Warning and admonition to the British public on the introduction (now well ascertained) of the cholera of India / by Sir Gilbert Blane.

  • Blane, Gilbert, Sir, 1749-1834.
Date:
1831
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Warning and admonition to the British public on the introduction (now well ascertained) of the cholera of India / by Sir Gilbert Blane. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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

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    WARNING AND ADMONITION TO THE BRITISH PUBLIC ON THE INTRODUCTION (NOW WELL ASCERTAINED) OF THE CHOLERA OF INDIA By SIR GILBERT BLANE, Bart. FA <• • V The first Edition of this small Tract was circulated early last month,* witka vieuf. chiefly to recommend the putting of the Country in a state of defence^egainst this malady, which had not till then been thought of. But whether from want of due attention to this, or the false and mischievous impression i»de by the pains taken in certain quarters to spread the disbelief of its not being o^g^com- municable nature, it has, in spite of two other editions of the Warning, act^l^T \ been communicated to one of the great sea-port towns on the east oqalt England, as had been predicted. This has made the Tract in question to be called for with redoubled avidity. But the writer of it feeling he has discharged his duty, has yielded to the solicitation of the Printer and Booksellers, to distribute still another and more extended edition, on condition that they shall charge no more than what will indemnify them for paper and print, that is 2d. so as to be accessible to all ranks; and some important additions, particularly in the practical part, have been added. 19 th Nov. 1831. The Writer of this has been irre- sistibly impelled to this task by a sense of duty to his Country, and his unfeigned anxiety for its safety, embracing that of his friends and family, and he will confess, even the small residue of his own life, the remnant of old age and grow- ing infirmities. In case it should be asked who is he who thus puts himself so forward on this occasion ; it is due to the Public to answer by shew- ing what claims he has to their confidence. He has for more than fifty years applied his mind to studies and duties nearly connected with sub- jects of this nature. His first public situation was that of Phy- sician to the great fleets which were employed in the West Indies and on the coast of North America during the three or four last years of the American war : he served for seven years as a Commissioner of sick and wounded seamen in the late war: he was despatched in 1809 by the British Government on a special mission to the island of Walcheren to inspect and report * This was effected through the patriot- ism and philanthropy of the Duke of Richmond, the Post Master General, by his own proposal, and under his own hand, to all the sea ports of Great Bri- tain and Ireland. on the state of an army of nearly forty thousand men then serving in Zealand, and labouring under a most disastrous state, of sickness : he has been twelve years of his life Physician to St. Thomas’s Hospital : the Marquess of Hast- ings, Governor-General of India, when this epidemick made its ap- pearance in 1817, directed copies or abstracts of the surgeons’ reports of the army to be transmitted to him: the Court of Directors caused to be put into his hands copies of the Transactions of the Boards of India: he may add that he was engaged for upwards of thirty years in extensive private prac- tice, and was Senior Physician to His late Majesty George IV. dur- ing the whole of his reign. It is not likely that a paternal government, like our own, should be unheedful of the extreme dan- ger of the country, and they ac- cordingly established a Board of Health some months ago, for the purpose of checking the progress of a disease so novel,* so rapid in * There are some obscure notices of it in an ancient writer, and what is believed to be an incorrect description of it in some parts of India about seventy years ago. See Dr. B. Hawkins’s Description of the Cholera in Russia. A disease answering to its description is also recorded in the 6th and 7th Books of Josephus’s History of the Jews.