At a meeting held some days ago by the members of the Royal Academy of Medicine of Paris, Dr. Londe (President of the French Medical Commission sent to Poland to investigate the nature of the cholera) stated, with regard to the questions of the origin and communicability of the disease, that it appeared by a document to which he referred, that 1st. "The cholera did not exist in the Russian corps which fought at Iganie," the place where the first battle with the Poles took place. 2d. "That the two thousand Russian prisoners taken on that occasion, and observed at Praga for ten days under the most perfect separation, [dans un isolement complet] did not give a single case of cholera." 3d. "That the corps [of the Polish army] which was not at Iganie, had more cases of cholera than those which were there." Dr. Londe stated cases of the spontaneous development of the disease in different individuals—of a French Lady confined to her bed, during two months previous to her attack of cholera, of which she died in twenty-two hours—of a woman of a religious order, who had been confined to her bed for six months, and while crossing a balcony, the aspect of which was to the Vistula, was attacked with cholera, and died within four hours. Dr. Londe, among other proofs that the disease was not transmissible, or, as some prefer calling it, not communicable, stated, "the immunity of wounded and others mixed with the cholera patients in the hospitals; the immunity of medical men, of attendants, of inspectors, and of the families of the different employés attached to the service of cholera patients; the example of a porter, who died of the disease, without his wife or children, who slept in the same bed with him, having been attacked; the example of three women attacked (two of whom died, and one recovered), and the children at their breasts, one of six months, and the other two of twelve, not contracting the disease."
At a subsequent meeting of the Academy, a letter from Dr. Gaymard, one of the Commission to St. Petersburg, was read, in which it was stated, while referring to the comparative mortality at different points there, that, "The cause of this enormous difference was, that the authorities wished to isolate the sick—[Observe this well reader]—and even send them out of the city; now the hospital is on a steep mountain, and, to get
[Pt_1
[Pg 54] to it, the carriages were obliged to take a long circuit through a sandy road, which occupied an hour at least; and if we add to the exposure to the air, the fatigue of this removal, and the time which elapsed after the invasion of the disease, the deplorable state of the patient on his arrival, and the great mortality may be accounted for."
"The progress of the disease was the same as in other places; it was at the moment when it arrived at its height, and when, consequently, the greatest intercourse [Observe reader!] took place with the sick, that the number of attacks wonderfully diminished all at once (tout à coup), and without any appreciable cause. The points of the city most distant from each other were invaded. Numbers of families crowded [entassés] who had given aid to cholera patients, remained free from the disease, while persons isolated in high and healthy situations [usually healthy meant of course] were attacked. It especially attacked the poorer classes, and those given to spirituous liquors. Scarcely twenty persons in easy circumstances were attacked, and even the greater part of these had deviated from a regular system."
The inferences drawn, according to a medical journal, from the whole of Dr. Gaymard's communication, are—
"1. That the system of sanatory measures, adopted in Russia, did not any where stop the disease.
"2. That without entering on the question as to the advantages to be derived from a moral influence arising out of sanatory cordons, placed round a vast state like France, these measures are to be regarded as useless in the interior, in towns, and round houses.
"3. That nothing has been able to obstruct the progressive advance of the disease in a direction from India westward.
"4. That the formation of temporary hospitals, and domiciliary succour, are the only measures which can alleviate this great scourge."
A letter from Dr. Gaymard to Dr. Keraudren was read at the meeting of the Academy, in which it was stated, that in an Hospital at Moscow, in which Dr. Delauny was employed from the month of December, 1830, to the end of December, 1831, 587 cholera patients, and 860 cases of other diseases, were treated—"Not one of the latter was attacked with cholera, although the hospital consists of one building, the coridors communicating with each other, and the same linen serving indiscriminately for all. The attendants did not prove to be more liable to attacks. The relatives were suffered to visit their friends in hospital, and this step produced the best impression on the populace, who remained calm. They can establish at Moscow, that there was not the smallest analogy between the cholera and the plague which ravaged that city in the reign of Catharine." Dr. Gaymard declares, that, having gone to Russia without preconceived ideas on the subject, "he is convinced that interior quarrantines, and the isolation of houses and of sick in towns, has been accompanied by disastrous consequences." Is there yet enough of evidence to shew that this disease is positively not to be made communicable from the sick?