SIMILAR TO ASIATIC CHOLERA. 
603 
stage — purging, a slimy fetid mass, mixed with which were 
pieces of coagulated lymph ; the pulse w 7 as small and frequent, 
when it could be felt ; the mouth cold and clammy, mem- 
branes of the eyes and nose of blueish tinge, skin and 
extremities cold ; there was a peculiar expression in the 
horses, and great prostration of strength; but no cramps, 
except those where death happened. I have forgotten now 
the number, but I declined to bleed these horses, for the 
satisfaction of the owners. I opened the jugulars of several, 
telling them before hand that only a little black blood might 
trickle down, which happened. I sent for some Tinct. of 
Opium and Chalk, which was administered to some, and em- 
brocations to raise speedy inflammation was applied to the 
abdomen. Some died before the medicine arrived, as they 
were in a state of collapse when I first saw them ; in fact, 
this stage of the disease, although all the symptoms may 
not ahvays be the same as in man, is similar to Asiatic 
cholera . 
I have not seen this disease in man, but about 35 years 
ago Dr. Tytler, then civil surgeon at Allahabad, on the 
Ganges, was of opinion, from observations he had made, that 
Asiatic cholera was caused by his patients having eaten Ouse 
rice. Goats were shut up, and fed wdth Ouse rice only , and 
the results were, that it brought on disease similar to that I 
have described in horses ; and this he considered as proof it 
had also produced Asiatic cholera in man. 
This much I know, that had he used any other grain with 
these herbivora, the results would have been the same. The 
argument at that time against Dr. Tytler’s opinion w 7 as, that 
persons had had Asiatic cholera who had not eaten Ouse rice, 
or any other rice. This w 7 as, no doubt, true ; but it was 
overlooked that they had gorged their stomachs only once in 
the day, as is the custom of natives, solely with some other 
equally coarse innutritious food, indigestible also from its 
quantity. When the vital powers were exhausted by heat, 
fatigue, and, perhaps, also by breathing impure air, then, l 
believe, Dr. Tytler’s observations w 7 ere perfectly correct, and 
his opinion founded thereon the truth. As w 7 ell as I can now 
recollect, about 30 of these horses died; it was epizootic, 
because all were exposed to the same causes ; it was local, 
for there w’as not the least reason to suppose it was conta- 
gious among these horses. 
Four years after this I w T as with a corps, w 7 hen field exer- 
cise was continued till the hot weather set in, and it was 
then suddenly stopped. A few days after, this disease began 
in one troop, and w 7 ould have run through the corps and 
