Essay on cholera infantum / by M.L. Knapp.

  • Knapp, M. L. (Moses L.), 1799-1879
Date:
1855
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Essay on cholera infantum / by M.L. Knapp. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    nutrition, ratlier than from the introduction of anything deleterious a negative poisoning that infallibly ensues when the natural laws in regard to diet are daily infringed by the absence of succulent vegetable food and fruits, it being nature's law that omniverous man should have a variety of animal and vegetable food, but more especially the latter. At page 79, in Mr. Bierwirth's reply to the circular of the Senatorial Committee, occurs the following paragraph, written in January, 1854:: The present state of things is, in a modified form, a repetition of what was witnessed in 1847-48, when, (as mentioned in a Report of the Commissioners of emigration of the State of ISTew York) the number of persons who perished by ship fever at sea, and in the various emigrant hospitals in American ports, was estimated to exceed 20,000. There is also a remarkable analogy between that period and the present [1854] in the high price of bread-stuffs and all other articles of human food; and this confirms me in the opinion expressed years ago, and adhered to ever since, that the mortality at sea is mainly, if not entirely, owing to the want or insufficiency of wholesome nourishment during the passage. The subject at that time attracted, the attention of the New York Chamber of Commerce, and a committee of that body to whom the matter was referred, ai-rived at the conclusion that the main causes of the many deaths at sea, were, ' want of food and want of pure air in the between decks. At page 80, in the Report to the New York Chamber of Commerce, accompanying Mr. Bierwirth's communication, occurs the following: Next to the miserable state of health in which so many emigrants embark, the great causes of the deplorable condition in which they arrive in our ports are— Want of sufficient and wholesome nourishment during: the j;a;isage, and want of pure air in the between decks or steerage, where emigrant passengers are generally located. The Chamber of Commerce is doubtless aware that em-