A treatise on Asiatic cholera / edited and prepared by Edmund Charles Wendt, in association with Drs. John C. Peters, Ely McClellan, John B. Hamilton, and Geo. M. Sternberg.

Edmund Charles Wendt

Date:: 1885

Credit: A treatise on Asiatic cholera / edited and prepared by Edmund Charles Wendt, in association with Drs. John C. Peters, Ely McClellan, John B. Hamilton, and Geo. M. Sternberg. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Gerstein Science Information Centre at the University of Toronto, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Gerstein Science Information Centre, University of Toronto.

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$304 ozone as may be needed for particular purposes. He says that it purifies the air, and acts as a stimulant u})on patients. lie docs not claim that it cures cholera,, any more than the absence of ozone from the atmosphere gives rise to the disease. It would be unprofitable and tiresome to examine further the various sugo-estions reo-ardiug the treatnnmt of cholera that have come to light ■svitliin the past two years. ^VU the most important writings of dilferent authors have been alluded to. In reviewing the entire subject, candor compels the admission that the real additions to our knowledge concerning the rational treatment of ■ the disease have amounted to little or nothing. There is no doubt that the list of useless medicaments and measures has been still further ex- tended, and so far Ave have to record at least a negative gain. But if Koch's doctrine has thus given no direct stimulus to the practical management of the disease, we cannot ignore the fact that in accepting it, we deal more intelligently with our patients than was possible before. Still, the chief interest and importance of future cholera research will undoubtedly center around the subject of effectual scientific prophylaxis. Protective Inoculation against Cholera.—Before closing,we may briefiy allude to cholera vaccination, which was brought prominently before professional notice only a short time ago. The su,bject has already created considerable excitement in Europe, and especially in Spain, Avhero the protective power of inoculation with attenuated cholera-virus has been made the subject of recent experimental incpiiry, culminating in the in- oculation of several human beings. Dr. Ferriin' has made a careful study of the biology of the comma- bacillus, and has even discovered certain new forms of development of this microbe. But the main interest of these Spanish investigations naturally attaches to his inoculations with the attenuated virus of cholera. He attempted, as in vaccination, to produce a modified form of the disease, which would elfectually protect the individual against the acquisition of the graver malady. While neither Ferran himself nor his disciples claim to have already achieved unequivocal success, they nevertheless assert that they have obtained decidedly encouraging results. Dr. Gimeno, in a recent issue of La Cronica Medica, and Carreras- Sola, in La Kevista de las Ciencias Medicas, also contribute articles on this new phase of the subject. Gimeno asserts that the comma-bacillus of Koch is only one form of development of an organism, that does not even belong to the order of schizomycetes. It should be classed rather with the cryptogamic peronosporefe, and since Ferran is credited with having made this discovery, it is suggested in future to speak of the Pero- nospora Ferrani, in place of Koch's comma-bacillus, when alluding to the microbe of Asiatic cholera. Carreras-Sola says that this microphyte vegetates without doubt in moist earth and nuul, and amongst the cryptogamic vegetations of the banks and bottoms of ponds and rivers. In the first place, the medium being great and constantly renewed, the plant has always more than enough oxygen and organic material to sustain life. On the other hand, the })rod- ucts of its denutrition being extraordinarily diluted, it is not disturbed by them, which otherwise would seriously oppose its development. Placed ' La Independenc'ia, ]\Iedica, Barcelona, Marcli 1 and 11, 188~). • Revista de las Ciencias Medicas, and El Siylo Meilico, March, i88o.$