600 Analysis of Books. (Nov. 
“Tt thus appears, that a weakened state of the body produces the chief predis- 
position to Cholera. By a weakened body, I understand a body in which the vital 
powers have descended below their just and necessary degree : a weak body is quite 
a different thing, that is, only in comparison with other stronger bodies ; a smaller 
degree of vital power, which may however be just and complete for the health of 
that individual itself.’’ P. 54*. 
He observes with respect to Europeans, that the disease does not appear in them 
on their first arrival in Java, but generally after they have been some time resident, 
and the climate has begun to affect them. He then reviews the various opinions 
respecting the exciting cause of the disease, and is dissatisfied with them all. He 
himself offers nothing better than an altered state of the atmosphere. 
After an investigation of the proximate cause the author sums up thus, ‘‘A sudden 
and great debility of the nervous and vital powers, with increased excitement in the 
abdominal viscera, are the proximate causes of Cholera.”’ P. 64. 
We fear this explanation casts but little light on the disease. He then goes on 
to the prognosis, through all the minutia of which, we cannot follow him ; he seems 
to lay most stress on the state of the pulse. 
“The first and chief symptom on which any hope of recovery can be founded is 
the pulse becoming stronger ; it is of little consequence whether it be quicker or 
slower, harder or softer, if at the same time it exhibits more fulness ; nay a slight 
variation in the pulse is not upon the whole a bad sign, as it is generally accompa- 
nied by a diminution of uneasiness.’’ P. 71. 
We now come to what is most interesting of all, the treatment; and this the 
author comprizes in four indications: first, the re-excitement and preservation of 
the nervous and vital powers; second, the restoration of the circulation and the 
natural state of the blood; third, the diminution of the excitement in the stomach 
and bowels ; fourth, the diminution of the disposition to spasm. 
The means for all this the author divides into two classes, external and internal. 
In the first class he arranges (whether properly or not), the evacuation of blood by 
the lancet orleeches ; of the first he observes that it is chiefly useful to full-blooded, 
fresh-arrived Europeans, not yet become weak. Of the few patients cured under 
such circumstances, the greatest number have been bled. Leeches produce the 
same effects, but more slowly; in advanced states of the disease, they remain for 
hours on the patient’s skin without becoming fuller. He then discusses the 
derivantia, that is, all those means which, by exciting the skin, diminish the 
internal irritation. He lays a good deal of stress on simple shampooing, and 
then on dry friction ; he approves of the application of mustard pastet to the breast 
and extremities: moxa can hardly be used ; but in two instances, the author made a 
moxa of phosphorus, and burnt it on thespine, without any effect. 
He then enters upon the external medicines ; the well known list of stimulants, 
alcohol, ether, oleum menth. &c: even phosphorus, he says, was tried to the extent of 
four grains in 24 hours, to no purpose: opium he declares to have had no visible 
* It isa little odd that this should be the doctrine of the old Arabic Physicians, in 
what they called Aslah-ool Amzijati lahoo, hy which they meant, not the best state of 
health absolutely, but the best state of health with reference to the constitution of a 
givenindividual. See printed Edition of the Kanooncheh, 1827. P. 3. 
+ This remedy is also highly, and we believe justly extolled by Dr. Twininc. 
Practical Account of Epidemic Cholera, 1833. P. 72. 
