GENERAL PATHOLOGY. 85 



have the confirmation of what must remain for the present 

 as a probability, that in all zymotics such an order exists ; 

 and that leaving out of view those where the process of the 

 decarbonization of blood in the lungs is arrested at the 

 outset, or in the earliest stages of attack, this order is in 

 most of the pestilential classes of disease much the same ; 

 making a fair allowance for incidental changes in the terms 

 of the series by way of permutation. This order in cholera, 

 as determined by the ingenious researches of Dr. Schmidt of 

 Dorpat, marks the steps by which the constituents of the 

 serum transude into the alimentary canal, and after such 

 action has been established for a little, those of the blood 

 corpuscles move into the serum. This order' is as follows : 

 First the water of the serum (and of the blood-corpuscles in 

 turn) passes before the solids, then the inorganic before the 

 organic solids ; next the chlorides before the phosphates ; and 

 last, the salts of soda before those of potash. And in giving 

 this summary, it is interesting to observe that the order, as 

 Dr. Aitken says, "is very much the same as takes place 

 during the action of some purgative medicine, such as elate- 

 riiim.^^* 



I^ow although it would be appropriate for those versed in 

 Pathological lore, and standing in the foremost ranks of 

 science, or those capable of such intricate research, to com- 

 pare the gradual withdrawal from the vital circulation of 

 these essential constituents, with the symptoms which such 

 successive drains upon the fountain of life produce ; we may 

 be pardoned in the attempt to draw attention to such consid- 

 erations as next demanding elucidation in the advancing pro- 

 gress of Pathological inquiries, if we interpose an inference. 

 Dr. A. Gamgee has intimated that the disappearance of chlo- 

 rides from the urine, indicates the existence of pulmonary 

 trouble, not hypostasis, carnification, or serous effusion, but 

 what is popularly, as we have noticed in our earlier pages, 

 termed difficulty of breathing, &c., in short, a state bordering 

 upon asphyxia. Now, as it is fair to presume (at least until 

 science by exact methods has determined otherwise) that the 



* Science and Practice of Medicine, Vol. I, p. 606. 



