The Sun.
London, England, 1848-09-05 00:00:00

DR. HAWTHORNE ON CHOLERA.
TO THE EDITORS OF THE " LIVERPOOL MERCURY."
Gentlemen,—ls it a time to linger in the path of duty
when the destroying angel is winging its rapid flight to
our shores? Do not the exigencies of the occasion
demand that the talents and energies of all should be
put in requisition to devise the best means of preserving
the lives of the people? Need I, then, offer any apology
for soliciting a space in your paper at this alarming
crisis?
My attention has been directed to a report of the
Liverpool officer of health, entitled "The Frecautious
Expedient with Reference to the Possibility of Cholera
appearing in Liverpool," published in your paper of
Friday last, and I am most happy to find that
that report does not recommend the providing of
cholera hospitals further than what may be merely
necessary for the accommodation of the actually
destitute, and of those in whose cases home
treatment may be impracticable, and that the ta-
lented author has expressed an opinion that patients
affected with cholera would sustain injury by their re-
moval to an hospital. This opinion is in strict accord-
' ance with the soundest views of the nature and cure of the
disease. In any encouraging placardsissued by the Health
Committee, such as have been wisely recommended
by their excellent officer, I would respectfully suggest
that an assurance be given that no one be sent to an
hospital who can be possibly treated in his own house
By doing this, they will easily persuade the poor to give
timely notice of their illness, which will afford the medical
attendants every facility of treating their cases with
Success.
In my pamphlet on cholera, lately published, to which
I beg to refer the reader, I have already stated that
hospitals for the reception of cholera patients are worse
than useless; that to remove a patient affected with
cholera from his own habitation, however humble, to an
hospital, is utterly out of the question, such a step being
totally incompatible with the ascertained proper method of
cure. The evil, however, does not rest even here ; the moral
effect produced by them on the general community, is
most disastrous. The dread of being removed to a
cholera hospital causes the majority of the poor to con-
ceal their illness till they are beyond the reach of
cure. As the object of the Health Committee is to
save life, and not to destroy it, I am sure they will
meet the difficulties of the case in the way most effec-
tual for the former purpose, and doing least violence to
the feelings or even prejudices of the poor. I have also
already stated, in my pamphlet, that the precautionary
measures to be adopted, and the necessary remedies and
appliances to be employed in the cure of cholera, must
be provided for, with a view to their applicability to
patients in their own houses. I have also given ample
directions to guide the civil authorities in this matter. The
' preparations there recommended are absolutely necessary.
A malignant case of cholera could not, by possibility, be
cured without the external application of heat to the
bodies of the patients by solid substances such as I have
there recommended ; and in the majority of cases, there
would be no opportunity of procuring these in the
houses of the poor. The necessity, therefore, of being
provided with such materials, ready prepared, at the
different dispensaries, is too obvious to require comment.
As it is admitted that the disease is not contagious, why
not be prepared to admit a casual vagrant, destitute
pauper into the hospitals already existing in towns, as
in the case of accidents?
I may here explain, for the information of the ge-
neral reader, that the advantages derived from the
external heat applied to the body of a patient in
cholera, is not merely its effect in exciting perspira-
tion, but it has the effect of restoring the electro-
producing functions of the body in a remarkable de-
gree. The instantaneous relief and improvement
of strength experienced by the patient on the heat
being applied, even before any perspiration has
flowed, the electric effect (if I may so speak) could not
be satisfactorily accounted for on any other principle.
I again repeat it, and I beg the medical profession to
bear it in mind, that a malignant case of cholera could
not, by possibility, be cured without the external applica-
tion of such hot substances as I have described. This
fact I have proved, in the presence of medical witnesses,
in above a hundred instances. This, then, is the grand
distinguishing feature of my mode of treatment. This
leads me to remark, that the editor of the Economist is in
error when he alleges that my mode of treatment differs
from others only in the larger dose of opium, for, says he,
others recommend the horizontal posture and perspiration
too. Had the editor of the Economist been a medical
man be would not have said so. I wish the editor to
understand that the ordinary sudorific medicines which
are prescribed with a view to produce perspiration in
other diseases, when their use appears to be indicated,
would be altogether inadmissible in cholera; and they
have never been employed in the early stages of cholera
by any sensible or skilful practitioner. Neither has
perspiration itself been ever, as such, recommended as
a means of cure in cholera. The fact is, spontaneous
profuse perspiration is one of the characteristic features
of a malignant case of the disease. On the first watery
discharge from the bowels, a profuse perspiration breaks
out over the body ; it is not, therefore, likely that the
profession, unacquainted with the true nature of the
disease, would recommend perspiration as a means of
cure. Now, the peculiar feature of my mode of treat-
ment is the immediate application of hot substances round
different parts of the body, and one of its rrffcets is a
warm perspiration; another of its effects, of equal, if not
of greater importance, is the restoration of the electro-
producing functions of the body. This latter cfftet is
indicated and proved by the suddenness of its action, by
the irstantaneous relief from the painful sense of weakness
and sinking felt about the heart and stomach, and from the
suddenness with which the feelings of horror and despair
give place to those of the most eh( cringconfidence. Avo-
thee distinguishing feature of my mode of cure is, that I
order these hot applications in the earliest stage of the
disease—the moment the first symptoms manifest them-
no matter, as I have stated in my pamphlet, in
chat state the practitioner may find his patient.
