330 Monthly Review of Literature [^Sept. 



across, in its course, the whole extent of India. In March, 1818, it reached 

 Gonjam, in lat. 18^° N., Madras 13°, in October, and Cape Comorin 8°, by the 

 end of the year. Through the whole of that year the disease may be considered 

 as marching at the rate of one degree every month, in the teeth of winds often — 

 unchecked, indeed, by either currents or temperature. All evidence is adverse to 

 the supposition of contagion — that is, all is compatible with the contrary hypo- 

 thesis, while some things are utterly irreconcileable with the theory of contagion. 

 It is strictly epidemic ; and all are not seized who fall within its range, because, 

 as in all epidemics, apparently, a certain degree of susceptibility is required to 

 fasten upon, which all, happily, have not. The remoter cause is at present inac- 

 cessible — probability points to the electric, or, which is the same thing, the gal- 

 vanic state of the earth's surface — to some sudden change in what appears to 

 be the source of tlie nervous energy, if it be not the thing itself. But whether 

 this be so or not, the disease seems distinctly traceable to the sudden suspension 

 of the nervous energy, whatever be the source of that energy. 



The cholera is a stroke upon the circulating power, and produces its effects as 

 8uddenl)% almost, as a blow upon the sensorium, and the recovery is often as 

 sudden and complete, an awakening from death to life. In the human system 

 there evidently exist three, to a certain extent, distinct powers, the sensorial, the 

 respiratory, and, for want of a better name, the sympathetic, or circulating 

 power — having their sources of action respectively in the cerebrum and cere- 

 bellum, the medulla spinalis, and the ganglions. Any one of these may be sus- 

 pended, and the other two continue to operate. The sensorium may be suspended, 

 as often occurs in blows on the head, and the circulation and respiration be un- 

 impaired. The circulation may be supported after respiration has ceased, and 

 the brain been removed ; and in like manner the respiration and the sensorium 

 may be active, when the circulation has stopt, as is the case in cholera. In the 

 very commencement of the attack, the secretions fail universally. There is, 

 strictly, no gastric, no pancreatic fluid, no bile, no mucus ; the kidneys are in- 

 active ; there is no saliva, no moisture in the eyes, scarcely any carbon thrown 

 from the lungs, no animal heat. 



To stimulate them is of course the aim of the doctor — to revive the circulation, 

 or rather to relieve it, oppressed and obstructed as it is — to restore heat and ac- 

 tivity to the source of energy. Notwithstanding the apparent paradox, bleeding 

 is the remedy par excellence, whenever it is practicable. But the progress of 

 the disease is so rapid, all but instantaneous indeed, so completely is the circu- 

 lation stopt, that in a few hours the venous blood is of the consistence of tar, and 

 the difficulty of removing it of course obvious. But if, by shampooing, or by 

 some excitement, you can once get a flow, and go on withdrawing till the blood 

 recovers its colour, and the oppression of the chest is relieved, the patient is cured, 

 the dead man gets up and walks. The remedy acts mechanically — you unload 

 the gorged vessels, you take away the obstruction, you leave room for the play 

 of the enfeebled system — the energies, the springs, compressed by the clog and 

 weight upon them act again, and restore the current. The lungs resume their 

 functions free again — pure blood is thrown again into the heart, the arteries 

 again fill with wholesome fluid, reacting thus upon the sympathetic system, till 

 its energies are completely restored. 



Cabinet Cyclopaedia. Vol. XXI. First Volume of Lives of British Statesmen. 



This volume of biography contains the lives of More, Wolsey, Cranmer, and 

 Burleigh. That of More is the handy work of Sir James Macintosh — leisurely 

 and carefully written. There is more of the scholar than the lawyer in this por- 

 trait of More, and justly so, for his literary merits will long outlive his fame 

 either as chancellor or statesman. Of More's thorough honesty of purpose, no 

 man, capable of forming a judgment of character on the evidence of facts, can 

 doubt ; but neither can any man doubt that he had one set of sentiments on 

 paper, and another on his tongue. As a scholar in the closet, and among his 

 correspondents, he was speculatively liberal and rational ; while as a statesman, 

 and in the business of life, and of his profession, he was ready vigorously to enforce 



