SPASMODIC CHOLERA. 273 



a guide, and a friend to sick officers on their return to their 

 native land, often with incomes not well suited to afford 

 many fees, and otherwise unacquainted with the most proper 

 course for ensuring comfort in a countr)' which, though their 

 own, has become strange to them. 



CHAPTER XII. 



Spasmodic Cholera. 



Sjmptoms — Persons most liable to the Disease — Predisposing Circum- 

 stances — Treatment — Precautions necessar)- to prevent its Attacks — 

 Symptoms and Treatment of the Disease in Britain. 



In a preceding part of the work* has been given a brief 

 history of the progress of this malady, which for a series of 

 years has committed such devastation in India and other 

 Eastern countries. It claims notice here, not only as one 

 of the diseases incident to India, but because it has extended 

 from the climes where it originated to the continent of 'Eu- 

 rope, spreading its ravages throughout the British islands, 

 and exciting an intense interest far beyond what it would 

 have done had we only continued to hear of its effects in a 

 distant land. A short view of its nature and treatment 

 becomes, therefore, doubly necessary. 



Cholera often comes on suddenly, and generally without 

 anj' previous warning, — most commonly during the night 

 or towards morning ; occasionally, however, it is preceded 

 for some days by a slight diarrhoea. The patient complains 

 of a feeling of anxiety or uneasiness at the pit of the stomach ; 

 this changes into a sensation of heat and pain. To these 

 symptoms succeed sickness, giddiness, ringing in the ears, 

 witn vomiting and purging, and great prostration of strength. 

 The evacuations at first consist of the common contents of 

 the stomach and bowels, but afterward of a thin muddy 

 fluid resembling rice or barley water unmixed with any trace 

 of bile ; and this latter circumstance forms a distinguishing 



♦ Vol. ii. p. 191-195. 



