Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1873-09-14
WHAT is CHOLERA?
Battle of Opinion as to the Cause Of
the Disease.
Letter from q Nashville to q Louis
VILE Physician.

Letter from a Nashville to q Louis
Vile Physician.
| NASHVILLE, Sept. 0.--To DIR. -:
forwarded pamphlet to you, written by DR.
Bowling, containing his views on cholera
They are directly opposed to the theory ad
vanced by your distinguished townsman
DR.. Bell.
Theories are now gotten up, and search
Is made for facts to sustain the theories
without investigating the laws Of nature OIL
unraveliing its simple but mysterious works
Both are fluent writers, thorough readers
professors, therefore moulders of The
medical mind. Unfortunately one
views the subject reflected in q
concave, and the other In q
CONVEX mirror. Whence they arrive al
opposite conclusions. One has the high and
the other the low lands, as the key to estab-
lish bis theory. Would they investigate the
infallible laws of nature and search for facts
from these positive laws, they would ad
NIT that the Great Author of nature wisely
withholds from mortal man the power to
arrive at the ultimate cause of all the vari-
GUS phenomena. Should man be able to
unrayel the ultimate cause of malaria, or
any pestilential disease, then man would
have absolutely reached beyond
the bonds of knowledge into the infinite
absolute first cause.
Has science unshrouded the mystery Of
malarious causes? What do we know of
the cause of intermittent fever, measles, or
any of the dominant diseases that have pre-
vailed from time immemorial? So we
thoroughly explore the series Of results, the
multiplicity of effects, the divergen.
ces from the primary normal
state, produced by whatsoever cause or
causes, thoY may be. So we arrive in the
pathological field with the unerring micro
scope demonstrating the effect; we have
then all that science can, and will develope,
all that we need to enable US as physicians
to repair or remedy the lesion, if the
vital forces are not too much FRUSTRATED or
destroyed.
Science only enables US to aid the system
In repairing the morbid effects, andt to guard
against exciting causes, but leaves Us in the
dark as to the ultimate or tina! cause.
In contemplating the system of the fixed
laws of equilibrium, we observe that pesti-
lence, famine, war, are mere agents to bring
about this fixed law in the animal kingdom;
ard that winds, gales, and hurricanes bring
forth the same result in the vegetable king
dom.
These agencies are the purifiers, the me-
dunn through which The law of equilibrium
is maintained; the forces by which the
aged, the weak, the faulty, are cast of, to
be replaced by the young, vigorous, and
more lerfect, who are better adapted to
their sphere and surroundings.
While Prof. Bowling harps on high lands
and poverty as the cause, Prof. Bell rings
in low lands and malaria, Well high lands
and low lands always existed, the causes Of
both advocates are pe-petus.; why not cho-
lera exists forever? Neither high nor low
lands, nor both of them combined, if we'll
shaken by the two Esculapials would get
up single case of cholera; no, not even
crsmp. --...
High or low lands, filthy or clean cities,
lime stone or free stone regions, impure or
pure water, vegetable or animal diet, sleep
ing on the first o. second floor OF a build
inC, none of the above can produce q case
of cholera, where its cause does not exist;
nor will it ward off the disease where the
cholera is raging.
The negative may be proven succ sssfully;
namely, that the above agencies will not
produce case of cholera. And here we
land in the field of speculation, where every
body's opinion, unless based on positive
demonstration, is of equal value, and due
the same amount Of credence, if it pos
sesses the adumbration of nationality.
| therefore, venture to give my humble
opinion in q few words. Cholera is the
effect of specific cholera-poisoD, the
germ of which made its first appearance in
q epidemic form in 1917, in the Indies on
the river Ganges, where it is endemic, as
the plague has been endemic formerly on
the Nile. 1t first appeared in Bengal and
by gradual and steady progress diffused
Itself through Asia, Europe, and in 1882
landed on this Continent; that the cholera
miasm whether OF animal or vegetable
origin, hiss left its germ in its first invasion
wherever the adaptation of the surroundings
would favor its genesis and further props
cation, and that this miasm oVerpowered
all pre- existing miasm. Whence we see,
that since cholera first invaded Europe and
America, all our former bilious fevers,
feve-s, all epidemics and
malarial feVers have assumed different
type. ~ ..-
Should Sydenham, Abercrombie, or Arm
strong, now arise and resume the unforGu-
nate profession of practice of medicine,
they would have to change their infam ma
tory tactics, cast off their lancats, and EN-
brace our present tonic system. What this
specific cholera is that seems to come into
existence every few years-what WHITES
this germs wisely hidden from our search
ing minds.
But that it comes into existence every
few years, that it invsdes high and lofty
lands, low and msrshy districts, that it
visits high and well ventilated places, as
well as low, filthy and overcrowded novels,
that It plays havoc with the clean as well as
the filthy cities, and that it has no respect
for the pre- emption right OF the rich or poor,
but establishes its own "Squatter sovereign
ty," regardless of all laws and precaution,
are facts known to all who reside in places
often visited by this scourge.
Fortunately for the human race this spe-
cifc poison soon meets with some antsgo-
nistic force, causing it to fall harmless to its
resting place, where lying dormant fo-
years, until again aroused by some law of
nature, it resumes its former organism, and
with seemingly increased venom, flies forth
on its mission of destruction.
The above are my views. That science
DEVELOPS only the existing causes, and
their results. Ultimate causes cannot be
unrayelled.
That the Law of Equilibrium, has rs
positive agents, aud that pestilence is one
of its executive forces.
And last that the physician has only to deal |
with the abnormal state OF the system, and |
In the endeavor to restore the animal econ |
omy to is natural state, must know the
mode that nature provides and dictates for
her own relief. Therefore when the battle |
If opinion as TO ultimate causes Of cholera |
ceases, when the profession enters with IN
RENTING energy the field Of pathology, |
then, with the aid of the microscope or some |
other efficient apparatus to explore the eff
fects of cholera poison on the animal econ |
omy, bringing to light the organic or func- |
tional LESSONS, then our efforts may be
crowned by the discovery of sons remedial
agents, one as effective and antagonistic to
cholera as quinine now is known to be to
diseases of q malayial origin.