Cholera : reprints from reports of the Medical Department, for the years 1865-66 and 1873, with preliminary report by the Medical Officer, 1884 / Privy Council and Local Government Board.
- Privy Council of the United Kingdom
- Date:
- 1884
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Cholera : reprints from reports of the Medical Department, for the years 1865-66 and 1873, with preliminary report by the Medical Officer, 1884 / Privy Council and Local Government Board. 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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![Yet here, as in the former respsct, though for reasons which are J',^^;'^^''''' °^ Avidely ilitt'tJi'eut, I hiive agnui nothinf,'new to advise. That which for public use in this country I believe to bo, without any shadow of doubt, Kow as for long past years, the all-important principle of cholera- _ prevention : the principle that, for us, cholera derives all its epidemic destructiveness from filth, and specially from excremental uncleanliness : this of course may be iterated and re-iterated, with new and newer illustrations, but the utmost prominence which I can give to it was iTiven in my last year's memorandum, and new knowledge neither permits me to express myself less strongly on the subject, nor enables me to express myself more strongly, than I have done even years and years ago. The '(.loctrino of the cholera-fungus—tlie alleged discovery that the specific zymosis of cholera, the bowel-fermentation in respect of which it is contagious, has essentially associated with it, and perhaps as its immediate cause, a definite multiplying organic form, is not only of the utmost philosophical interest, but, should it be substantiated, may also hereafter be found capable of very important practical application. For as one reflects on the doctrine in all its bearings, specially as one considers Professor Hallier's conjecture (based on botanical considera- tions) that perhaps the cylindrotasnium is originally a blight of rice something like a clue is for the first time suggested for investigations which may hereafter conduce to the prevention of cholera in its eastern centres of origination. But for us in Europe, meanwhile, the doctrine may be absolutely sterile of results. In its broad signification, indeed, the discovery would not be a surprise to pathologists. The possibility has for some years past been recognised that perhaps every fermentatory or putrefactive change of organic material has with it, and may be as its cause, a characteristic molecular living thing ;* and, however sure it may have become that the choleraic zymosis answers to that possibility, it remains yet untried whether disinfection (which after all is but a doubtful resource) can deal better with the process on that basis than on the purely chemical basis which has hitherto been the ground of our proceedings.! In the long chain of cause and effect through which the rise of a certain ferment in India becomes the predestining force for subsequent outbreaks of pestilence in Europe, we see at present only one link where we may strike with the certainty of preventive effect. Whatever may be the explanation of the fact, at least empirically we know that here in Europe the pestilence rages only where there are definite sanitary evils. This knowledge remains. unchanged; and unchanged remain also our practical means of applying it. Between different epidemiologists there Relation of may be differences, even strong differences, of opinion, as to the intimate i^d to faiJts^o'f nature of some of the steps by which the Asiatic influence becomes able ciraiuage and to operate on the individual dweller in some English town; but prac- ^'''^^^'■'^P'''-^- tically all would unite in saying that the chain of evil is abruptly broken wherever thorough cleanliness prevails. The details of the contrarv condition are beyond measure disgusting to write about; but more disgusting by far it would be that they should continue through not being identified. It cannot be too distinctly understood that the person who contiacts cholera in this country is ipso facto demonstrated with almost absolute certainty to have been exposed to excremental pollution ; * See in Sixth Annual Eeport, pp. 5.3-4, foot note on tho experiments of RclirOder nnd Fasfftur, as to tlic conm-xion generally of fcrmcnlatary nnd putrefactive clianRes with the pre- sfcnoc of charactfjn.itie orKaiiisms, and on the interest of these experiuieiits to zymotic patholojfv t l_ro the bacillarorfranisms which have more recently been observed in choleni patients' and reffarded as bciiiif, perhap.H, the moans of distribution of the disease, it is evident that tho above comments must cquallv ai)ply. ISJSl.] mo](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b22295501_0011.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
