The nature of cholera investigated / [John George French].

  • French, John George, 1804-1887.
Date:
1835
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The nature of cholera investigated / [John George French]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    11/66 (page 5)
    Prop. 1.—That Cholera depends on a dele- terious influence exerted on the system, in this respect resembling many diseases, as small-pox, and others. We may assume it as an axiom that a deleterious influence is exerted on the system in an attack of Cho- lera; and the cause or nature of this influence has afforded to writers on the subject, a wide field for spe- culation. Some accredited authors refer the proximate cause of Cholera to certain electrical conditions :—but as it would be idle to refer to all the hypotheses which have been entertained on the subject, it is sufficient to remark that the one which ascribes the cause of Cholera to a poison, seems to afford the most rational idea of the nature of the disease; let us see how far it be tenable. All that can be accomplished towards establishing the fact of a poison producing the disease (as it can- not be demonstrated) is to shew the extreme proba- bility of it. The first argument, then, in favour of this idea is, | that the mode in which the disease occurs in its most vehement form, that of instant death, admits of ex- planation in no other way. The second argument is afforded by the analogy of other epidemics, as the exanthemata, typhus, plague, &c.