CHOLERA ASIATICA. 703 



fected with the severer forms have some troubles, apparently depend- 

 ing on the weaker action of the poison. Certain influences appear to 

 increase the predisposition to the severer forms of the disease, or to 

 diminish the resisting power of the organism to the action of the poi- 

 son. Chief among these are errors of diet, emetics, and laxatives, 

 catching cold, and other debilitating influences. It is true, foolish 

 people seek to excuse their excesses at the time of cholera epidemics 

 by saying that the mode of living can have no effect in inducing cholera, 

 because persons who lead the most proper lives are attacked by and 

 die of the severest forms of the disease. Even if this reasoning was 

 meant in earnest, it does not require refutation. Whoever is exposed 

 to a poison, whose action kills many persons, while others recover 

 from it, is foolish to subject himself to injurious influences which lessen 

 his chances of recovery, even if the avoidance of these injurious influ- 

 ences gives no guaranty for a favorable termination. The number of 

 cholera patients taken into the Paris hospitals is said to be one-eighth 

 greater on Monday than any other day. In the Magdeburg epidemics, 

 the commencement of a fair, which gave opportunity for excesses of all 

 sorts, has repeatedly been observed to have a very unfavorable influence 

 on the number of cases and deaths. 



For the numerous important historical and geographical data that 

 have been collected concerning cholera, since 1830, when it first ap- 

 peared in Europe, I must refer to special works where the principal 

 epidemics are fully described ; for imperfect extracts from them would 

 be unsatisfactory. 



ANATOMICAL APPEARANCES. Bodies of patients who have died 

 of cholera remain warm a long time ; a post-mortem increase of the 

 bodily temperature has sometimes been observed. A second pecu- 

 liarity of these bodies is the occasional contraction of certain muscles 

 after death, by which the extremities, especially the fingers, are moved, 

 and change the position they had just after death. The movements 

 of the fingers that I have actually seen, and the changed position in 

 which I have found the bodies a few hours after leaving them, have 

 always made a very disagreeable impression on me. 



If death has occurred at the height of the disease, the appearance 

 of the body is characteristic. We usually find it in a position to which 

 the clinched hands, variously bent limbs, and swollen muscles, give a 

 peculiarly threatening appearance (" fighting attitude "). The rigor 

 mortis is hard to overcome. The face is often so distorted as to be 

 hardly recognizable. The eyes are deep in the orbit, and are sur- 

 rounded by wide, blue rings ; the eyelids are half closed ; the uncov- 

 ered portions of the eyeballs are dry as parchment, the nose is pointed 

 and projects far beyond the sunken cheeks. The lips are bluish, 



