Miscellaneous Intelligence. 61 



ease in Africa, and had attended those who were afflicted by 

 it, and it by no means resembled the cholera which pervaded 

 Poland, Russia, &c. It was urged at the last meeting, that 

 typhus was not contagious ; but this came from persons of 

 small authority, from false prophets, and little reliance could 

 be placed on this argument. In his opinion, the pestilential 

 disease, now misnamed cholera, was as contagious as typhus, 

 scarlatina, small pox, &c. 



Dr. George Gregory supported the doctrine of contagion. 



Dr. Gilchrist said that he was a non-contagionist in the 

 fullest sense of the word. The disease at Sunderland was the 

 spasmodic cholera of this country, and not a new disease. 

 Why were not the medical men attacked of Sunderland, In- 

 dia, Russia and Poland, if the disease was contagious? The 

 answer was, because medical men did not fear the disease, 

 and were accustomed to contagions. But if the cholera be a 

 new disease, as stated by Dr. Copeland, how, in the name of 

 reason, could medical men be accustomed to it? 



Dr. Thompson said a disease might be contagious, and yet 

 not affect such individuals as were not predisposed to it. He 

 was convinced that the cholera was commijnicable from indi- 

 vidual to individual, or through the medium of goods. Its 

 progress had not been arrested by situation, atmosphere, cli- 

 mate, country or season. Had it arisen from the atmosphere, 

 it should be more diffused ; if from terrestial emanations, it 

 should have been confined by rivers, lakes, or the sea, which 

 was not the case. It progressed steadily in its course, leaving 

 no hiatus, or tract of country untouched, until it had arrived 

 at our shores. 



Dr. M'Leod was convinced of the contagiousness of cholera, 

 from its progressing along the course of one of the Russian 

 rivers, and then set running in a parallel direction ; and all 

 countries were preserved from its encroachments by quar- 

 antine. 



Dr. Johnson contended that the cholera of Sunderland 

 agreed in all symptoms with the Indian disease. Some fur- 

 ther discussion took place, but no decision was come to. The 

 next subject of debate was announced — ' The nature and 

 treatment of cholera.' 



Heroism in the Medical Profession. 



In the recent accounts of the proceedings respecting the 

 cholera, it appears that several medical men, with the view of 

 ascertaining whether the disease is contagious, have inocu- 



