TO DOMESTICATED ANIMALS. 
403 
or more likely on the dilution or absence of the deleterious 
agent. The presence of flocculi in the evacuations employed 
does not seem necessary to the production of the morbid 
phenomena, for the most remarkable of these were produced 
by specimens containing none or very few. The results 
cannot be due to the inorganic constituents of the dejections, 
for these are innocuous, and Meyer prepared a solution cor- 
responding with Wittstock’s analysis, and gave it to an 
animal, without any bad results. Neither can much be 
attributed to the admixture with the evacuations of remedies 
given to the patients, for quite as positive effects ensued 
where no remedies had been employed. Finally any sup- 
posed influence of coincident causes is rendered improbable 
by the number and agreement of the whole series of experi- 
ments. That some deleterious agent exists in the cholera 
evacuations is thus, we think, abundantly proved ; we think, 
also, that the quantity of this agent may vary in different 
evacuations. But is it peculiar? is it specific? Let us here 
direct attention to a counter experiment of Meyer’s and three 
others made by ourselves. Meyer introduced into the 
stomach of a dog an ounce of highly-coloured bilious motion, 
passed from a patient who had had diarrhoea for three days, and 
who died three weeks after with medullary disease of the sto- 
mach and mesenteric glands. The animal next day had bilious 
vomiting and purging and died in seventeen hours. — Post- 
mortem: Redness of the gastric and intestinal mucous mem- 
branes, especially of the villi ; Peyer’s patches evident ; con- 
tents of intestines, yellow frothy mucus ; liver dark ; bladder 
contracted ; blood dark. We ourselves gave a dog 6 drachms 
of a yellow, offensive fluid evacuation, from a patient suffering 
under cancer of the mamma. In about a quarter of an hour the 
dog vomited, drank freely of water, and was soon well. Ten 
drachms of a lemon-coloured, frothy, sour motion from a 
phthisical patient were given to another dog; efforts at 
vomiting began in five minutes, and were soon effectual ; he 
shrank away, ate some meat, and was no further distressed. 
About 4 drachms of a yellow, frothy, sulphuret-smelling eva- 
cuation from common diarrhoea were given, diluted with equal 
parts of water, to the same dog, about one week afterwards, 
but he was speedily sick, and appeared to be then uninjured. 
In none of these cases were the faeces of the animal changed. 
These experiments, however, suggest, that the effects of the 
administration of cholera evacuations may be due, not to any 
peculiar poison, but to the mere introduction of some delete- 
rious substance common to any evacuation, into the upper 
part of the alimentary canal. But there are several consi- 
derations to be remembered here — viz., the great difference 
