The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1877-12-27
$50, 900 Reward for a Cholera Cure.

BY will dated August %, 1S49, a
French gentleman named Breant left to
the Paris Academy of Sciences the sum
of $4,000, to be awarded as prize to
any person who should either discover a
cure for Asiatic cholera, or the cause of
the disease. He further directed that
the interest of this fund, until the prin-
cipal was finally awarded, should be
donated as premiums to investigators
who should contribute important infor-
nation tending to advance knowledge
relative to the malady. The rules of
the French Academy, under which the
prize will be awarded, are as follows.
The competitor is required:
O. To point out system of medi-
cine that cures cholera in the immense
majority of cases; or
(2). To indicate, in an incontestible
manner, the causes of Asiatic cholera,
so that, by suppressing these causes,
the epidemic will cease; or
(3). To discover some certain pro-
phylactic as evident for cholera, as for
instance, vaccine is for smallpox.
az. To become entitled to the annual
prize derived from the interest on the
$4,000, the competitor will have to
demonstrate, by rigorous processes, the
existence in the atmosphere of substan-
ces that may play part in the produc-
ton or propagation of epidemic dis
eases; and
(6. In case none of the above con-
ditions have been fulfilled, a competitor
may take the annual prize by finding a
radical cure for letters, or enlightening
the world upon the etiology of that dis
ease.
The existence of the reward has been
the cause of an immense amount of med
ical research, and hundreds of papers
have been submitted to the Academy
The great prize never has been award
ed, and probably it never will be, for be-
fore the cause or the cure of Asiatic
cholera can be discovered, the malady
itself, owing to our constant progress in
knowledge of preventive sanitary pre-
caution, will probably, like the plague,
have disappeared altogether.
During the present year, we learn
from the English Magazine of Pharna-
cy, nine papers have been sent in. None
have been adjudged worthy of the $780,
600, but as the interest may be bestow-
ed annually upon any person "who
shall have caused science to progress,
as regards cholera or any other epidem-
ic disease, either by giving better analy-
ses of the air, and showing therein some
morbid element, or by discovering some
process enabling us to become acquaint-
ed with, or investigate, the animalcule
which, up to the present time, have es-
capped 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 first of the successful pair is by DR..
DUBUQUE, of Pau, and he endeavors to
demonstrate that The primitive LESSONS
consist in a disquamation of the endothe-
lium of the small vessels, and of the
epithelium of the small vessels, and of
the epithelium of the various mem
branes, particularly that of the intes-
tine, and he attributes this disquama-
ton to the influence which the morbifc
agent of cholera, after it has penetrated
into the system by the capillaries OF
the lungs, exerts upon the epithelial
cells and the intercellular substance.
For explanations of the various phe-
nomena of cholera, according to this
theory, DR.. DUBUQUE was awarded prize
of $500. The other fortunate COM
petitor was DIR. Stanski, of Paris, who
forwarded large number of pamphlets,
wherein he endeavored to demonstrate
that contagion at distance by miasma,
or, in other terms, infection by means
of volatile principle, has no existence
in any disease whatever. For this con-
tribution prize of $500 was given.
We believe that the existence of this
prize is little known in this country, and
as cases of cholera have been of fire.
quent occurrence in some localities
South, and also have been closely and
intelligently studied by the physicians
of that section, if it does not possess
some member who may secure the prize,
at least numbers many who can con.
tribute materially to general knowledge
concerning the Enthusiastically,
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