CHOLERA. 



r 139 ] 



CHONDRACANTHUS. 



sometimes preserve it a long time. The 

 green colouring matter extracted by alcohol 

 is a complex substance, containing a kind of 

 wax and a matter allied to indigo. 



BiBL. Von Moid, Vegetable Cell {London 

 Transl. 1852), p. 41 ; Vermischte Schriften, 

 p. 349; Nageli, Zeitschriftfiir Wiss. Bot. iii. 

 110; Raij Soc. Vol. 184.9. p. 176; Mulder, 

 Physiological Chemistry, Eclinb. Transl. 

 p. 266 ; Goppert and Cohn, Bot. Zeitung, 

 vii. 665 (1849); Schleiden, Grunzuge der 

 Wiss. Bot. 3rd ed. 196 ; Al. Braun, Verjun- 

 gung, {Ray Soc. Vol. 1853. p. 195); Morot, 

 Rech. sur la coloration des Vegetaux, Ann. 

 des Sc. nat. 3 ser. xiii. 1 60. A long list of 

 the older authors is given by Von Mohl, I, c. 



CHOLERA. — The attempt has often been 

 made to discover some animalcule or minute 

 vegetable organism in the air, water, and the 

 intestinal and other animal liquids, dm-ing 

 the existence of cholera, which might explain 

 the origin of this fearful disease ; and state- 

 ments have been published announcing 

 success. None of these have, however, stood 

 the test of rigid investigation. When the 

 cholera prevailed at Berlin in 1832, the 

 renowned Professor Ehrenberg, who had 

 then been engaged in the study of microsco- 

 ])ic organisms for many years, declared after 

 special and careful examination, that neither 

 the air nor the water from various localities, 

 contained anything unusual. Repeated ex- 

 aminations of the air and water of in- 

 fected localities, made in 1849, and during 

 the more recent accessions of the cholera, have 

 afforded also conclusive negative evidence. 



The view is no less unsupported by rea- 

 soning than by fact. Great reproductive 

 power is a general character of the more 

 minute organisms ; hence whenever they 

 are present, they are easily recognized. If 

 we examine a silk - worm affected with 

 muscardine, a fly with what may be termed 

 the muscardhie of the fly (Musca), a 

 portion of the crust of Favus, or a fragment 

 of an aphthous patch, the parts of the Fungi 

 are present in thousands; there is no need to 

 look for them twice. If they, or their ana- 

 logues, were present in cholera, the same 

 would surely be the case. There is, fm-ther, 

 no reason tobelieve that Fungi, when growino- 

 m animal bodies, ever produce anything 

 more than a mechanical effect, resulting from 

 their large numbers. The methods of 

 examining the air in regard to this point, are 

 described under Air; and thev are far 

 superior to that of simply exposing slides 

 to the atmosphere. The use of glycerine in 



these experiments must be carefully avoided, 

 on account of its rendering minute and 

 delicate objects so transparent. 



In regard to the supposed cholera-fungus 

 of 1849, one point requires special notice. It 

 was announced at the Microscopical Society, 

 that certain of the bodies detected (globular), 

 were spores of a true fungus {Uredo). It is 

 but justice, however, to Dr. Swayne to state 

 that this is incorrect ; although it has been 

 repeated in all works which have since 

 alluded to the subject. 



BiBL. Swayne, Evacuations in Cholera, 

 dfc. Lancet, 1849,568, 398; Obs. on College 

 Report, Sfc, Lancet, 1849, 530; Brittan and 

 Budd, Medical Gazette, Sept. 1849 : Baly 

 and Gull, Rep. of Cholera Subcommittee, 6fc. 

 of Roy. Coll. ofPhys., London, 1849 {Lancet, 

 1849, p. 493); Griffith, Medical Gazette, 

 Dec. 1849 ; Bennett and Robertson, Edinb. 

 Monthly Journal, Nov. 1849 ; Berkeley, 

 Medical Gazette, 1849. p .1035; Quain, Let- 

 ter, Sfc, Lancet, Oct. 1849 ; Anonymous, 

 Cryptogamic Theory of Cholera, London Jour- 

 nal of Medicine, \S\9, i. 1048-9; Robin, Fe^e- 

 taux Parasites, Sfc.,2n(\.QA. 1853. Appendice, 

 p. 6'J6. 



CHOLERA-FLY. See Musca. 



BiBL. Knox, Lancet, 1853, ii. p. 479. 



CHOLESTERINE, sometimes, but im- 

 properly termed, Cholestearine. 



This substance exists naturally in most 

 animal liquids in a state of solution, also in 

 many animal solids ; as in the blood, the 

 bile, the meconium, the brain and spinal 

 cord. As an abnormal ])roduct, it occurs in 

 the crystalline form in the bile, biliary calculi, 

 various dropsical effusions, the contents of 

 cysts, pus, old tubercles, malignant tumours, 

 the excrements, expectoration of phthisis, &c. 

 It does not occur in the vegetable kingdom. 



The crystals form thin pearly rhombic 

 plates (PI. 9. fig. 21). The acute angles are 

 =79° 30', the obtuse =1 00° 30'. Sometimes 

 the angles are truncated. 



Cholesterine is insoluble in water and 

 solution of potash, even when boiling; but 

 soluble in aether and boihng alcohol, crystal- 

 Hzing on cooling. 



It is most easily procured from a gallstone 

 by boiling in alcohol ; it falls on cooling. 

 The crystals thus obtained are usually thicker 

 than the natural plates. 



BiBL. See Chemistry, Animal. 



CHONDRACANTHUS. — A genus of 

 Crustacea, of the order Siphonostoma, and 

 family Lernseopoda. 



C. Zei. Found upon the gills of Zeus 



