Cholera in relation to certain physical phenomena : a contribution towards the special enquiry sanctioned by the Right Hon. the Secretaries of State for War and for India / by T.R. Lewis and D.D. Cunningham.

  • Timothy Richards Lewis
Date:
1878
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Cholera in relation to certain physical phenomena : a contribution towards the special enquiry sanctioned by the Right Hon. the Secretaries of State for War and for India / by T.R. Lewis and D.D. Cunningham. 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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    and the other Professors of the Army Medical School.* As some misconception appears not uncommonly to exist even yet as to the object which von Petten- kofer had in view in advocating the system of water-level registration and the method in which the data thus acquired should be interpreted, perhaps it may he advantageous to give a general outline of what we ourselves con- ceive to be his views on the subject. In his now celebrated lectures on “The Air in relation to Clothing, Dwelling and Soil,”! a lucid description is given of the relation which the air in the soil bears to the air above it: how the air in the pores of the soil is kept constantly moving by the force of the wind passing over the surface of the ground, and by the laws regulating the inter- mingling of gases—change of temperature, diffusion and so forth. As an illustration of the differences which soils present, he points out how experience has shown that in some grave-yards the Soil in relation to decomposition. x . . . . decomposition of bodies is complete m from six to seven years, whereas in others twenty-five or thirty years are required before this is brought about; so that it has become a matter of practical import to ascertain the quality of the ground in this respect, when selecting sites for cemeteries, as the interval which should elapse before a burying-ground may be used again hinges upon the fact as to whether decomposition takes place rapidly or not; hence it may happen that two cities with an equal population may require cemeteries of very different extent. He mentions that several influences combine to bring this about, but the principal one is the amount of, and the facility for, the interchange of the air in the soil—gravelly and sandy soils acting much more quickly than those of marl and clay. * The previous reports which have appeared in connection with the Special Cholera Enquiry sanctioned by the Secretaries of State for War and for India, and which have been published in former Annual Reports of the Sanitary Commissioner with the Government of India, are the following:— 1. Microscopic Appearances of Choleraic Discharges—The Fungus Theory, &c. App. A., Sixth Annual Report, pp. 124-178, Calcutta, 1870. 2. Cholera in Madras—Topographical and Microscopic Observations. App. B., Seventh Annual Report, pp. 139— 236, 1871. 3. Cholera: Microscopical and Physiological Observations—Series I., Eighth Annual Report, App, C., pp. 143- 203 1872. (Republished in Indian Annale of Medical Science, No. 30, vol. XV, 1873.) 4. Microscopic Examinations of Air. Ninth Annual Report, App. A., pp. 1—64, 1873. 6. Cholera: Microscopical and Physiological Observations—Series II. Tenth Annual Report, App. A., pp. 173— 210, 1874. (Republished in Indian Annals of Medical Science, No. 35, vol. XVIII, 1876.) 6. The Soil in its relation to Disease. Eleventh Annual Report, App. B., pp. 117—14-3, 1875. (Republished iu Indian Annals of Medical Science, vol. XVIII, 1876.) f Beziehungen der Luft zu Kleidung Wohnung und Boden, 1872.
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