A review of the arguments for and against the contagious nature of cholera morbus / by James Hutchinson.

Date:
1832
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A review of the arguments for and against the contagious nature of cholera morbus / by James Hutchinson. 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.

    18/20 (page 16)
    ON CHOLERA. It likewise occurs to me, that I have, on more than one occasion, ob-- served two or more men attacked in succession, who had taken up their berths in hospital, in places which had immediately before been occupied by Cholera patients ; but this, it is but fair to say, is little more than conjectural. After having made so free with the opinions of Dr. Jameison, it is but justice to the memory of that accomplished man, to state, that he appears latterly to have entertained strong-doubts, if the disease was not really of a contagious character: but he shall speak for himself. “Ifsetting aside “ the circumstances militating against it, we take it for granted, that the “ infection was truly received by the centre and Hansi divisions, from the “ detachments above mentioned, we must believe that the disorder, though “not communicable by contact from person to person, was so from one “ large body to another large body, (query—how can infection be commu- “ nicated from one large body to another large body, but by means of one “ or more individuals ?) and that wherever the poison got head amongst a “number of men, it assumed some new quality, so as when mixed with the “at nosphere to become contagious; what constituted this additional “quality, we cannot pretend to determine; but in support of its existence “ we may quote the predilection of the epidemic for cities and camps; the “ infection of the left division, andtheNagpore and Meerut troops, imme- “ diately after entering into the diseased medium at Jubbulpore, Nagpore, “ and Delhi, and the similar case of the troops and followers in attendance “ on the Governor General, being attacked sh >rtly after communicating “ with an infected village, in tlie Gorruckpore district. To the same ac- “ count, may be placed the progressive march of the disorder from one part “ of an infected place to another, as in the centre and Hansi divisions; and “more particularly the Rajpootana force, in which the virus seemed to “ be regularly propagated from corps to corps. In some instances the “ suffering body would appear to have sickened immediately on coming “ into the poisonous medium, as was the case with the Nagpore troops, “ who were infected on the very day in which they encamped at the infec- “ ted village of Guongong. But more frequently one or two days would “ seem to have been requisite to bring the virus into action. Thus the “ Meerut detachment entered Delhi on the 29th, and was not affected “till the 31st; thus, too, the Hansi troops had not the disease till the “ 6th, the day after the junction of that detachment It would be superfluous in me longer to protract the discussion of this subject; the reader has now had both sides of the argument fairly stated to him, to the best of my ability, and can judge for himself ; for my own part, with every deference to the Opinions of my professional bre- thren, 1 declare, in the words of Dr. Kennedy, that I know no character belonging to any contagious disease, which the epidemic Cholera did not manifest; and that if it was not contagious, 1 know no other disease which I would be inclined to consider so ; and I cannot help regretting that it should have been left to a person who never saw the disease, to find out its real nature, even although that person is Sir Gilbert Blane. * Jamieson, p, 144.