18 NOTES ON THE CHOLERA SEASONS OF 1832-4. 



got foothold, spread rapidly, and reached York, the capital of Upper 

 €anada, June 19th. This place at tlie time might be considered as a 

 spot peculiarly set apart for the abode of the destroyer. All the 

 deadly elements which engender and foster disease and death were 

 then in active operation. The Quarterly Reviewer of the day pro- 

 nounced the " three stinking cities of Europe to have been, Lisbon, 

 Edinburo-h and Geneva," and if those of the New World had been 

 classed in the same unsavoury category, " Little York," as it was 

 then called, would no doubt have occupied a prominent place. The 

 genius of filth, if such there be, reigned predominant both in public 

 and private. Crowded and loathsome hovels, cellars with putrid and 

 stagnant water, dunghills with animal and vegetable garbage "reeking 

 in the scorching rays of the summer's sun, these deadly agents every- 

 where spread their contaminating influence. The curse of strong 

 drink aggravated the horrors of the devouring pestilence, and the 

 filthy and intemperate were its most numerous and earliest victims ; 

 but having once taken hold, it gradually seized upon individuals of all 

 classes, till at length neither age, constitution, habit, or condition, 

 seemed to furnish any exemption. The popular opinion which pre- 

 vailed of its being contagious not a little contributed to the general 

 consternation. It would be foreign* to our purpose to enter into this 

 controversy, which has many great names on both sides, for who shall 

 decide when doctors disagree. One thing however was certain, that 

 while contagionists and non-contagionists were battling the question, 

 the disease, whether infectious, contagious, or a compound of both or 

 neither, spread with unabated violence, and well nigh baffled all the 

 skill ot man. It will not be out of the way to mention an apparent 

 exception. The 79th Highlanders were then quartered in the garri- 

 ■ son, and their surgeon. Dr. Short, had been so successful in the 



• An able communication, signed Q. H. Y., was addressed to the Quebec Mercury, which 

 seems to have been the production of Dr. Henry, author of that amusint; book, " Recollections 

 of a Staff Surgeon.'' The Dr.'s experience of the disease, as it occurred in the East Indies, 

 was extensive. He says, " The great secret in treating the disease is to get at it in time. I 

 was for nine months in charge of 1500 men, natives, in 1819. My mode of roanagement was 

 this. Each Serang (head of a gang) was provided with a bottle of brandy and laudanum, 

 mixed in the proper proportions, and a measure exactly a dose for an adult ; his instructions- 

 were to give the patient a dose and run with all speed forme; if he came in time I gave him 

 a rupee, if he neglected his duty he was treated to a sound whacking with a bamboo, and 

 thus with two strong motives, the hope of reward and the fear of punishment,! was speedily 

 apprised of the danger, and thus, though many were attacked, I did not lose a single patient." 

 Again, " Is cholera contagious ? Tha Quarterly Eeview says it is, I say it is not ;" and he 

 proceeds to give a number of " unquestionable facts'' in proof of his assertion. 



