PART I.] 



A REPORT 



OF 



MICROSCOPICAL AKD PHYSIOLOGICAL RESEARCHES 



INTO THE 



NATURE OF THE AGENT OR AGENTS PRODUCING 



CHOLERA.* 



BY 



I 



T. E. LEWIS, MB., AND D. D. CUNNINGHAM, M.B. 



INTRODUCTION. 



In the Instructions issued by the Army Sanitary Commission for the conduct of this 

 inquiry, particular stress is laid on the importance of accepting no statement bearing 

 on the question of the mode of origin and diffusion of cholera as proven, no 

 matter how distinguished the authority on which it may have been made, until 

 an opportunity occurred for verifying it for ourselves. It has been our endeavour 

 to adhere strictly to this injunction, and we have therefore gone over ground on 

 which, under other circumstances, it might have been considered unnecessary for us to 

 enter. This, however, we do not by any means regret, as the experience gained by 

 such a training has more than compensated for the time and labour expended on 

 it. It has obliged us to be more on our guard than we might otherwise have been, 

 especially in connection with observations that have been authoritatively put forth 

 regarding some low forms of life, and of the interpretations which have been made 

 concerning the effects of various experiments on lower animals. 



We do not for a moment expect, nor do we wish that our own observations 

 should be accepted in a different spirit ; on the contrary, we should be glad to 



* Being one of the Appendices to the eighth Annual Report of the Sanitary Commissioner with the 

 Government of India, 1872. 



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