The early seats of cholera in India, and in the east : with reference to the past and the present / by John Macpherson.

  • Macpherson, John, 1817-1890.
Date:
1869
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The early seats of cholera in India, and in the east : with reference to the past and the present / by John Macpherson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    ON THE EARLY SEATS OF CHOLERA IN INDIA AND IN THE EAST, WITH REFEKENCE TO THE PAST AND THE PRESENT. By JOHN MACPHERSON, M.D., INSrECTOR-GENEKAL OF HOSPITALS, H.M. BENGAL ARMY, RETIRED LIST. {Read before the Epidemiological Society of London^ April ls<, 1867.] I. Early history of cholera in the East, n. Names of disease. III. Inferences. 1. Always of various kinds. 2. Long endemic in India. 3. Also, epidemic. 4. Causes assigned. 5. Carried by ships. IV. Its present diffusion in the East; inferences. 1. Tendency of disease to get fixed in adjoining countries. 2. Ships, caravans, pilgrims. 3. Deserts. 4. Imperfect information respecting the past. V. General results. 1. Importance of Gangetic valley overrated. 2. Quarantine of Red Sea alone quite insufficient. 3. Habits of natives sup- posed to have an influence on the disease. VI. Historical summary. VII. Appendix. Historical table, and table of names. The disease called cholera morbus, or the choleric pas- sion, has been fully described by most of the Greek and Arab authors. In more recent periods we have accounts of its violent forms, given by Sydenham, and Willis, and Morton, in England, not to mention Zacutus, Riverius, and many other continental authorities. The most comprehensive view of the whole subject was taken by the late Dr. W. F. Chambers, in his lectures in the Medical Gazette, 1849. Resides giving a full account of what Greek and Arab authors had said on the subject, he entered in some detail on the disease, as described by Sydenham and others. On this part of the subject Dr. Greenhow has also enlarged in the British and Foreign Quarterly. For accounts of the disease w'ithin historical times in India we are indebted mainly to the Madras and Bengal reports of their Medical boards. '1 he information supplied by them has been digested well by Dr. Chambers, by a writer in the Times in 1849, by the late Dr. Graves, and has also been given in abstract in Martin’s work on Tropical Diseases.