THE ABORTIVE TREATMENT OF CHOLERA. 169 



mode of procedure in treating abortively the incipient stages of 

 cholera, as due reflection and study of the peculiarities of each class 

 of cases will lead to proper medication and regimen. The office of 

 the intelligent physician is surely not to be discharged by prescribing 

 one routine of treatment for all cases in any one stage, however unlike 

 the individual circumstances of each j yet of all the diseases that 

 "flesh is heir to," of none have so many unreasoning plans of 

 treatment been proposed and practised as is the case with respect to 

 cholera. 



An anonymous writer who had seen the disease in the East Indies, 

 writing in 1848, recommended as useful in warding off an attack a 

 combination of Quinine, 6 grs.. Calomel, 4 grs., Opium, 2 grs., fol- 

 lowed by a glass of brandy and hot water. This dose he had been 

 in the habit of giving in all cases of early stages. But, it may be 

 observed, supposing that these four remedies are the ones selected to 

 fulfil recognized indications, one or more of which may be present in 

 any given case, would it not be much better to prescribe those only 

 which are really needed, and not to administer a mere nostrum. 



While there is neither pain nor abdominal disturbance the opium 

 can not be called for in full doses, and so with other remedies, which 

 are only to be given when indications demand them. 



Debility, diarrhoea, depressed circulation, disturbed sensation, re- 

 quire treatment when severally present, and the subject of any one of 

 them ought to seek comparative quiet of mind and body as well as 

 appropriate medication. 



As it has been assumed that in incipient cholera a poison is present 

 in the system, a poison of the zymotic or catalytic class, the question 

 of endeavouring to eliminate it by emesis or by purgation has often 

 been raised and a suitable treatment devised, while latterly it has been 

 proposed to antagonise the catalytic action of the poison in the blood, 

 by exhibiting remedies of a class having power in certain circum- 

 stances, of arresting catalytic action. 



In the premonitory stage where diarrhoea is present, it is conceived 

 that nature may be seeking an outlet for the poison, but as experience 

 teaches us that such diarrhoea, if unchecked, will terminate in collapse, 

 no one would allow it to proceed unrelieved. 



Attempts to assist such natural eff'orts by purgatives have not 

 resulted favourably, and remedies of that class, from Croton Oil, down, 

 are rarely now proposed or used. Calomel, however, a purgative to 



