Cholera : copy of a letter to the editor of the "Standard," / from David Macloughlin.

  • Macloughlin, David, 1786-1870
Date:
1866
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Cholera : copy of a letter to the editor of the "Standard," / from David Macloughlin. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    alarmed relative to an expected outbreak of Epidemic Cholera. I found that the medical profession had not profited of the former outbreak of this disease in this country, and had not gone to the bedside and there inter- rogated nature. All, without any examination, accepted as correct the opinion of Messrs. James Jameson and William Scot, that cholera was a disease sid generis, attacking persons in perfect health, suddenly, with vomit- ing, severe purging, spasms, etc., etc., and destroying life in a few hours. That diarrhoea and cholera were two distinct diseases ; that where diarrhoea and cholera were remarked to be epidemic at the same time, that the diarrhoea, they said, weakened the patient, and made him more liable to be acted on by the cholera poison.* * The Reports on Cholera, published by the General Board of Health, in 1850, 1853, and ] 854, and the Report on Cholera, pub- lished by the Royal College of Physicians of England, are there as proof that those two great ofl&ces of state had not, up to 1854, the slightest idea that diarrhoea is the fbt'st,—the essential symptom of cholera; that a painless diarrhosa may have drained almost the whole serum from the blood; that the blood may have ceased to circulate; that the heart may have ceased to contract; that the person may be past all human aid. Yet, he is at his usual occu- pation, or walking about for pleasure or for business, nnawai-e that he has anything the matter with him, except that his voice is weak; and, at a moment when he and his friends believe him perfectly well, he is struck down with vomiting, severe purging, spasms, etc., etc., and he ceases to breathe in a few hours. The appointment of the house to house visitors,—which is so valu- able an institution, and which oue'ht not to be omitted when cholera is epidemic,—owes its origin, not to the knowledge that diarrhoea is the first, the essential symptom of cholera, but to the fact that, in 1849, almost every second person in London had a diarrhoea. And as the Board were informed that diarrhosa weakened the individual, and made him more liable to be acted on by the so-called cholera poison; the General Board of Health appointed the house to house visitors