Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1873-09-10
CAN WE LEARN ANYTHING BY EN-.
PERsENCE ANN STsJNY9

The perusal of column and half edi-
torisl in the Banner of the 9Th instant on
the origin and nature O. cholera ard the
contradictory views of medical men on tie
subject, leads us to,inquire whether the pro-
fessors Of the healing art, and men of
science generally, in this country, are able
to learn anything by expe fence and study?
DR.. Bel, OF Louisville, and DR.. Bowling, of
this city, have written deliberately on and
about cholera, and DR.. Winston has an
able paper on the epidemic. They differ
widely in their ideas as to the cause or
causes OF the malsdy, and this
is the place where their re-
searches and s udies are sadly defective.
The tens Ct thousands of pilgrims travelling
10 the idoliJuggernaut,in ndis, leave at their
campir g grounds on the way "cholera dust
ofremarkable and fatal malignancy. Not
one ofour doctors vino write so authorita-
lively about the origin of cholera, appears
to have pal any attention to the condition
of the germs of cholera in this "dust.s Its
dry yet living germs are perhaps the most
important element in this vital and chemi-
cal problem, for the solution of which the
most perfect microscope, very delicate and
exact balance, and pure chemical reagents
are Indispensable, with professional
skill in the use Of the same.
When astronomers studied astronomy
tie naked eye, before telescopes were in-
vented when chemists and slchemists
studied chemistry without delicate pal
ance TO weigh all simple and compound
bodie-, and without pure reagents; and
when modern doctors study diseased organs,
functions and medicines with 10 micro
scope, their conditions are eminen;ly IN
favorable to any advance in cientifc
knowledge. They are obviously denied
the very tools and appliances with which
scientists work and achieve substantial pro-
gress. Such physicians and students stand
in 1873 where they stood forty years ago, in
1898, when the cholera prevailed in Nash.
vile and Louisville. They mike no progress.
The Banner makes as little when it talks
abo2t any one now believing that "animal-
cula" cause cholera. The epidemic para
site is microscopic plant, not an animal.
You might as well confound q running deer
in the forest with the trees that shade it, as
to confound microscopic animals with any
vegetable structures or parasites. Jus. as
smutty wheat has dry, living germs of par
asite often planted with the seed in autumn,
to multiply and grow in the heads of wheat
next year, SO the seeds of cholera propagate
the cholera plant from one year 10 another,
and from one place TO another. The
vital germs of rust, smut, mildew
and mould may be carried in road
dust or camp dust, as we'll as
"cholera dust" transports cholera germs
from one district to another in the valley of
tho Ganges. The same germs, visible with |
microscope, taken from the blood of a chol- |
era patient, and placed in the veins of a |
dog have given him the cholera and caused |
his death. We published, few weeks ago,
a let er from medical professor in Italy in
which he said in substance that the disease
is caused by vegetable parasite. How
few know anything of the yeast plant that