Honour still be to those of the profession who, from conscientious and honorable motives, have changed from non-contagionists to contagionists in
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[Pg 55] regard to this disease; and all that should be demanded is, that their opinions may not for one moment be suffered to outweigh, on an occasion of vital importance, the great mass of evidence now on record quite in accordance with that just stated. One gentleman of unquestionable respectability gives as a reason (seemingly his very strongest) for a change of opinion, that he has been credibly informed that when the cholera broke out on one side of the street in a certain village in Russia, a medical man had a barrier put up by which the communication with the other side was cut off, and the disease thus, happily, prevented from extending. Now, admitting to the full extent the appearance of the disease on one side of the village only—a thing by the way hitherto as little proved as many others on the contagion side of the question—still, if there be any one thing more striking than another, in the history of the progress of cholera, it is this very circumstance of opposite rows of houses, or of barracks, or bazaars, or lines of camp, being free, while the disease raged in the others, and without any sort of barricading or restriction of intercourse. If people choose to take the trouble to look for the evidence, plenty of such is recorded. Now just consider for one moment how this famous Russian story stands: had the barricading begun early, the matter would have stood an examination a little better; but this man of good intentions never thought of his barriers till the one-sided progress of the disease had been manifest enough, without them:—and then consider how the communication had existed between both rows before those barriers were put up, and how impossible it was, unless by a file of soldiers, to have debarred all communication:—let all this be considered, and probably the case will stand at its true value, which is, if I may take the liberty of saying so,—just nothing at all. Let us bear in mind the circumstance already quoted from the East India records,—of one company of the 14th Regiment, at the extreme end of a barrack, escaping the disease, almost wholly, while it raged in the other nine; and this without a barrier too. But such circumstances are by no means of rare occurrence in other diseases arising from deteriorated atmosphere. Mr. Wilson, a naval surgeon, has shewn how yellow fever has prevailed on one side of a ship, and I have had pointed out to me, by a person who lived near it for thirty years, a spot on this our earth where ague attacks only those inhabiting the houses in one particular line, and without any difference as to elevation or other appreciable cause, except that the sun's rays do not impinge equally on both ranges in the morning and evening.
The advancement of the cause of truth has, no doubt, suffered some check in this country, by the announcement that another gentleman of great respectability (Mr. Orton) finds his belief as to non-contagion in cholera a good deal shaken: but we find that this change has not arisen from further personal knowledge of the disease, and if it be from any representations regarding occurrences in Europe, connected with cholera, we have seen how, from almost all quarters, the evidence lies quite on the side of his first opinions. Whatever the change may be owing to, we should continue, as in other cases, not to give an undue preference even to opinions coming from him, to well authenticated facts—facts, among which
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[Pg 56] some particularly strong are still furnished by himself, even in the second edition of his book:—"It must be admitted that, in a vast number of instances in India, those persons [medical men and attendants] have suffered no more from the complaint than if they had been attending so many wounded men. This is a fact which, however embarrassing to the medical inquirer, [for our part we cannot see the embarrassment] is highly consolatory in a practical point of view, both to him and to all whose close intercourse with the sick is imperatively required."—(p. 316)—"We are therefore forced to the conclusion, however, at variance with the common laws of contagion, that in this disease,—at least in India, the most intimate intercourse with the sick is not, in general, productive of more infection than the average quantity throughout the community." (p. 326). Let us contrast the statements in the following paragraphs:—"For in all its long and various courses, it may be traced from place to place, and has never, as far as our information extends, started up at distant periods of time and space, leaving any considerable intervening tracts of country untouched." (p. 329)—"All attempts to trace the epidemic to its origin at a point, appears to have failed, and to have shewn that it had not one, but various local sources in the level and alluvial, the marshy and jungly tract of country which forms the delta of the Ganges, and extends from thence to the Burraumposter." (p. 329) Now let us observe what follows regarding the particular regularity in the progress of the disease, as just mentioned:—"Another instance of irregularity in its course, even in those provinces where it appears to have been most regular, is stated [now pray observe] in its having skipped from Verdoopatly to a village near Palamacotta, leaving a distance of sixty miles at first unaffected." (p. 332)!!—This is not the way to obtain proselytes I presume.
The situation of our medical brethren at Sunderland is most perplexing, and demands the kindest consideration on the part of the country at large; but let nothing which has occurred disturb the harmony so essential to the general welfare of that place, should their combined efforts be hereafter required on any occasion of public calamity. In truth both parties may be said to be right—the one in stating that the disease in question is Indian cholera, because the symptoms are precisely similar—the other that it is not Indian cholera, because it exists in Sunderland, and without having been imported—in neither country is it communicable from one person to another, as is now plainly shown upon evidence of a nature which will bear any investigation; and if blame, on account of injury to commerce, be fairly attributable to any, it is to those who, all the world over, pronounced this disease, on grounds the most untenable, a disease of a contagious or communicable nature. Let the Sunderland Board of Health not imagine that their situation is new, for similar odium has fallen on the first who told the plain truth, in other instances—at Tortosa, a few years ago, the first physician who announced the appearance of the yellow fever, was, according to different writers, stoned to death; and at Barcelona, in 1821, a similar fate had well nigh occurred to Dr. Bahi, one of the most
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[Pg 57] eminent men there—we need not, I presume, fear that a scene of this kind will take place in this country,—though the cries of "no cholera!" and "down with Ogden!" have been heard.
One word as to observations regarding the needlessness of discussing the contagion question: the truth is, that the cleanliness and comfort of the people excepted, you can no more make other arrangements with propriety, till this point be settled, than a General can near the enemy by whom he is threatened, till it be ascertained whether that enemy be cavalry or infantry.
My object in these letters is not to obtrude opinions upon the public, being well aware that they cannot be so well entitled as those of many others, to attention; but I wish to place before the public, for their consideration, a collection of facts which I think are likely to be of no small importance at a moment like the present. In addition to the many authorities referred to in the foregoing pages, I would beg to call the public attention to a paper in the Windsor Express of the 12th November, by Dr. Fergusson, Inspector General of Hospitals, a gentleman of great experience, and who has given the coup de grace to the opinion of contagion in cholera. Indeed the opinion now seems to be virtually abandoned; for, as to quarantine on our ships from Sunderland, it is, perhaps, a thing that cannot be avoided, if the main consideration be the expediency of the case, until an arrangement between leading nations takes place. We have seen, in regard to Austria, how the matter stands, and our ships from every port in the country would be refused admission into foreign ports, if we did not subject those from Sunderland to quarantine; which state of things, it is hoped, will now be soon put an end to.
FINIS.