Alabama state intelligencer., 1831-09-03
CHOLERA MORBUS.
To the Lord High Chancellor of Eugland |.

IO JIG JOTa Ifi9H CHdncctf0T Of IsuOtQnd
 MY LORD BRoUGHAM: It being reported that his Aiajesty's Ministers have thought fit to take the ad- vice of the College of Physicians, concerning the threatened spreading of cholera morbus, and recol- lectng some unsatisfactory official medical opinions on former occasions have thought it possible that your lordship's penetraI, mind would be better en- abed to direct practical measures respecting this i'm portant subject after areview of several statements. My preensions to your lordship's notice are those of public man possessing extended experience, and whose professional cogitations are founded on desire to unite scientific precision to the complicated crcumstantla evidences from the common fluctuat- ing theories of the healing art.
 l consider the long continued verbose medical dispute about infection, contagion, epdemics, and endemlcs, to be the unproftable jargon of schools, unworthy the notice of men of science, and mys- tihed impediments to students, and as being of no use among sensible practitioners.
 Abundant evidence, to be found among the con- f1ictng doctrines of medical writers, and the narra- tlves of travellers, show that the very same disease may under different circumstances, assume the va rlous characters of being contagious in one place or climate, and not so in another similar differences and vclssudes also occur in the technical distinc- llons about infections, epdemics, and endemics- The Just and broad view of these apparently oppos- ing evidences is that they reconcileable under rational admission that the ncabe diseases in question admit of variable degrees of intensity so as to render them more less apt to be Happily for mankind the mol bifc materials of these diseases are required to be in deintve quantity to produce their respective maladies and the compost tion oi all these morbc poisons seems to be of tram sient duration. Hence, by continued dution, or by gradual abatement of their acrimony these pesti- ferrous ierments 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 oApericnrs Ina. sufficiently proved that rigorous and continued Dn rihcaon Of suspected persons and goods is the only means for preventing the progress of cholera mor. bus. Should however, this dreful visitation afflict our country it cannot be looked upon as eoual;v fla tai with the worst kinds of pestilence; and it's pre- venon, as well as its curative treatment promise to be more within medical control
 In addition to the srictest cautions of quarantine 1t 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 diete JIG regimen tends to favor or 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 doses of calomel. given on the presumption of disordered liver and also an equally violent and mischievOus practice of blood letting, have added greatly to the number of deaths. Both these hypotheses appear to be conectural and the fatal effect of the practices justify public pro- hibtion.
 The usual violence at the commencement, and the sudden prostraton of the vital powers in cholera seem to depend two sensible causes: the first, manifest abstraction of fluid from the volume of cir cuating blood through the excessive alimenary dis charges; the second notorious change in the quail ties of the blood itse whereby its natural color and texture, which essential to health are strkinpv deterloraed; and since the ordinary stmulants of ardent spirits and wine have either failed to uphold the sinking frame, or have seemed to be burtfu the employment of ammonia and opium have been adopted with better success. But suggestion communicated to me by pr Ainslie, the learned and iaborous author of valuable book entitled Matcria Indica, deserves immediate and serious attention and as the Doctor had sent his proposal to the Rus. sian Government some weeks ago. he has right to precedence in this important matter, f happily. his