Observations on cholera : comprising a description of the epidemic cholera of India,the mode of treatment, and the means of prevention / by T.J. Pettigrew.

  • Pettigrew, Thomas Joseph, 1791-1865.
Date:
1831
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Observations on cholera : comprising a description of the epidemic cholera of India,the mode of treatment, and the means of prevention / by T.J. Pettigrew. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    matter of extreme difficulty, nor can I pretend to dissipate the obscurity. The variable temperature, hot days and cold nights, exposure to heavy dews with imperfect clothing, have been supposed ade- quate exciting causes to generate cholera. The years 1816 and 1817 were particularly distinguished by a distempered state of the air and great irregu- larity of season in India. Easterly winds have been generally traced as a powerful agent in propagating the disease; and a remarkable tendency of the dis- ease to follow the course of rivers has been observed. Mr. Jameson's remarks upon this disposition must not be omitted :— ff It is to be recollected, he observes, u that in India, as in all other countries, the inhabitants flock to the neighbourhood of rivers, for the purposes of commerce; and that the greatest number of towns and cities will thus be found near navigable streams, whilst the banks of every rivulet affording the pros- pect of gaining a livelihood bv fishing, will be crowded with villages. It is perfectly plain, that the population being more thickly gathered in such situations, must always suffer more, on occasion of any general mortality, than more thinly inhabited portions of the country. This cause alone would appear sufficient to explain away the apparent ano- maly now under consideration. But there is yet another reason, of equal force : the vicinage of rivers, from the action of the sun upon the great body of water contained in their beds during the