The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1848-12-28

was equivalent to such Pandore's box) He CDR.
BueD thought there not enough to carry out the
idea 81 the gentlemen; there was not ground enough
for this Academy to 60 before the public and tell them
solemnly that had got contagious disorder Of such
. kind among MS.
Dr.. SHERWOOD quoted the opinions Of Dr.. Henry, Of
London, the contagion Of the small pox, in ar
gument upon the general question Of contagion.
Dr. STsvsss ne a,a not s.y m rss r uni,
certainly be, and certainly was, otentmss, oommuni-
Gated.
prove it appeared that the cholera contagious
He began with observing that the best thing he had
Ssaas On sns the Choi.rs and Il SAD
"Yss-now That paragraph contained the Whole
truth it was and It was not contagious The Doctor
then went into definition Of the words contagn and
Infection and is usual with many clever defners,
the def obscure than the orig thing
defined. After this the Doctor proceeded to . long
history of the cholera, and traced it up and down
throughout all countries wherever had appeared He
began at Quebec and Montreal showed that with the
Of emigrants there went also steam of cholera
that the soldiers from Governors Island who went up
the canal to the Black Hawk carried the cholera
with them into the fortresses Of the Indians He then
tracked In Asia in Europe at Calcutta in the Coro
msndel at Ceyon. in the Persian Gulf up the Tigris
to Baedad, So He showed how it followed the armies
and also how 1t often suddenly went through the air
and appeared where nobody had appeared to bring it
He proved that sometimes isolation and Quarantine
were efectual; sometimes they were mott that some
times the cholera caught, and sometimes it evil
IDENTIFY was not.
that the cholera is cidedy contagious and decidedly
not contiguous that it travels and sits STILL that 1t
wanders about all over the world, with companies of
men like eas, In truss of hay or bag Of wool; that
it also travels to distant places without any company;
that 1t sits and matches for certain period OF ncuba
ton, and that it where it has been hatshe
that it IL atmospheric, and that 1t is not that it is
catching by infection and that 1t is not that quaran
tine laws and cordons sanaire very useful and
pert. city useless In word, We discovered that 1t Is
Proteus and no one can catch IT, that we knew all
about it, and we knew nothing at all about III and
that for full information the public Is referred to
Isgraph in some Newspaper which asserts that is and
it is not cents gious.
DR. PRATT followed, and stated that the manvin
Greenwich street had been treated by an apohecary
who gave him 10 Ers Of tartar ePstic which paksd
idea of getting the excitement and frightening
women and children out of their Wits by telling them
that alligator come here among us and 1T was
certainly going to bite them, fer it would bite He
thought 1t quite ridiculous.
DR.. WARREr thought it would be good thing if
they could agree upon terms and know what they
meant by contagion, Infection 60. The doctor then
produced paper containing . definition Of his own,
by which 1t appeared that the cholera infectious
that it sometimes when an epidemic, contagious
that it did not depend upon specific virus but upon
malarous atmospheric infectious municston, SC.
Upon the whole the definition, though very elaborate
and learned, was not very intenigibe TO- our minds
contagious the former was more agreeable term.
DR.. STEWART gave powerful, able and thrilling des-
| cription Of the case in Greenwich street. He was
called in four hours before the man died; he him
the Cartwright remedy the same, We believe, Secre-
tary Walker recommended) viz sub murat hydrogen
~
that the committee rise and publish report on the
| subject
DR.. MANLY then rose, and in a clear, cool, witty
strait attacked the advocates Of contagion or rather
their arguments. He showed that the enquiry into
what produced or communicated the disease would
not help In the cure 1t only referred to hygenic pre-
cautions He asked, would any say that influenza
was contagious and thereby spread alarm and panic
Cholera was in the same predicament. The doctor
here related anecdote to show the worth and value
of their definitions and settlement Of distractions.
The late Dr. Mitchell was, at the time Of the yellow
favor husv vrifh he mann nj he fiNn
going about inspecting their houses, SO. Being
the Magnus Apollo Of the day, he was expected to
Going over in a boat with some members of
the poIation to Brooklyn, he explained to them,
that the Injecting ua in the air inv was 'A the ssss
Gus oxide of azote. The boatman heard him, and
pondsred deeply on what he heard; and, going home,
he told his wife: Now know all about it / have
found it out know what it is-it is hide in
boat Now that served the public just we'll they
their incomprehensibe definitions and dist actions
and scientific explanations Dr. M. then explained
how the should actas the fox did in the fable
asked him to smell his breath Is it bad 2! said the
lion Horrid, said the hog, it stinks" Thsreupon
he Consulted the goat dis it bad ~ said the lion
oh dear no said the goat afraid Of the fate of the
telling lie. Next he consulted the fox; is it bad ~
sad the lion. Indeed said the fox, don't know,
for I've got dreadful bad cold.n So the fox knew
nothing about 1t and the doctors were pretty nearly
in the same case DR.. continued further ipA witty
tagien and prod ced impression evident nauivs-
lent to defeat of the resolution and its 6rers
DR.. RoBERTs then arose and came to the aid of the
contagioni.ts in very persuasive, fluent, and e!o
quent grafton, far regards sound and words He
regretted profoundly that the public had been ad-
united to those the public had nothing to
ported the interests Of society that the question should
be settled; the Academy was very influential body,
and, therefore, it was very important; its opin-
ion should be pronounced upon this matter; yet the
therefore, the Academy would not drop the
subject Meantime it was very importsntto know the
'aning OF what they were all talking about and he,
(Dr was Of the opinion that the Academicians
did not exactly know the real meaning, that is, the
proper definition of the words contsgon and infection
He proposed to call the disease go-infectio
intectio- contagious But he had prepared q paper,
which he had in his pocket, and he would produce it
ana seaa 1t TO the Assaemy Ine doctor then pulled
stern alton evidently spread over the room almost
empty, and among the few members, now present, at
this aspect OF the affair and now, after long de-
batting a. this extraordinary retrograde movement to
receive nstru ctens and tuition in the of the
literal meaning of the words from the therspeutcal
photographer who forward to volunteer to illu
inmate his fellow academicians)
DR.. STEPHENS hereupon rose and spoke to point Of
order. He showed plainly enough that there
thing in the resolutions before the Academy met
together in committee Of the whole about the
ing definition Of two common Englsh words, which
had been defined rome hundred years ago, and some
hundred thousand times. The doctor then showed
what was the real question before the committee viz
Whether New York should be isolated, rather whe-
Their Greenwich street should be isolated insulated
and blockaded, and cut off from inter commu-
ncation with all the rest Of the city, and be
surrounded by something like a cordss sanitaire
proposed by DR.. Drake And, ALSO the doctor
showed that this proposition to isolate Greenwich
street and the neghborhood was predcated not upon
the terms contsgion non. centagion, infection
non infection, which DR.. Roberts came forward to
plain and provide meaning for, to the world but
that the soatiDg insulating Gordon drawing props,
ton of Dr. Drake based upon the fact of the
municability of the cholera, and, therefore, the
in con- mu picabitv of Gree wch street was TO he
established and maintained; and it to be cut of
and separated for time, from the rest Of New York.
because Of the communicability Of the cholera.
This proposition, coming, too from contagionist
to whom the doctor had come like forlorn hope in
the hour If need to lift up asitw,re from the ground
and rescue from beating treat seemed quite to dis
concert the volunteer exocographca defuer of alb
stract terms, by still abstract expressions Dr.
Stephens however canddly explained that he reject