CHOLERA, ASIATIC. 



CLEMENS, JEREMIAH. 1C9 



The missionaries at Constantinople resorted 

 to a less heroic treatment when called to cases 

 of collapse, yet were successful, losing but 1Y$ 

 per cent, of patients of this class. They gave 

 in frequent doses their compound of equal parts 

 of laudanum, tincture of capsicum, tincture of 

 ginger, and tincture of cardamom seeds, giving 

 forty drops or more every half hour, or oftener 

 if rejected by the stomach, and adding a table- 

 spoonful of brandy at the same intervals. They 

 maintained the same external measures of 

 relief, hot bags of sand, bottles of hot water, 

 mustard poultices, &c., already described. The 

 thirst they relieved by gum arabic water or 

 camomile tea, in small quantities, and Syden- 

 ham's white decoction. For a day or two after 

 the attack was controlled the patient was kept 

 on a diet of rice water, arrowroot, Sydenham's 

 decoction, crust water, and camomile tea. 



During the entire prevalence of the epidemic 

 in Constantinople these heroic men went forth 

 day after day among the caravansaries and the 

 hovels of the poor, both often intensely filthy, 

 equipped with a bottle each of these two mix- 

 tures above described, a few pounds of ground 

 mustard, a bottle of brandy, a paper of camo- 

 mile flowers, and a paper of gum arabic, and 

 ministered healing to hundreds and thousands, 

 who, but for them, would have perished. 



There is, however, strong opposition among 

 very eminent practitioners to the use of opium 

 and permanent stimulants in cholera. "We have 

 already referred to the recommendation of the 

 use of chloroform, both by inhalation and inter- 

 nal administration, in the early stages of the dis- 

 ease. Dr. Davies, who was appointed by the 

 Royal College of Physicians to investigate and re- 

 port upon the treatment of cholera, gave details of 

 forty-seven cases of cholera, and thirteen of the 

 worst forms of the preliminary diarrhoea, treated 

 by chloroform internally in doses of from seven 

 to ten minims every hour, half hour, or quarter 

 of an hour, according to the severity of the 

 symptoms. Of these ten, all cholera cases, died, 

 and the remainder recovered. These were al- 

 most wholly from the better classes, and were 

 therefore hardly a fair average. Dr. Davies 

 was not disposed to confide in chloroform so 

 fully as some of his colleagues. Dr. Braith- 

 waite insists upon relying upon it to the ex- 

 clusion of opium, camphor, calomel, or quinine, 

 giving only, where absolutely necessary, com- 

 pound spirits of ammonia, with chloric ether 

 and champagne, or some other mild wine. So 

 far is he from seeking to check the vomiting and 

 purging that he would encourage it by ad- 

 ministering large quantities of cold water, with 

 a little mustard in it, if necessary, and by the 

 use of castor oil. He would put the patient 

 in a hot hip bath with his feet in a. foot bath, 

 the hot water to have a pound of flour of mus- 

 tard in it, and the temperature to be maintained 

 or increased by adding hot water till reaction 

 sets in, and the cramps and spasms relax. 



Another mode of treatment which has made 

 some stir in the medical world, is that intro- 



duced by Dr. Chapman, of applying ice to the 

 spine to control and subdue the spasm, availing 

 himself otherwise of the usual external reme- 

 dies. 



The followers of Hahnemann have boasted 

 of their wonderful success in the treatment of 

 the disease in Berlin in former epidemics, but 

 their statistics were based on too small a num- 

 ber of selected cases to be a fair criterion of the 

 success of their peculiar mode of treatment; 

 and during the prevalence of the epidemic at 

 this time in Europe, their method has proved 

 such a failure as to be strongly reprobated by 

 many who were formerly favorably disposed 

 toward it. In the French Academy of Sciences, 

 at its session of October 30, 1865, M. Elie de 

 Beaumont presented facts showing that the re- 

 gion of the copper mines of Rio Tinto in Anda- 

 lusia, Spain, had never been visited by the 

 cholera, although there was a large mining 

 population there, and though the adjacent 

 country had suffered severely from its ravages ; 

 and that this immunity was probably due to 

 the fumes of sulphurous and arsenious acid 

 disengaged in the roasting of the ores. It was 

 stated that the inhabitants of a village two 

 leagues distant, where cholera prevailed, had 

 sent to the mine to obtain a quantity of the 

 ore to roast in a public place to put an end to 

 the disease. This suggested the use of arsenious 

 acid as a remedy, which had been tried with 

 success in some cases. The sulphate of copper, 

 it was said, had also been found a valuable 

 medicine in the treatment of cholera. 



After all, the spread of cholera in any city or 

 town will depend very greatly upon its sani- 

 tary condition. Once introduced from abroad 

 it may, even in the most cleanly city and the 

 best ventilated dwellings, find some victims 

 among the feeble, the intemperate, and the li- 

 centious ; it may indeed strike down now and 

 then a subject among those whose habits are ir- 

 reproachable, but whose health is not firm ; but 

 it will soon pass away if the filth, foul air, bad 

 ventilation, and drunkenness, and lewdness, 

 which furnish it with its most numerous vic- 

 tims, are not present to give it aliment. But 

 when it visits a city reeking with animal and 

 vegetable decay, and every foul odor, like Con- 

 stantinople or Cairo (and we fear we might add, 

 too truly, New York), it will riot in destruction, 

 and though its most numerous victims will be 

 the poor, the vicious, and depraved, it will not 

 spare the dwellers in lofty dwellings, nor those 

 of pure and peaceful life. Paris, by timely and 

 careful sanitary precautions, escaped with a 

 comparatively light visitation, and other cities 

 may well follow her example. 



CLEMENS, Hon. JEREMIAH, an American 

 statesman, born in Huntsville, Alabama, De- 

 cember 28, 1814, died at his residence in that 

 town, May 21, 1865. He was educated at La 

 Grange College and the University of Alabama, 

 studied law at the University of Transylvania, 

 in Kentucky, and was admitted to the bar in 

 1834. In 1838 he was appointed United States 



