Treatise on cholera asphyxia, or epidemic cholera, as it appeared in Asia, and more recently in Europe. With practical remarks on the disease in Europe, an appendix of cases, and the reports and regulations of the Boards of Health of London and Edinburgh / by George Hamilton Bell.

  • Bell, George Hamilton.
Date:
1832
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Treatise on cholera asphyxia, or epidemic cholera, as it appeared in Asia, and more recently in Europe. With practical remarks on the disease in Europe, an appendix of cases, and the reports and regulations of the Boards of Health of London and Edinburgh / by George Hamilton Bell. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    phenomena with the notion that ain is bebe pay source of the disease *. | * The recent outbreak of the disease at Haddington is a re- markable instance of its arising spontaneously. The first case in that town oceurred on the 17th December 1831. _ The .man’ at- tacked resided i in a filthy close, by t the river side, and no contact or communication with any person coming from N: ewéastle or Sunder- land, or from any other suspected quarter, could be traced: -hé was a man of dissipated habits, and he died of the disease on the 20th December. -His case will be found in the Appendix: . This case was immediately followed by several others, from the same locality, all on the immediate margin of the river. In connexion with this subject it is proper to notice a coincidence which, had it not been investigated at the time, might have given some coun- tenance to the theory of contagion. It happened that three shoemakers, natives of Haddington, who had left Newcastle on the 14th December to walk to Haddington, arrived there on the 19th, two days after the occurrence of the first case. These shoe- makers were in perfect health when they left Newcastle, and, since their arrival in Haddington, they have continued to enjoy good health. They had no communication with any of the suf- ferérs from the disease; yet, as soon as it was discovered that these three individuals had arrived from Newcastle, it was gene- rally reported that they had brought the contagion with them, and, until the matter was investigated, no doubt was entertained, upon the subject. This is a notable example of the manner in which such reports arise ; and I have little doubt: that many si- milar reports, some of which have been admitted as authentic into works on this subject, have no better foundation. The truth is, that, if Cholera could have been carried by healthy per- sons coming from Newcastle and Sunderland, it must, by this time, have spread over half the towns both of England and Scot- land ; since the intercourse has” never - ‘been. interrupted, ‘and’ many medical men in particular, have'come ‘direct from'the béd-. sides of Cholera patients, to Edinburgh, -and. to other places, not: . on foot, and by a five days’ journey, like the Haddington. Shoe-, makers, but as quickly as the public’ corivéeyances could” carry them ; and: hitherto without any prejudicial effect either to them- selves or their friends, or others whe may. have come in contact with them. ,