298 NATURE AND LIFE. 



ly have proved that at least such substances check the de- 

 velopment of every kind of fermentation, delay putrid de- 

 composition, and impede the decay of organic matter. It 

 is allowable to suppose that these qualities, distinctly noted 

 in chemists' laboratories, will be effectual in the laboratory 

 of the animal system. 



Apart from the remedies used against decided cholera, 

 there are preventives which may be prudently and season- 

 ably employed : these are disinfecting and antiseptic sub- 

 stances, as phenic acid, coal-tar, chloride of lime. The cor- 

 rosive nature of these substances prevents their internal 

 administration, and the test of their therapeutic effect ; but 

 it is positive that they exert a destructive influence over all 

 organic corpuscles, and usually annul their injurious proper- 

 ties. On this account it is wise to employ them in cleans- 

 ing and sweetening the atmosphere, particularly the confined 

 air of rooms and hospitals, while epidemics are prevalent. 

 It is the duty of government to take prompt steps and give 

 plain instructions to insure the use of these substances 

 everywhere at periods when they are required. 



From the point of view of individual hygiene, the only 

 prescription is to live regularly and temperately. Excesses, 

 always dangerous, are more than ever so during an epidem- 

 ic. It is a matter of course that extreme cleanliness is not 

 less imperative ; what, perhaps, is yet more so is calmness 

 and mental cheerfulness. Moral force is here no less im- 

 portant than physical health. While cholera prevails, dis- 

 orders of the bowels are very common, and in the very 

 great majority of cases the disease does not come as a sud- 

 den attack, but as the result of diarrhoea, more or less 

 protracted. Experience has shown that the breaking out 

 of cholera is often prevented by attacking this first threat- 

 ening symptom with opiates and the subnitrate of bis- 

 muth. When the cholera prevails in England, the gov- 

 ernment organizes visits to every house, to ascertain and 



