OF THE OX. 77 



crates the right of treating with Artaxerxes as 

 one potentate treats with another, ought per- 

 haps to be classed among those typhuses not 

 subject to recurrence. 



As for the cholera, it seems to be a conta- 

 gious and epidemic disorder, of a distinct and 

 particular kind. We are ignorant of its essen- 

 tial cause, its nature, and its mode of treat- 

 ment ; and although it has prevailed in every 

 age, and even frequently of late years, it will 

 always, by reason of the strange formation of 

 our medical institutions, find us as weak and 

 defenceless to resist its attack as we have ever 

 been. 



If we have been properly understood, ty- 

 phous diseases are, above all, general febrile 

 affections. At one time the materies morbi, or 

 discharge, affects the skin ; at another, the di- 

 gestive mucous membrane. When it acts upon 

 the skin, as clinical observation shows, there 

 is sometimes a sort of hesitation in the erup- 

 tive process ; people wonder what disease is 

 coming forth ; the eruption wavers in the 

 form it will assume, till at length its real 

 character is determined. The same uncer- 

 tainty prevails when the intestines are affected. 



