Academy of Science in Paris. 567 



nished to twenty grains ; and in three days more the patient was 

 cured. 



Cholera Morbus. An incalculable number of letters, memoirs, 

 and documents of every description, have been piled on the table of 

 the Academy relative to the cholera morbus ; but as they generally 

 consist of speculative theories, and merely controversial discussions, 

 it would be idle to lay them before our readers. An exception, 

 however, to this rule exists in a paper forwarded by Dr. Jahinichen, 

 who, as a member of the council appointed to examine the progress 

 of the disease, had personally observed the majority of cases in 

 Moscow, and whose talent renders his opinions valuable. The 

 conclusions at which he has arrived are the following: 1. The 

 cholera morbus is not a pestilential disease. 2. It is not either 

 directly or indirectly contagious. 3. A germ or miasma of cholera 

 emanating from the diseased person exists in the atmosphere sur- 

 rounding him. 4. These emanations may be sufficient to originate 

 disease, even when only proceeding from a single person, if the 

 malady be violent, but will always be so in a hospital. 5. But a 

 particular predisposition (arising generally from the greater or less 

 irregularity in the mode of living) is necessary in each individual, 

 to produce the developement of this miasma of cholera. The pro- 

 portion in which this predisposition exists in a population has not 

 been ascertained with sufficient certainty to establish a general 

 rule ; at Moscow it was about three in every hundred. 6. The 

 propagation of the cholera is in accordance with the usual laws of 

 epidemic diseases. 7. There is every reason to believe that pulmo- 

 nary absorption is the only method by which the miasma is intro- 

 duced into the human body. There is, therefore, no contagion, in 

 the sirict meaning of the word, but rather a species of penetration. 

 8. The miasma appears to have a peculiar affinity with the aque- 

 ous vapours in the atmosphere, and to be equally volatile. Dr. 

 Jahinichen then adds, that he obtained, from the condensation of 

 these vapours in rooms containing a number of patients, a sub- 

 stance entirely resembling that obtained by Moscati at Florence, 

 and suggests that a close observation of the hygrometrical and 

 barometrical variations of the atmosphere may throw light on the 

 geographical march of the disease. He also thinks it probable that 

 the miasma inherent in the aqueous vapours may rise in the atmo- 

 sphere, and, being transported by a current of air to other countries, 

 be inhaled by the inhabitants of those countries, and thus originate 

 the disease. Should this conjecture be well founded, all quarantine 

 and other precautionary measures must be useless, unless respira- 

 tion could be suspended ; and there is reason to fear that the 

 ravages of the disorder in the western parts of Europe may be 

 more extensive than in Russia, in consequence of the prejudices 

 existing against hospitals, which, by keeping the patient at home, 

 will render each house a separate source from which the fatal 



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