I 
September 26 . 
D 
M 
D 
W 
SEPT. 26—OCT. 2 , 1854. 
26 
To 
Berytus tipularius. 
27 
w 
Myodocha tipuloides. 
28 
Th 
Membracis genistie. 
29 
F 
Michaelmas Day. 
30 
s 
Small Tortoiseshell Butterfly. 
1 
Son 
lG Sunday after Trinity. 
2 
M 
Sphodrus collaris. 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
WEEKLY CALENDAR. 
469 
Weather ne 
Barometer. 
ar London in 
Thermo. Wind. 
1853. 
Rain in 
Inches. 
Sun 
Rises. 
Sun 
Sets. 
Moon 
R. & S. 
Moon’s 
Age. 
Clock 
af. Sun. 
Day of 
Year. 
i 29 . 810 — 29.562 
57—32 
N.W. 
_ 
54 a 5 
49 a 5 
7 
30 
4 
8 
38 
269 
29.901—29.894 
63—47 
s.w. 
— 
55 
47 
8 
0 
5 
8 
58 
270 
29-892—59.854 
66-44 
s.w. 
02 
67 
44 
8 
39 
6 
9 
18 
271 
29.935—29.835 
65—45 
s.w. 
25 
69 
42 
9 
37 
a 
9 
38 
272 
29 . 991 — 29.916 
61—38 
N.W. 
20 
60 
40 
10 
5ft 
8 
57 
29 . 6 : 11 — 29 .« 0 l 
61 — 34 
w. 
— 
VI 
V 
morn. 
9 
10 
17 
274 
29 . 860 — 29.730 
54—27 
N.W. 
4 
35 
0 
14 
10 
10 
36 
275 
the 2/th, in 1828. During the period 85 days were fine, and on 104 rain fell. 
;e highest and lowest tem- 
the lowest cold, 24°, on 
Where a series of facts, to be comprehended, must 
needs be held together by a nice little bit of theory, we 
have ever selected the simplest which would answer our 
purpose, and remembering the saying of the father of 
Physic, “ Do not talk of mysteries to the uninitiated,’’ 
we have tried to write what it might be possible for our 
least-informed readers to make out. We have preferred 
considering cholera as a skin disease, using the one 
term to signify both the external and internal skin. 
One office of this extended sensible surface is to get rid 
of the used-up particles of the system, and wash them 
away by means of pure air. When this supply of pure 
air falls short, these large surfaces are badly washed, the 
blood is imperfectly oxidised and renewed, and various 
signs of ill-condition are manifested, all depending, more 
or less, on a want of power in the atmosphere to cleanse 
these surfaces, or on a want of vitality in the system, 
the cause or else the consequence of the bad state of the 
air. With respect to the relation between Asiatic cholera 
and common diarrhoea, we hold the former to be no 
new disease, but an exaggerated monstrous variety of 
an old one. Mankind are vastly indebted to their own 
improvements upon the simple, but inexorable, laws of 
Providence, for the acquisition of the main conditions 
necessary to make a cholera case out of an ordinary 
bowel complaint. These main conditions we have often 
explained to our readers; remove the principal of them, 
and the specific disease either dies out, or gradually 
loses its specific characters, and assumes a common¬ 
place aspect, like many a garden-flower run wild. 
It is consistent with what we know of other organised 
beings to admit, further, that a foul atmosphere, and a 
corrupt state of the secretions together, may bring to 
life certain very minute organisms—like the blights, the 
fungi, the mouldiness, the mildew, the parasitic ani¬ 
malcules which infest the skins of unhealthy, dying, or 
dead animals and plants ; these diffused in the air may 
be a means of tainting those places fitted for their re¬ 
ception. 
The importance of understanding the principles upon 
which to treat a case of common diarrhoea cannot be 
overrated. It is either stopped at once by a class of 
medicines termed astringents, such as catechu, kino, &c., 
which contain a certain conservation principle called 
tannin, the use of which is indicated by the name; or 
by these combined with sedatives, such as opium and 
lead ; or it is thought sufficient to absorb the offending 
secretions by chalk, and restore the good humour of the 
irritated surface by aromatics; or the whole disturbance 
is deemed an effort of the constitution to clear itself of 
something which must be got rid of, and a mild pur¬ 
gation, such as castor oil or rhubarb, is selected, which 
will cause the least possible after-annoyance. Now, a 
shrewd farmer’s wife should be quite up to this. Six or 
eight fatted calves are not put up together in a loose 
box for a month at a time with perfect impunity. They 
are liable to diarrhoea; and this is treated variously by 
astringents, opiates, chalk, and not unfrequently by 
castor oil. Great attention is paid to cleanliness, fresh, 
dry bedding, wholesome food and ventilation. But if 
the plague becomes fixed, and the little patients take to 
dying, there is only one plan, to clear out the infected 
house and abandon it. Everything must depend on the 
common sense, the intuition, sagacity, or the dear- 
bought experience of the attendant. The most careful 
directions will not make up for the want of these. So 
much for diarrhoea, and now for the proper treatment of 
malignant cholera. 
It has been attempted to account for the specific 
virtues of oil of vitrol, calomel, and corrosive sublimate, 
by maintaining that they act as poisons, and com¬ 
municate to the patient a new and severe disease, but a 
curable one. This is like what military men call effecting 
a diversion. No two diseases, says Hunter, can co-exist; 
one is enough at a time. Indeed, the old name, phar- 
rnakon, signifies both a medicine and a poison; and the 
old proverb is to the same purpose, which says, the j 
remedy is worse than the disease. Hippocrates is still ! 
read for the valuable information which he gives us re- [ 
specting the history of epidemics, but he is silent as to 
their cure. The old medical treatises of the Egyptians 
consist almost exclusively of rules for maintaining the 
health, not for curing disease ; and the grandest code of 
health, the oldest of all, has nothing to say on the 
medicinal treatment, even of epidemic leprosy. The 
name of Physician signifies an expounder or student of 
Nature’s laws, and no more. 
But we have to point out another way of accounting 
for the efficacy of the medicines in question, rather less 
paradoxical. Sulphuric acid, aud, indeed, most acids, 
owe their existence to the presence of oxygen, whence ! 
the name (oxygen, a generator of acids). Oxygen is 
precisely the element which a corrupted atmosphere is 
no longer adequate to supply for the purification of the 
blood, or, which the weakened energies of the patient 
no longer have power to appropriate. The boasted j 
No. CCCXIIL, Vot. XII. 
