The cholera : what has it taught us? its various modes of treatment examined; and the mode by calomel shown to be the best : with full report of numerous cases / by William J. Cox.

  • Cox William J.
Date:
1850
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The cholera : what has it taught us? its various modes of treatment examined; and the mode by calomel shown to be the best : with full report of numerous cases / by William J. Cox. 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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    G Living however under the shadow of this fear with regard to the future, it behoves us, at all events, to take advantage of and profit as much as possible by the truce now happily granted us, to muster our forces, to provide ammunition, to collect our strength, that we may be better prepared to meet the foe in the battle, Tvhich the councils of Heaven may have decreed is yet to be fought; and, surely, above all, it is imperative upon us, the members of the medical profession, to whom the pubhc look for aid with expectant eye, that we should now busily set to work, and casting aside all idle speculations, all petty discords, and rankling jealousies, endeavour to ascertain what the career of the disease has taught us, during the past year, and also during its former visitation in 1832; what we have learned of its nature, its causes, and, above all, of its proper treatment; what par- ticular system, what class of agents, or especial remedy, has best stood the test of experience, and established the fairest and most decided claim to preference. This can only be done justly by collecting, classifying, and contrasting a large number of cases, treated in various ways and according to different systems. The publication of one or two cases, successfully treated by this or that remedy, does not advance our investigations, or add an iota to our therapeutic knowledge. It is not fair to judge from such reports of the efficacy of the means put in force. The inference cannot be truly logical, the data being so deficient. It is from the exhibition of the remedial agent in the same manner and doses, and in a number of cases, presenting as nearly the same symptoms as possible one to another, that we can safely and legitimately draw a deduction of its real worth. The pages of the Lancet and other periodicals (professional and otherwise), have been frequently occupied with reports of solitary cases of cholera, treated by the writers of these papers in every imagin- able manner, and by every sort of remedy known and unknown (’till now). A hetrogenous mass of iU-ascertained facts and doubtful dogmas, that cannot weigh as real evidence. Had the authors of such papers patiently waited imtil they (or others