THE MICROSCOPE. 101 



The answer by my judgment, is that such expectations are 

 flimsy. The caprice of Stanhope at the Hamburg Hospital 

 cannot seriously pass for an argument in favor of anti-choleraic 

 vaccination. His interesting but wildly exaggerated stories 

 were the product of a newspaper's love for sensation, and pro- 

 fit of increased sales of newspapers. 



My own personal thoughts concerning cholera and the method 

 of treatment, as practiced by me both in Russia and at Ham- 

 burg during the epidemic of 1892, will occupy the remaining 

 time allotted me. 



It is now well known that cholera is a disease of the alimen- 

 tary canal. Its inciting cause is believed to be a germ taken 

 into that canal through the medium of food and drink. There 

 its presence is protested against by the absorbent vessels, which 

 eliminate from the food the nutriment for the body. The first 

 symptom produced by foreign invasion in the intestines is a diar- 

 rhoea, which may precede vomiting from one to three or even 

 four days. If this be true, the bowels must be the seat of dis- 

 order, and the most direct method of reaching them by medi- 

 cation must be the best. If the stomach could be emptied of 

 the foul material before the poison has passed further, there 

 might be speedy relief and, indeed, no real cholera. After it 

 has passed into the intestines, medicine administered through 

 the stomach may be slow in reaching the seat of the disease, 

 and even then can only mingle with the poison, holding out the 

 hope that the one will be neutralized by the other. This hope, 

 in truth, is seldom realized. But if the poison can be removed 

 from below, the course is left clear for nature to recuperate it- 

 self. The diarrhoea is an evidence of the great exertion put forth 

 by the 'organism to rid itself of the death-dealing agency, and 

 probably it would be effectual in the great majority of cases 

 were it not that the nervous forces of the system are exhausted 

 by the terrible strain before the required evacuation of the bow- 

 els is completed. A large irrigation of hot water, made soapy 

 preferably by neutral liquid soap, introduced into the colon 

 through a suitable rubber tube, is the simplest, and I am pre- 

 pared to say further that it is a more satisfactory way of treat- 

 ing cholera than any other with which I am acquainted. The 

 time to begin the irrigation is at the very earliest possible mo- 

 ment Save the blood every single moment of infection by im- 



