The New era. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1865-1871, 1865-11-23
ChOicru.


disposng cause to the disease. Nanv
fatal eases have occurred, which could
be clearly traced to effects Of fear actino
upon the body through the influence of
the mind.
The fatality of epidemios is always
increased by a prevailing idea that the
disease is contagious. Remove from the
public mind this erroneous impression
and when the disease makes it appear
anee much private and public distress
may be obviated.
If the authority of the most learned
members of the medical profession can
be relied upon-gentlemen, who have
had the most ample opportunities for
investigating the diseases there is not
even the shadow of a foundation on
which to base an opinion in favor of the
contagious nature of the disease.
In India, where the disease has pre-.
vailed toa greater extent than any other
part Of the world, not one physician in
one hundred believes ii to be contagious.
The medical reports from Moscow.
London, and other cities Of Europe are
clearly adverse to the contagious char
acter Of the disease.
Ia report made by the Board of
Health, at Moscow, it is stated "that
Oh opening the bodies of persons who
had died of cholera, to the minute in.
spection of which four or five hours a
day, fornearlyone month, We're devoted.
neither those who attended at the opera
tons, nor any of the assisting physicians,
nor any attendants caught the disease,
although after the first day scarcely any
precautionary measures We're used. DR..
Macintosh, of Scotland, while attending
the cholera hospital in Edinburg, re-
solved that nothing should interfere
with his discharge of duty to the sick
in attending the first cases in the hospi-
tai, circumstances required that he
should remain in the wards during the
night, becoming exhausted, hc fell asleep
in bed next to Il dying patient, and
slept for more than an hour. He saws
that he has more than once accidentally
fallen asleep Oh bed upon which some
unfortunate one had died, and in a ward
III which there We're several persons
dying at the time. In the hospital
above referred to, there was thirty house
surgeons, not one Of whom contracted
the disease, although constantly exposed
to it. Now, if bodily fatigue, mental
anxiety and loss of sleep predisposes to
disease, the systems of those attendants
We're truly in a condition to receive the
contagion.
No case has ever been adduced to es-
tablish the contagious nature of cholera,
but may be explained on more rational
principles.
DIR. Macintosh says that he has seen seye-
raj mothers suclle their children when
they themselves weredying with cholera,
and in one instance he found an infant
sucking its dead mother'sb breast ,yetnone
OF them contracted the disease. In the
cholera hospital in Edinburg, $50 bodies
were examined, several hours were de-
voted each day to the examination of a
body in q small and i'll ventilated apart
ment; from six to eight persons were
mostly present at these autopic eyami-
nations; yet none of those. whose hands
were imbued in the secretions of the
dead for several hours out of thetwentv-
four, contracted the disease.
Dr. jackson, of Philadelphia, says, in
his observations uponeholera, that "the
routes or lines leading from the river
st. Lawrence to the United States do
not appear to have been the means of
conducting II into our territories, for ii
commenced in New York without
possibility Of tracing its origin.
La Philadelphia it appeared stimuli
taAeously in'iiiierentportion OF theeity,
III positions which had no intercourse
with each other.
When it prevailed in the city of Gin
cinnati, in the cholera hospital there,
Tor the period OF five weeks, there was
-, H..