The history of cholera in Exeter in 1832 / by Thomas Shapter.

Date:
1849
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The history of cholera in Exeter in 1832 / by Thomas Shapter. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    feelings of the time, will I trust he a sufficient apology for their re-publication here. If we compare them with the Orders in Council which have been recently issued, they constitute what may be termed a literary curiosity, of the deepest interest, in the history of this country, when it is borne in mind, that these con- trary blasts of dogmatic opinion bear the seal, and carry with them the weight, of official importance. Though I have in the following pages studiously avoided entering upon any discus- sion of the vexed questions mooted and so peremptorily decided in these documents, I have not hesitated, at the same time, briefly to express my own conclusions upon the subject, and which perhaps I may not be deemed unreasonable in having done : inasmuch, as in another place* I have, at some length, canvassed the general doctrines of contagion, and of epidemic influence. The chapter devoted to the description of the disease itself, its predisposing causes, method of cure, &c., must by no means be taken as a complete and comprehensive view of this very important portion of my inquiry; it is intended to depict solely that which occurred in this City. Nevertheless, from the character of the dis- ease having been so universally the same, it may be found to illus- trate those general principles which mark and regulate its course, and therefore may conduce towards arriving at the true nature of the disease, and the treatment, prophylactic and medical, necessary for counteracting its fatal tendencies. To the inquiry which is so frequently and anxiously made, Is there no cure for Cholera ? I would make this reply : There is no specific cure for Cholera ; but, as in fever and other diseases, its various stages require management and treatment according to the phenomena that are developed, and the individual constitutions in which they arise, and that a wise conduct and judicious management of these are * Library of Medicine, Vol. i., pp. 208, 2/1.