478 PRACTICE OF PHYSIC. 



MCCCCLXI. The Nosologists have constituted a Genus 

 under the title of Cholera, and under this have arranged as 

 species every affection, in which a vomiting and purging of any 

 kind happened to concur. In many of these species, however, 

 the matter evacuated is not bilious, nor does the evacuation 

 proceed from any cause in the state of the atmosphere. Fur- 

 ther, in many of these species also, the vomiting which occurs 

 is not an essential, but merely an accidental symptom from the 

 particular violence of the disease. The appellation of Cholera, 

 therefore, should, in my opinion, be confined to the disease I 

 have described above, which, by its peculiar cause, and perhaps 

 also by its symptoms, is very different from all the other species 

 that have been associated with it. I believe that all the other 

 species arranged under the title of Cholera, by Sauvages or 

 Sagar, may be properly enough referred to the genus of Diarr- 

 hoea, which we are to treat of in the next chapter. 



The distinction I have endeavoured to establish between the 

 proper Cholera, and the other diseases that have sometimes 

 got the same appellation, will, as I judge, supersede the ques- 

 tion, Whether the Cholera, in temperate climates, happens at 

 any other season than that above assigned ? 



MCCCCLXII. In the case of a genuine cholera, the cure 

 of it has been long established by experience. 



In the beginning of the disease, the evacuation* of the re- 

 dundant bile is to be favoured by the plentiful exhibition of 

 mild diluents, both given by the mouth, and injected by the 

 anus ; and all evacuant medicines, employed in either way, are 

 not only superfluous, but commonly hurtful. 



MCCCCLXIII. When the redundant bile appears to be 

 sufficiently washed out, and even before that, if the spasmodic 

 affections of the alimentary canal become very violent, and are 

 communicated in a considerable degree to other parts of the 

 body, or when a dangerous debility seems to be induced, the 

 irritation is to be immediately obviated by opiates in sufficiently 

 large doses, but in small bulk, and given either by the mouth 

 or by glyster. 



MCCCCLXIV. Though the patient be in this manner re- 

 lieved, it frequently happens, that when the operation of the 

 opium is over, the disease shows a tendency to return ; and, for 



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