220 
ON CHOLERA IN DOMESTICATED ANIMALS. 
susceptibility of disease, as renders it incapable of digesting a due 
proportion of animal food, even the vegetable matter which the 
stomach does not refuse, may still be capable of exciting derange¬ 
ment in it. Is not the truth of this proved by the acknowledged 
advantages derived from the nutritious supply to the poor (the 
previously predisposed subjects of cholera) by the soup kitchens 
in Edinburgh ? and does not the almost total immunity of those 
who are in the higher walks of society, and who live upon that 
food which nature has designed as proper for man, afford another 
and a striking proof of the remark I have offered ? 
In illustration of these observations, I cannot omit mentioning the 
case of a near neighbour of mine, which occurred about two years 
ago. i\Iy sister was one day alarmed by three of the children, of 
the person I allude to, coming to the door, w’eeping and in great 
distress, requesting her to go with them, because their mother was 
dead. She found the husband standing, as if in a state of stupor; 
the poor woman lying w'ith her head hanging rather over the 
edge of the bed, her mouth open, her eyes closed and sunk in her 
head, her countenance ghastly, and the wdiole surface of the body 
intensely cold. She had been suddenly seized with these symp¬ 
toms tw’O or three hours before mv sister saw her, and, from the 
commencement, had purged and vomited to excess, the discharge 
per anum being involuntary. Twenty-five drops of laudanum 
were immediately given to her, and this w^as followed by a dose 
of castor oil and plenty of w'arm water-gruel, which, however, 
was taken with some difficulty, and hot irons were applied to her 
feet. The symptoms were relieved soon after the administration of 
these remedies; but she suffered from severe headache, great 
weakness, and pains in her limbs, which shot from her thighs 
downw'ards. On the fire (if fire a few languishing cinders might 
be called) stood the pot. The scene of misery which was pre¬ 
sented induced my sister to look into the vessel, when she was 
surprised to find that the repast which w^as preparing consisted 
of nothing but a scanty allowance of turnips and potatoes, a 
diet to which, as she afterwards learned, they had been for some 
time familiar. The exciting cause has not again operated, or else 
the allowance of a small portion of animal matter, which they 
have had occasionally since, and their having otherwise in a slight 
degree bettered their condition, has obviated its effects. 
It is now, how'ever, time that I should attempt to prove more 
clearly what I have already stated regarding the identity of the 
cholera in the human being, and the disease w hich is at present pre¬ 
vailing, and wffiich occasionally prevails amongst the lower animals. 
In doing this, I shall, in the first place, state the symptoms as 
they occur in the living being, and then examine the appearance 
aftci' death. 
