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Home Department. 
EPIDEMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 
At a meeting of this Society held Monday, July 3, 1854, 
Dr. James Bird, in the Chair, Mr. Tucker read a paper — 
“ On the use of Vegetable and Mineral Acids, in the Treat- 
ment, prophylactic and remedial, of Epidemic Disorders of the 
Bowels/’ 
The author commenced by alluding to the remarkable, but 
w T ell- established fact, that in 1849 the cider districts of Here- 
fordshire, Somersetshire, and part of Devonshire, were, to a 
great extent, exempt from the epidemic ravages of cholera, 
while the disease was raging around. Upon further inquiry 
it was ascertained that this exemption was confined a good 
deal to those individuals who drank cider as a common beve- 
rage, and that those who partook of malt liquor occasionally 
suffered. He also remarked that, in some parts of France and 
in Normandy, more particularly, where cider is the common 
beverage, cholera is seldom known to exist ; and further, that 
Switzerland was reported to have been free from its visitation. 
Having adduced these and other facts in proof of the 
prophylactic power of cider, the author expressed his opinion 
that other vegetable acids would be found of service, such as 
lemon-juice, orange-juice, and sour wines made from grapes, or 
even from gooseberries. And as it would be found impossible 
to supply the whole of London with a suffi cient quantity of pure 
cider, Mr. Tucker suggested that vinegar might be found a 
useful substitute in case of another outbreak of cholera, pro- 
vided that it could be obtained in a state of purity. In con- 
firmation of his view of the sanative and medicinal virtues of 
vinegar, the author quoted Hippocrates, who {de natura mu- 
liebri) “ employed white vinegar medicinally” — Plutarch and 
Livy, who refer to the use of vinegar by Hannibal, in his 
passage over the Alps, when he is said to have “ softened the 
rocks with fire and vinegar/’ an operation which the author 
facetiously regarded as rather metaphorical than chemical, 
as the vinegar, swallowed by the troops, probably sustained 
their strength, and thus in effect softened the asperities of their 
rough way. The author also quoted from Roman history the 
story that “ Scipio Africanus is said to have gained a great 
battle with a few skins of vinegar,” the troops refusing to march 
