PRECAUTIONS AGAINST CHOLERA. 
85 
culosis, while Dr. Dewar, from the success of sulphur in its treatment, has been appa¬ 
rently led to deduce its origin from cryptogamic sporules—a closely similar theory. 
With theories, however, there is at present no need of troubling oursehes; the practical 
results are sufficiently striking to ensure for this treatment a more careful and extensive 
trial. In diphtheria and various other complaints sulphur fumigation has proved im¬ 
mediately and strikingly beneficial; and in at least one instance it has almost instantly 
cut short an outbreak of hospital gangrene in the wards of our Edinburgh Infirmary, 
and, properly employed, it may possibly prove capable of limiting the spread of cholera, 
fever, and otl er contagious diseases. For the disinfection of inanimate material the ad¬ 
dition of a little nitre to the sulphur, and the combination of these fumes with the steam 
of boiling water, improvises a disinfectant at once the most powerful, most searching, 
and most efficacious which can be obtained, utterly destructive at once of any latent 
contagion, and of every form of insect life. But we have not yet exhausted all the 
strange properties of sulphur fumigations: it is not only productive of animal health 
while in life, but it also prevents putrefaction after death. In some recent experiments 
(in June weather) in regard to this, a sheep’s head was kept quite fresh and sweet for 
thirteen days; a boiled crab—well known to be a peculiarly perishable edible—was 
quite sound after eight days; haddocks, after being smoked two or three times, were 
found to be quite fresh at the end of eight days. The process is equally applicable to 
every other form of animal food, which merely requires to be fumigated three or four 
times a day in a chamber closed as much as possible against the admission of fresh air. 
At a convivial entertainment recently given by Dr. Dewar, the company were entertained 
with viands thus preserved, and one and all expressed their perfect satisfaction with the 
success of the process, as evinced by the satisfactory condition of the food presented to 
them. 
How novel and strictly original Dr. Dewar’s views are as to the pleasantly tonic 
virtues of suphur fumigations may be learned from a statement in the most recent work 
on Materia Medica, Dr. Scoresby-Jackson’s ‘ Note-Book,’ where he states that in sulphur 
fumigations “ great care must be taken to protect the respiratory organs from the fumes 
by closing the apparatus round the neck ;” and yet how inconsistent these ordinary views 
are with popular experience may be learned from the popular idea of the great benefit 
to be derived from new flannel, that is, flannel thoroughly impregnated with sulphur 
fumes, and also with the fact that in woollen mills, in certain departments of them, the 
workmen live from year’s end to year’s end in an atmosphere thoroughly impregnated 
with sulphurous acid gas. Unquestionably a laborious and tedious accumulation of ex¬ 
perience in regard to the positive influence of sulphur fumes upon the health may be 
anticipated by an inquiry into the ordinary condition of such workmen; and we shall feel 
obliged if any of our readers shall be kind enough to contribute any information on this 
head, similar to that which was contributed to the ‘Monthly Journal,’ by Dr. Thomson, 
of Perth, in‘regard to the influence of an atmosphere charged with oil. It would 
indeed prove singular if, after all, the benefit supposed to be derived from oil was solely 
due to sulphur .—London Medical Press and Circular. 
PEECAUTIONS AGAINST CHOLEKA. 
{^Extracted from the Memorandum prepared hy Mr. Simon, the Medical Officer of the 
Privy Council.) 
“ 4. In relation to Asiatic cholera, as now threatening us, there are two principal 
dangers against which extreme and exceptional vigilance ought to be used. First, there 
is the danger of drinking water which is in any (even the slightest) degree tainted by 
house refuse or other like kinds of filth ; as where there is outflow, leakage, or filtration, 
from sewers, house drains, privies, cesspools, foul ditches, or the like, into streams, springs, 
or wells, from which the supply of water is drawn, or into the sub-soil in which the wells 
are situate ; a danger which may exist on a small scale, as at the pump or dip-well of a 
private house, or on a large scale, as in the sources of supply of public waterworks. 
And, secondly, there is the danger of breathing air which is made foul with effluvia from 
the same sorts of impurity. Information as to the high degree in which those two dangers 
