title: Spasmodic cholera
title: The epidemic disease, known as spasmodic cholera, that recently spread through Eastern India:
titleType: AlternativeTitle
Creators: name: Kellie, James
name: Kellie, Jacobus
Publisher: name: The University of Edinburgh
Year: 1820
Subjects: subject: Spasmodic Cholera
subject: Epidemic
subject: Symptoms
subject: Diagnosis
subject: Treatment

description: Quum ex legibus hujus Academiae celeberrimae, omnes summos medicinae honores ambientes aliquod de re medica in lucem proferre devincti sunt, ego, qui exercitibus nos- t tris Indicis, medicus nuper interfui, argumentum disputationis selegi morbum istum Epidemicum, qui, nomine Cholera Morbo, vel Cholera Spasmodica, annos jam tres per Indiam Orientalem latissime et saevissime grassatus est. Praefari autem oportet, morbum, de quo dicturus sum, Cholerae Culleni multum abesse,— quum in hoc bilis haud tantum non scatet, verum etiam deficit, nec vomitus diarrhoeaque, quae in illo morbo indicia pathognomica habentur, in hoc semper occurrunt. Ne autem nomen jam vuigatum et usu consecratum mutare videar, hanc nostram speciem quasi novam, nec adhuc a nosologis descriptam, Spasmodicam designare malo, atque his verbis definire : "Morbus Epidemicus repente adoriens; vomitus et diarrhoea, aquosa, et subalbida; anxietas, tormina, spasmi; mira prostratio virium; pulsus vix sensilis ; urina parcissime secreta. Hic morbus, de progressu cujus nulla historia apprime scripta adhuc tradita est, nec novus nec Indis ipsis omnino inauditus est; Epidemicus enim, huic simillimus, in variis locis peninsulae orientalis ab anno mdcclxix ad annum mdcclxxxvii valuisse videturj narrationes transmissae autem adeo breves et vagae sunt, ut nihil certi de natura, causa, vel curatione morbi ex iis colligi possit; hanc caliginem igitur removere, et totam rem in lucem ponere, de experientia nostra, nunc libenter aggrediar. # ## ### ## # Since, according to the laws of this most renowned Academy, all who aspire to the highest honors in medicine are bound to publish something on medical matters, I, who recently served as a physician to our Indian forces, have chosen as my topic of discussion the Epidemic disease, which, under the name Cholera Morbus, or Spasmodic Cholera, has raged widely and violently across Eastern India for three years. It must be noted, however, that the disease I shall discuss differs greatly from Cullen's Cholera,—in which bile is not only abundant but lacking, and in which vomiting and diarrhoea, regarded as pathognomonic signs in that disease, do not always occur in this version. However, to avoid appearing to change a name already established and consecrated by use, I prefer to designate this our variant as Spasmodic, not yet described by nosologists, and to define it with these words: "An epidemic disease suddenly arising; vomiting and diarrhoea, watery and whitish; anxiety, cramps, spasms; a remarkable prostration of strength; pulse scarcely perceptible; urine scarcely secreted. This disease, about whose progress no well-written history has yet been handed down, is neither new nor entirely unheard of among the Indians themselves; a similar epidemic prevailed in various parts of the eastern peninsula from the year 1769 to 1787. However, the reports that have been transmitted are so brief and vague that nothing certain about the nature, cause, or cure of the disease can be derived from them; thus, I am now gladly attempting to remove this darkness and bring the entire matter to light based on our experience.