172 THE ABORTIVK TREATMENT OF CHOLERA. 



Ricci's article on this subject may be seen in Braithwaite's Retro- 

 spect, Part 50 ; and in Dublin Quarterly Journal for August, 1864. 



Of chlorine preparations the hypochlorite of Soda (Labarraque's 

 Solution) has been recommended but does not appear to have been 

 much used internally. A watery solution of chlorine, the aqua chlor- 

 inii of the Edinburgh pharmacopoeia was given by one practitioner in 

 doses of one dram, with a little sulphate of soda in nearly one hun- 

 dred cases of choleraic diarrhoea, with favourable results in all but 

 two, who were in collapse before the remedy was applied. 



In considering the abortive treatment of cholera, it is well to bear 

 in mind that when the disease breaks out in any place people have an 

 instinctive desire to escape fram the infected or tainted district, and 

 in certain races of man, this amounts to an irresistible impulse. Thus 

 during the late epidemic in Barcelona, 40,000 persons are said to have 

 left that city. In many places where such an exodus has taken place, 

 the panic and fatigue of travelling, with the abandonment of the com- 

 forts of home, and the accessible conveniences of a town or city have 

 concurred in rendering such a stampede most disastrous. The panic- 

 stricken take the taint with them, and fatigue and fright give it 

 potency. Whilst we can recommend the quiet and orderly removal 

 to safe localities of those whom neither duty calls nor narrow means 

 compel to stay in their usual places of abode, it must not be forgotten 

 that even physicians, nurses and others, brought close in contact with 

 the dreaded pestilence, escape as well as others. 



Unless the hygienic condition of a locality or house is not only bad, 

 but at the time unimproveable, it need not be deserted or abandoned. 



There are some individuals, however, whose remoA^al from a cholera 

 district is very desirable. Such are persons with disorder of the 

 excretory organs ; whose blood is not ordinarily depurated ; those 

 with disease of the mucous membrane of the intestine, or with liver 

 or kidney disease. 



Certain districts of country, elevated, naturally well drained, sparsely 

 peopled, and possessing abundant and pure water supply, are well 

 known to be healthy localities, and safe places of resort, although 

 persons from a tainted district may remove thither, and die from the 

 pestilence. But in such instances it is not usual for the disease to 

 attack any but the specially predisposed, and the poison is soon lost 

 where there is little to lend intensity to it. 



But even in towns and cities there appear to be places that are 



