A history of Asiatic cholera / by C. MacNamara.

Date:
1876
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A history of Asiatic cholera / by C. MacNamara. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    IV.] CONCLUSIONS BY AUTHORITIES, 1832. communication be rapid, the progress of the disease is rapid ; if they be slow, the malady lingers on its march ; if the distance be great, the time taken to travel is proportionally so. Finally, the capri- ciousness exhibited in the progress of the disease is accounted for on the supposition that it is communicated by human intercourse ; but remains inexplicable, if the cause of the propagation of cholera be looked for in the uniform action of physical agents and laws. In the case of the outbreak of cholera in Orenburg, and in many instances in India, we have remarked that the disease did not always attack the place nearest an infected town, but sometimes ranged from one place to another passing over intermediate points. If we believe the disease communicable from man to man, we can account for the facts, because the person who quits an infected spot travels in one direction rather than another, or remains not in the nearest but possibly in a more distant town or village. Above and beyond this, we cannot doubt that the surrounding circum- stances of the individual after he had entered a certain locality must exercise a very great influence on the powers of the disease to extend; these causes and others I shall subsequently explain determine the propagation of cholera from an uniform into an eccentric course : nevertheless this eccentricity is always confined to districts. The progress of the disease is singularly uniform over large spaces of territory, especially in countries like India, filled with trading towns, where commercial movement is uniform. The necessities of commerce, and the means by which it is earned on, are favourable to uniformity of movement over large spaces in all countries, although the act of progress will necessarily vary in each. The case however is different with regard to small districts ; now they who wish to avoid an infected town, remove from it how and when they like, and journey as fast or as slowly as it suits their convenience. The progress of the malady over large tracts of territory is like that of a traveller, or courier, who is obliged to use the modes of transport provided by customs, habits, and govern- ments of the countries through which he passes ; while the propaga- tion of cholera in a district follows the movements of residents whose wills are unfettered, and whose modes of transport are ever at hand.” The author of the article above referred to is very happy in his illustrations of the main argument urged in favour of the non-com- H
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