INFLUENCE OF CHOLERA ON THE LOWER ANIMALS. 649 
viction of the fertile and valuable results which this field of 
inquiry promises, leads me to urge the aid and co-operation 
of the profession in promoting one of the main objects of the 
“ Journal of Public Health,” viz.: to trace out “ the con- 
nection between certain unhealthy conditions of the human 
family, and unhealthy conditions in inferior animals and 
plants.” An earnest desire that this object should be faith- 
fully carried out, suggests the propriety of shortly indicating 
the kind of facts which it is advisable to collect, as well as 
for the satisfaction of such as apply the cui bono test to every 
such inquiry, the kind of generalizations to which the classi- 
fication of these facts is likely to lead. It would occupy too 
much space were I to do more here than merely skeletonize 
the subject. The heads of the inquiry will, however, sug- 
gest many of the details, for which I beg to refer to papers 
already published in other medical journals.* 
Never was the light of science so fully brought to bear on 
the investigation of disease ; never was the profession so 
fully equipped for such an inquiry ; never was the practi- 
tioner so ready, as well as able, to put his shoulder to the 
wheel, and do the trench-work of the assault; never was 
there a higher degree of cultivation of the observative facul- 
ties, than at the present moment. Let us, then, no longer 
tread the beaten, and now barren, paths of our predecessors ; 
let us enter upon a fresh subject of inquiry — a more pro- 
mising, and comparatively unexplored field. Now is obvi- 
ously the proper time to prepare ourselves for the investiga- 
tion — to consider the subject in all its bearings. Let us not 
be lulled into apathy by present immunity; let us not be 
found unprepared and in confnsion when the epidemic again 
breaks forth. This would be but repeating the fatal errors 
of our predecessors. Only last spring, there were sporadic 
cases of cholera in different parts of Britain ; and, during 
the past year, it has not only been constant in the Crimean 
army, but has ravaged many parts of Southern Europe. 
r i he germs of the pestilence are evidently floating over 
Europe, and they only require a suitable nidus to take root 
and fructify. “ Let us then be up and doing,” with “ Sem- 
per paratus” for our motto, that, burst forth when it may, 
we shall be ready to grapple more successfully with the de- 
stroyer — to attack him with more powerful weapons than 
heretofore. 
The inquiry branches out into so many different depart- 
* ‘Association Medical Journal,’ Dec. 15, and Sept. 15, 1854. ‘ Gaz. 
liebdomadaire de Med. et de Cliir.,’ Nov. 24, 1854. ‘Edinburgh Medical 
and Surgical Journal/ April and Oct., 1854. 
XXX. 
86 
