Observations on the nature and the treatment of the Asiatic cholera / y William Stevens.

  • William Stevens
Date:
1853
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Observations on the nature and the treatment of the Asiatic cholera / y William Stevens. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    531/568 (page 447)
    It is to be observed, the above were all cases of [true] Cholera, [not, mere diarrhoea], but characte- rized by the presence of vomiting, purging, cramps, and more or less collapse. The result of Mr. Bossey's experience to the 9th of July, namely, one hundred and thirty-seven cases, twenty-five deaths and one hundred and twelve recove- ries, proves that the vital electricity contained in the saline matter of the blood is to a certain extent a match for both the poison of Cholera and the poison of brandy, even when both are acting at the same time. But it is better to have only one enemy to contend with than two, for we have seen that in the House of Correction at Coldbath-Fields, where brandy was never used with my consent, until the poison of Cholera was removed from the body, the new practice was more successful than it was at Woolwich, where brandy and the lancet were used at the same time with the saline treatment. But still Mr. Bossey's one hundred and twelve recoveries in one hundred and thirty-seven cases of true Cholera, was a great gain in comparison with the from fifty to seventy per cent., which was then, as it has been since, the average loss from Cholera under the poison to poison practice recommended by the medical members of the Board of Health, who pretend to save life without any knowledge of what cither the true life or true knowledge is.