British Associatio7i for the Advcmcement of Science. 49 



ed it certain, in his opinion, that these nations were connected by- 

 blood, and rendered it probable that the northern race, being 

 driven from their country by the ancestors of the existing race 

 of North American Indians, retreated, after a long resistance, to 

 South America, and gave origin to one of the nations which 

 founded the Peruvian empire. Anatomy, also, he observed, show- 

 ed that there was much resemblance between the crania spoken 

 of and those of the modern Hindoos ; and instruments, orna- 

 ments, and utensils have been discovered in the mounds, which 

 bear a great resemblance to articles of the same description seen 

 in Hindostan. The facts stated above lead him to the following 

 inferences: — 1. The race whose remains are discovered in the 

 mounds were different from the existing North American Indian. 

 2. The ancient race of the mounds is identical with the ancient 

 Peruvian. To these conclusions might be added others tending 

 to support existing opinions, but which are hypothetical: — 1, 

 That the ancient North American and the Peruvian nations were 

 derived from the southern part of Asia. 2. That America was 

 peopled from at least two different parts of Asia, the ancient 

 Americans having been derived from the south, and the existing 

 Indian race from the northern part of the same continent. 



Cholera. — Dr. Mackintosh then addressed the Section on chol- 

 era. He would state only facts, and show them, supported by a 

 great nmnber of preparations of parts taken from cholera patients 

 soon after their death, mostly in the second stage, — collapse. He 

 then spoke in favor of pursuing pathology, with a view of eluci- 

 dating disease ; but pathology, in combination with causes, symp- 

 toms, and treatment. He who did not pursue this method, was 

 not a pathologist, but a mere morbid anatomist. He had dis- 

 sected three hundred cases of cholera, in the first year of its ap- 

 pearance in a malignant form ; two hundred and eighty of these 

 died in the collapsed stage. It was a popular error to say, as 

 many frequently do, that medical men know nothing of cholera. 

 In every respect their knowledge on this subject is vast, and mi- 

 nute, and scientific, and practical. Their knowledge exceeds 

 that on scarlatina, or measles, with which popular opinion thinks 

 them well acquainted. In India the opinion is, that in cholera 

 there is lost balance of the circulation ; it was not so ; there is no 

 rigor, and never was a rigor, which there would have been, if the 

 India opinion was true. There was a giving off of serum, and 



YoL. XXXIV.— No. 1. 7 



