IN HORSES AND EPIDEMIC CHOLERA. 
669 
Many physicians have, I believe, been of opinion that this epi¬ 
demic, though designated cholera morbus, was not properly that 
disease, at least according to the definitions given of it by the best 
nosologists; but what it was, they have left undetermined, or by 
what name in their system it should be called. Indeed, that it 
could not very well be cholera morbus, being for the most part de¬ 
ficient in the grand character of that complaint, as its name, in¬ 
deed, implies, of purgings with increased biliary secretions; for 
this secretion seems often morbidly suppressed and almost entirely 
wanting in well-marked cases of this disorder; and the diarrhoea 
which sometimes precedes it we believe to be no part of the dis¬ 
order, but as sometimes leading to it, by its weakening influence 
upon the general system, and especially upon the parts immedi¬ 
ately concerned ; but in very many cases it is not present at all, 
and therefore is no necessary concomitant or character of the dis¬ 
ease. 
Perusing the various descriptions of this disorder, I have been 
a long time firmly persuaded that its prevailing character bore a 
nearer analogy to a complaint that I had had often to contend 
with among animals, than to any enumerated in the books on hu¬ 
man nosology; and that, in fact, it was a more or less complete 
suppression of the process of digestion or chylification,as we shall 
presently illustrate by actual cases, and that it bore a nearer ana¬ 
logy to, and was proceeding very much from, the same fatal causes 
as the stroppos, or the gripes, in horses; in which, in the early 
part of my practice in this great metropolis, I had had a large 
and not unsuccessful experience, having discovered its true cause 
and a successful mode of combating it. 
Attacks of this complaint, like the cholera, often carried off the 
animal in a few hours : and in the commencement of my practice, 
though employing and using all the then known and recommended 
remedies (and such are sure to be numerous and discordant 
enough, where the character of the disease and its treatment are 
not understood), I frequently lost my patients. Fearful of losing 
my credit also, I took unusual pains, by watching, dissection, and 
otherwise, in satisfying myself of the nature of the disease, and 
of what should be its proper treatment; and at length so far suc¬ 
ceeded, that for years I never lost a patient, often contending 
with protracted and cruel cases. The success that attended my 
treatment, induced me, for a considerable period, to keep it a se¬ 
cret, and it was extensively sold privately ; but, at length, be¬ 
coming more generally known, and abused also, and not given 
with the laws prescribed with it, I determined on publishing an 
account of it, and (what was of fully as much or more conse¬ 
quence) my views respecting the nature and causes of the com- 
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