Government regulations for the prevention of cholera : also instructions prepared by the Edinburgh Board of Health and approved of by the Royal College of Physicians.

Date:
1848
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Government regulations for the prevention of cholera : also instructions prepared by the Edinburgh Board of Health and approved of by the Royal College of Physicians. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    IG .lirections of one of the Boards of Health in London to n- void the use of laxatives during the prevalence of the epi- demic, and rather to encourage a somewhat constipated con- dition of the howels—inasmuch as many accustomed to use laxativ-es, and requiring their occasional or regular use, gave them up, and suflfered from the consequences of con- stipation—the College, seeing no reason why mild laxa- tives should not be used for the removal of constipation during cliolera, and believing that both cholera and other serious intestinal diseases, may arise from a neglect of them in many circumstances, unanimously approve of the regu- lation V. 2, as stated above. [This resolution has been called for in consequence Ot roany persons here having fallen into the very same error which is stated to have occured in 1832, although the di- rections of the Loudon lioard of Health are by no means so condemnatory of the use of all laxatives as on that oc- casion.] The College of Physicians also passed a unanimous re- • solution strongly approving of the establishment, as in 1832, of Houses of Kefuge for the removal of the healthy from localities threatened with a severe visitation of the epidemic. This measure was carried through energetically by the Edinburgh Board of Health during the first epi- demic ; so tbat at one period upwards of 700 persons from infected districts were lodged under observation in Houses of Refuge, but allowed to go to their usual places of work. There is no doubt, according to the opinion of the best judges, that the ravages of the disease were in that way greatly circumscribed in various localities in Edinburgh ; and that no other measure contributed so much to lieep the ■ epidemic within moderate bounds. The, utility of such Houses of Refuge must bo obvious to all, whether the disease be viewed as originating in infection, or, as seems now far more probable, in a peculiar miasma prevailing with intensity only in limited localities.