The Sun.
London, England, 1831-06-24 00:00:00

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PRICE 7D.

INDIA& CHOLERA.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE TIMES.

SIR,—I am led to address you again on the subject of
•holera, and hope to find space in your columns for the
;,110winz obaervatiOna tegardinf a law which seems te.
serest the local progress of the Indian gettilone.
The remarkable taw of cholera which I shall endeavour
to elucidate, is this :—Soon after the epidemic has mad.
Is appearance in a town, it assumes a snore virulent type
-.ban at any latef petied of attack. Spreading rapidly
tinting the inhabitants, it frequently ca.t7i.3-, off some thou
,ands in the space of ten or fifteen days, then graduall,
leclining in severity, it nearly or altogether disappears to
wards the end of the fourth or fifth week. Thus, when
the cholera attacked in India that part of the grand army
under the immediate command of tile Marquis of Hastings
't was discovered in the camp on the 6th of Pfarember.
1617. At the expiration of ten days it bad overspread the
~amp, and attained its greatest degree of malignity. With
this power the disease continued to devour till the 22 1.
when it began to decline, and it finally vanished on the
23 of December, 26 days after it had conimetscrd, and
af 9,606 men who fell in this short period, by far the
larger portion perished during the six days inc!utled be-
tiverb- the,l6th and the 92d of the month.
A knowledge of the law of increase and decline leads to
many practical deductions of great value to the medical
philosopher. In the first place, it demonstrates that the
people who are now indulging the hope that the decline
sf cholera in Riga is the signal of its final departure from
Europe labour under a mere delusion. Another city will
soon be invaded and undergo.a similar ordeal.
Extending the chain of reasoning previously pursued by
the law of increase and decline which cholera observes, I
come to the following general conclusions :-
1. That when the contagion of cholera enters a town,
it rapidly excites the disease in all persons within the circle
of its diffusion who happen to be at the time predisposed
to the reception of the contagious miasm.
2. That the large majority of persons living within the
range of diffusion, who remain safe during 20 or 30 days of
the invasion, have become so accustomed to the external
impression of the contagion as to be little liable to infec-
tion, or, if they should contract the disease, that it will go
through a mild forgo.
3. That the predisposing causes are various—as debi-
lity, fatigue, however induced, intemperance, depressing
mental affections, as fear and grief; in short, to establish
a general rule (which is the only way to drive mystery, or
rather confusion, out of medical science), whatever de•
presses the vial powers predisposes in a greater or less
degree to an attack of cholera.
4. That proportional to the intensity of the predisposi-
tion will be the severity of the disease. The justness of
this conclusion is testified in a variety of ways. The poor

Hindoos in India, who live on a meagre diet, consisting of
rice only, were often destroyed by cholera in two or three
hours; while European soldiers. although exposed to the
same type of ti.e disease, contained in the same hospital,
and under the same species of medical treatment, would
survive twenty or twenty-four bouts.
I am, Sir, your very obedient servant,
Solly Terrace, June 22. JAMES KENNEDY.