Definition.—An acute, infectious disease, the contagion of which is questionable occurring pandemically.
Cause.—The bacillus influenza.
Pathology.—There is no characteristic lesion in the uncomplicated case. When death occurs it is usually from complication.
Treatment.—Disinfect the oral and nasal cavities with embalming fluid. Inject as much fluid as you can into the arteries and cavities. The usual 10% of the body weight must be given for transportation. If blood vessels are filled with blood, drain from a large vein, and add more fluid to your injection, to make up for the loss of blood to the blood bottle. Close all openings with absorbent cotton. For transportation, govern yourself according to the provisions of your district rules.
Cholera.
—Synonyms.—Cholera Algida; Cholera Asiatica; Cholera maligna.
Definition.—Cholera is an acute, specific, infectious slightly contagious disease, occurring epidemically and endemically, and characterized by severe vomiting and copious watery stools, violent cramping of the muscles and collapse.
Cause.—The exciting cause is now generally recognized as the comma bacillus of Koch, or spirillum cholerae.
Pathology.—The tissues after death are shrunken and drawn, and the extremities are inclined to be mottled; in some cases there is a postmortem rise of temperature. Rigor mortis sets in very early. Spasmodic contractions sometimes occur for some moments after death; hence the eyes and jaws have been seen to move after life was extinct. Owing to this marked contraction, the limbs have been distorted and the partial turning of the body is thus accounted for, and is not, as many have supposed, the result of being buried alive. The tissues are dry, having been drained of these fluids before death, hence some time elapses before decomposition begins after death. The chief visceral lesion is that of the intestinal canal. The intestines contain a more or less quantity of rice-water, fluid rich in the comma bacillus. The blood is very dark, but slightly coagulable and robbed of its salts and fluids.
Treatment.—Arterial and cavity embalming, closing all orifices of the body. Any discharges from the bowels should be disinfected before being disposed of. In epidemics, cosmetic effect is a non-essential and in that case the most thorough treatment must be given without regard to appearances.