The morning star and Catholic messenger., 1877-11-25
ING CATHOLIC AEssRNGER sUNDAI NOVEMBER g.
$50, 900 Reward 3ar a Cure for Cholera.
Scientific Anerio An.

| Scientific American.
By will dated August %, ls49, FIeucl
| gentleman named Breans left to the Pari
| Academy of Sciences the cum of $50 00O
to be awarded as prizs to any pereon VIII
| should either discover a cure for Asiati
| cholera, or the cause of the disease. H.
further directed that the interest of tbi
faDd, until the principal was finally award
ed, should be donated "a premiums to in
| vestigators who should contribute import
ant Information tending to advance know
| ledge relative to the malady. The rules o
the French Academy, under which The
prize will he awarded, are as follows. The
competitor is required:
tl.) To point out a system of medicine
that cures cholera in the immense majority
of cases or
(2) To indicate, in an incontestable
that, by expressing these causes, the cpl
demic will Cease; or
e. To discover some certain prophy-
Tactic as evident for cholera, as, for in
stance, vaccine is for smallpox.
(4) To become entitled to the annual
prlZe derived from the interest ON the
$SOOOO) the competitor will have to de-
monstrate, by rigorous processes; tire ex-
lstence In the atmosphere of substances
that may play part 10 the production or
propagation of epidemic diseases; and
% In case none ofthe above conditions
have been fulfilled, a competitor may take
the annual prize by finding a radical cure
for letters. or eDlightening the world upon
the etioiogy OF that disease.
The existeuce of this reward has been
the cause Of an -immeGse amount of med
ical research, and hundreds of papers have
been submitted to the Academy. The
great prize has never been awarded and
probably it never will be, for before the
cause or the cure of Asiatic cholera can be
GlHcnV9vpd. the mala1v ifa6lf tn
constant progress in knowledge of preven
tive sanitary precaation, will probably,
like the plague, have disappeared alto
gether.
Daring the present year, we learn from
the English Magazine Of Pharmacy, nine
papers have been sent in. None have been
worthy of the $S0, ,000 but as the
interest may be bestowed annually upon
any person who sh all have caused science
to progress, as regards cholera or any other
epidemic disease, either by giving better
analyses cf the air, and showing therein
some morbid element, or by discovering
come process enabling Us to become ac-
Qualhted with, or investigate, the animal
ue which, up to the present time, have
escaped the eyes of the learned, and which
may be the cause, or one of the causes, of the
disease," portions of the revenue have been
awarded on two of the nine papers. The
6rst of the successful pair is by DR.. Da-
DOue, OF Taus anQ ne enUSaVOrS TO Demon
strate that the primitive LESSONS consist n
a diequamation of the endothelium of the
small vessels, and of the epithelium of the
various membranes, particularly that of
the intestine, and he attributes this dis
Quamation to the influence which the NOR
bitic agent of cholera, after it has pene-
trated into the system by the capillaries of
the lungs, exerts upon the epithelial cells
and the inter cellular substance. For ex
planation of the various phenomena of
cholera, according to this theory, DR.. Du-
boue was awarded q prize of $500. The
other fortunate competitor was DR.. Stanski,
OF Paris. who forwarded large number of
wherein he endeavored to de-
monstrate that contagion at distance by
or, in other terms, infection by
means of volatile principle, has no ex-
isteDce in any disease whatever. For this
prize of 5000 WAS given.
We believe that tie existence of this
prize is little known in this country, and
as cases of cholera have been of frequent
occurrence in some localities South, and
also have been closely and intelligentIy3
studied by the ply sicians of that section,
we have no doubt but the American medl-
cal profession, if it does not possess aome
member who may secure the prize, at least
numbers many who can contribute mate
rally to general knowledge concerning the
disease.