Miscellaneous Intelligence. 59 



MISCELLANEOUS INTELLIGENCE. 



Cholera. 

 Westminster Medical Society. 



On Saturday evening, November 12, 1831, the Westminster 

 Medical Society's room was much crowded to witness the 

 discussion of the following important question : ' Is cholera 

 contagious or non-contagious ? ' 



Dr. James Johnson called the attention of the meeting to a 

 letter he had received from Dr. M'Whirter, dated Sunderland, 

 Nov. 7. The writer declared that, after having investigated 

 all the cases of cholera in that town, and consulting with Dr. 

 Duan and other medical gentlemen, they were all convinced 

 that there was not the slightest evidence that the disease had 

 arisen from contagion, or, in other words, was imported. 

 There was one of the nurses in the infirmary affected, and the 

 malady proved fatal ; but she was very much afraid of the 

 disease. Another nurse was equally exposed, but not fearing 

 the malady, was not affected. The disease did not differ in 

 any of its symptoms from the worst form of English cholera; 

 and those parts of Sunderland in which it had appeared, were 

 infinitely more crowded and filthy than St. Gile's or Saffron- 

 hill. 



Mr. King corroborated the statement of the last speaker, 

 although he (Mr. King) was a contagionist to a certain extent. 

 In such diseases as fevers, small pox, &c. a poison was gen- 

 erated in the system which contaminated the air in the lungs 

 after respiration, and on expiration the air was impure, and, 

 in his opinion, capable of infecting a healthy person, more 

 especially if predisposed to disease, or debilitated. Dr. Sig- 

 mond was still of opinion that the cholera was contagious. 

 Mr. Hunt had maturely considered the subject of contagion, 

 both with respect to the cholera and the typhus, and was fully 

 convinced that neither of those diseases were contagious. 

 There was no proof whatever of the contagiousness of cholera, 

 nor that its progress could be arrested by quarantine. 



Mr. Searle said that he had been appointed one of the me- 

 dical officers to the chief hospital of Warsaw. He had been 

 in the hospital while the cholera prevailed, at four o'clock in 

 the morning, and had returned late at night ; and sometimes 

 found all the windows firmly closed, and the smell of the 

 rooms very offensive ; was often so fatigued as to lie down on 



