WORK, BOGLE CORBET.
...-." It is impossible," says the Literary Gazette, " to do
justice to a work which contains the records of a life full
of practical experience. It is characterised by its motto
' truth severe by fiction drest,' and how this plan is to be
carried into execution is well set forth in the preface.
Information given as incidents of personal experience is
more instructive than opinion. The author's oppor-
tunities to acquire knowledge of this kind, which he has
here prepared, has been at least not common, and it was
studiously gathered to be useful t others. Indeed
Bogle Corbet' is of so much general io mportance, that we
can hardly treat it as a novel."