XXV 

 ABOUT CHOLERA 



WHAT is this terrible disease which every few 

 years travels from the banks of the Indian 

 Ganges, where it is always present, and makes its way 

 to one or more of the great cities of Europe, killing its 

 thousands with horrifying rapidity ? The word " cholera " 

 is used by the great Greek physician of antiquity, Hippo- 

 crates, and by his followers down to the days of our own 

 Sydenham, to describe a malady which occurs commonly 

 in summer, is often of severe character, but rarely fatal, 

 and is characterised by the exudation from the walls of 

 the intestine of copious fluid, usually accompanied by 

 vomiting and sometimes by "cramps." This malady is 

 now distinguished by physicians as " simple cholera," or 

 European cholera, the last name being misleading, since 

 the disease occurs all over the world. It is caused by a 

 special microbe, which multiplies in the intestines and 

 produces a poison. Other microbes produce similar 

 results. One which causes luminosity in foul salt water 

 has been found to produce cholera-like results when 

 cultivated in a state of purity and swallowed by man. 

 Other poisons besides those produced by microbes set up 

 a sort of " cholera " in animals and man. Drugs of both 

 mineral and vegetable origin have this effect, as every one 

 knows, and are used in small quantities to produce 