If the temperature of the body be higher than natural,
the perspiration e ill equalise it ; if lower than
natural, the hot applications will raise it to that
point ; and if the body be covered with a cold,
clammy perspiration, the heat will change it to a
warm one. True, in the collapse stage, when the body
becomes as cold as a mass of ice, all practitioners, more
or less, instinctively order heat, in various ways to be ap-
plied to their cold patients; but this is altogether another
affair; it is not applied, even here, by them as a cure,
but merely as a means of alleviating painful 53 mptoms.
From a work on cholera before me, I quote an extract,
from which the reader will be able to form an opinion of
the extent of the views with which medical writers on
cholera have recommended the application of heat to
patients in the collapse stage. Atter having described
the icy coldness of patients in that stage, the writer
recommends the spirit vapour apparatus to be placed
over the patient's body in that cold stage, and then pro-
ceeds to give his reasons for doing so. " Every one
knows that without a certain degree of heat we must
surely die; the absence of this alone then would prove
the certain cause of death in cholera. No other reason
need be urged for employing it."
The editor of the Economist is also greatly in error if
he supposes that I published my pamphlet with a view
to encourage the people to quack themselves. The
observations in my pamphlet were primarily intended
for the medical profession; but, in addressing myself
to the profession, I took special care, as every one
in writing on such a subject should do, to express
myself in such language as should make my viewso w
and reasoning intelligible to the lowest capacity. _
ev°
could this encourage ge"se
I did notlf-quackery o?
directly an opposite effect.
from the patient, neither did lo"ncelatlshthoeulddahngr
a
could not do. If I told him t exaggerate
a t anihalfthis I
attack
ao hour,
might it, for
w ba e
so malignant as: to prove iata
s
this calculated to encourage him to dispense with
the infallibility of the mode of medical attendance ? When pedged my professional
character on .
treat-
ment I have described, I did so only on the condition
that the mode of cure should be sufficiently early,
actively.
vig • orously, and skilfully carried into opera-
tion. This could be accomplished only by a skilful
medical practitioner. I need scarcely say, for myself,
that there is no man living more opposed to " self-
quackery" than I am, and I am sure that no medical
man doubts me on that score. I feel confident, how-
ever, that the editor of the Economist will agree with me,
that every family in the kingdom should be possessedi of
a copy of my pamphlet; that they should
and study it, till they make themselves perfectlyrealctover
dac-
quaintediscase, so
withthat
a theyl the
msay becomeympt os
tthhe
and
able characters
dareatcotoetr
es
vooto'
first symptoms of it, when they should then instantly send
for their medical attendant; and, also, that they may be
the medical at-
tendantthe progress of the symptoms h
safety of the lives
able to know what to take in the meantime, to check
one week's
of the people depends on
The fact
copy of my pamphlet,
arrives.
become thoroughly have time to
so that they may
and character of the die-
deley, possessing
with the nature
themselves of a
ewithout
ac-
quainted . The pamphlet will not only
ease before it arrive.,
necessaryi
ut
be
them
owbsaetedtofdoor
The medical attend-
ant, even when,
se
he come; the patient may be dead in,
tillnef odtrihcineailrtailEndevemideiec7ahlbeeuannttttieftintwrd. ailitlyalalrnsroboievti arrives.
'home, and an hour
may elapse before
safety. The necessity, therefore, of being,
for his own d b
the interval, if he know not what steps he should take
the pamphlet requires no argu-
p'rcaution not one life need be lost,
no one will be lost who makes
and, with
master of, and vigorously adopts, the directions
I have given.
argu-
ment.
timelye
Int.aa nrougdc'ttshe ibsl blessing,
I am aware that in thus speaking of my own produc-
tion, I shall, with the illiberal and narrow-minded, expose
myself to the imputation of being actuated solely by
a desire to puff and sell it. lam content to be so accused,
having a heartfelt consciousness that I have no such
motive, and a thorough conviction, on which I am willing
to pledge reputation and life itself, that by the general
s.
adoption of the measures and treatment I have recom-
mended, this terrible disease will be divested of half its_
horrors, and thousands of lives will be saved.
Should the editors of the public press believe that the
public interest would be served while the country is
menaced with such a calumny, by copying this letter
from your columns and republishing it, I feel confident
they will do so.---I have the honour to be, gentlevaess.
your obedient an i obliged servant,
GEORGE STUART HAWTHORNE, M.D.,
Late Senior Physician of the Belfast
General Hospital.
61, St. Anne-street, Liverpool, Aug. 14, 1848.

NOVEL CRICKET MATCH.—Yesterday, a cricket
match, for a purse of sovereigns, between eleven one-
armed and eleven one-legged pensioners, belonging to
Greenwich Hospital, took place in a field at the back of
the Priory, Lewisham, Kent. The novelty of the match
attracted a great many spectators. The result of the
play was slightly in favour of the one legs, whose facili-
ties far bowling and batting overbalanced the running
capabilities of their opponents. The match will be re-
sumed this day.