12 JOURNAL OF THE [January, 



CHOLERA ASIATICA. 



BY WILLIAM H. BATES, M. D. 

 {Read October 2ist, 1887.) 



The name chosen to designate this disease was extremely in- 

 appropriate, having been used since the days of Hippocrates 

 for a complaint attended with a flux of bile — XoXi). Whereas 

 the Indian disease was marked by an absence of bile in the 

 matters vomited, or discharged from the bowels. For a time, 

 therefore, there was much confusion, and the epithets " Asiatic," 

 " epidemic " and " malignant " were commonly applied to the 

 new malady, by way of distinction from the former affection. 



In the winter of t8i7-'i8 there appeared in the camp of the 

 Marquis of Hastings, then engaged in the Mahratta war, on the 

 banks of the Sind, a very fatal malady, attended with vomiting 

 and purging. It is now believed to have prevailed in India from 

 time to time during the previous century, and indeed as far 

 back as history goes. But it was then taken for a new disease, 

 and created the utmost terror. During the next few years it 

 spread over a large part of Asia, in the following order : In 

 1818 in Burmah, Arracan and Mallacca ; 1819 in Penang, Sum- 

 atra, Siam, Ceylon and the Mauritius ; 1820 in Tonquin China 

 and China ; 12,22-2^,-2^ in all China ; and in 1827 in Chinese 

 Tartary. Turning to the West, we find it in July, 1821, at 

 Muscat and the Persian Gulf ; in i823-'29-'3o in Persia ; and 

 in 1823 in Astrachan, without spreading further westward for 

 some time, /. e. until 1829, when it made its appearance at 

 Orenburgh through Tartary, revisited Astrachan in 1830, and 

 then started on its course through Europe. It continued slowly 

 westward, and in May, 183 1, it was severe at Moscow and War- 

 saw ; and in July of the same year at St. Petersburgh and 

 Cronstadt ; and in October at Berlin and Vienna. The first 

 cases in England appeared at Sunderland in October, 183 1. 

 This fatal malady ravaged the whole of Europe, and left that quar- 

 ter of the globe in 1837, the last place affected being Rome. In 

 1832 it crossed the Atlantic and reached Quebec, and extended 

 over the United States. Besides the first great epidemic above 

 mentioned, the western' parts of the world have suffered from 

 two severe visitations of Cholera, viz., in i848-'49 and in 1853- 

 '54. In 1866 Europe and America were again visited, and in 



