The Sun.
London, England, 1866-10-24 00:00:00

THE TREATMENr OF CHOLERA.

The views of Dr. George Johnson and other
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the report of the Army Medical Department on the
late outbreak of cholera at Malta. An abstract of
that report is given in the British Medical Journal,
and, though of course, we express no opinion on
the matter ourselves, yet a brief reference to that
abstract cannot fail to be interesting to the general
reader. There exists a vehement controversy in the
medical world with respect to this premonitory
treatment, each side maintaining that the system
which it condemns is not merely useless, but posi-
tively injurious in a very high degree ; and the
more clearly a professional doctor perceives that this
antagonism is well known to the non-professional
world, the less prone will he be to adopt either view
nif 8 tattilektt °WIMP Vaii°l?
necessary to give to the subject. A pestilence like
cholera, :concerning which nothing is theoretically
known, while the only practical thing known about
it is that no remedy has yet been discovered, is just
one of those diseases about which doctors are apt
to be careless, from their utter bewilderment in its
presence. As they cannot cure the disease, too
many of them forget that a remedy may not only
fail to stop it, but may frightfully aggravate
its intensity. And this is the conclusion which
the British Medical Journal draws from the report
of the army department on the outbreak at Malta,
where the diarrhcea was very severe owing to the
drunken and dissipated habits of the English soldiers,
and the large consumption of fruit by the poorer
Maltese, who were tempted by the low prices conse-
quent on the abstinence of the better classes during
the epidemic. The report btates that while the
ordinary diarrhcea thus produced was very tractable
in its nature, the astringent system utterly failed to
check the real choleraic diarrhcea. The only reme-
dies that appeared to be of any effect were emetics,
and the population who were treated by the civilian
practitioner on the mild system exhibited a much
lower percentage of deaths than the military who
were treated by the army doctors. On the whole,
the Medical Journal is decidedly of opinion that,
whether or no the emetic and castor-oil system be
advantageous, there is every reason to believe that
the astringent practice tends to retain in the body
that deadly poison which is the cause of death. It
points to a fact stated in the report to which we
think the utmost attention ought to bo given—
namely, that " the extent of the collapse was in no
way commensurate with the amount of discharges.
Invariably it was found that the more severe the
disease the less was the quantity and the frequency
of these ejections." Surely, if these facts are of
general occurrence in cholera they supply sugges-
tions as to the proper treatment of the highest im-
portance !—Pall-mall Gazette.

THREE FATAL ACCIDENTS. —Yesterday three in-
quests were held at St. Bartholomew's Hospital. The first
was on the body of Charles Killey, aged five years, who
was burnt to death on Sunday morning by his clothes ac-
cidentally catching fire. The second was on the body of
Jane Cole, aged 69 years, who fell down in Smithfield on
Monday, fractured her skull, and died the same night. In
each case a verdict of accidental death was returned. The
third inquest was on the body-of a man who was found by
the police in a state of intoxication, and who subsequently
died of cholera. Tho jury returned a verdict to that effect.
SINGULAR ACTION TO RECOVER AN ELECTION
BRIBE.—At the Ipswich County Court last week an elector
of the town named William Suthers, senior, brought an
action against Mr. E. E. Barber to recover £lO. It appeared
that at the late election Mr. Barber, who acted as agent for
Mr. Cobbold, was furnished with a sum of £25 to secure
the votes of some electors of easy consciences. It was
alleged by the plaintiff that £lO of the amount was to have
been paid to him for his vote, but he had already voted for
the other side early in the day, and as soon as Barber heard
this ho did not give him the money. The defence was,
that no portion of the £25 was set specially aside to bo paid
to Suthers, and his Honour held that this allegation was
not disproved, and that in any case the verdict must be for
the defendant, as the bargain, if any, was a corrupt one.
TOOLE AND SOTHERN—DRAMATIC SHOOTING
STARS.—Those two theatrical stars of the first magnitude,
Mr. Toole and Mr. Sothern, have recently been moving in
the same orbit, and, if I may say so of heavenly bodies,
treading upon each other's heels. Mr. Toole arrives in
Birmingham, covers the walls with his illustrious name,
and all goes well, until Mr. Sothern, who is to succeed
him, arrives and covers the walls—or what part of them
Mr. Toole has left to him—with his illustrious name. Then
Mr. Toole gnashes his teeth and whispers vengeance
against Mr. Sothern. At the next town Mr. Sothern gets
the start, and all goes well with him until Mr. Toolo arrives
with his posters (larger than ever), and then Mr. Sotheru
gnashes his teeth and stammers out vengeance against Mr.
Toole. I hear that wherever the pairmeet they fall to with
knives—and forks, over a pleasant dinner, on the most
friendly terms. Both have been doing enormous business.
It is a remarkable fact, by the way, that a hopeful actor
can make a great deal more money in the country than in
London. It is another fact, but I will not say remarkable,
that the most popular actor in the country, the ono who
makes the most money there, is Mr. Toole. Besides being
an excellent comedian, Mr. Toole possesses a genial, ami-
able, happy temperament, which makes him troops of
friends wherever he goes. Swells in the stalls ask him to
dinner, and the gallery boys stop him in the street to say
that he " does the Dodger stunning ;" and Mr. Toole is as
polite to the gallery boy as he is to the swell. There is no
charm on earth equal to that of unaffected good nature.—
Morning Post.