Already has the problem of the contagious or non-contagious nature of
this disease been solved upon our own land; and as sophistry can no
longer erect impediments to the due distribution of the resources of
this pre-eminently humane nation, it is to be hoped that not an hour
will be lost in shaping the arrangements accordingly. What now becomes
of the doctrine of a poison, piercing and rapid as the sun's rays,
emanating from the bodies of the sick--nay, from the bodies of those who
are not sick, but who have been near them or near their houses? In the
occurrences at Newcastle and Sunderland, how has the fifty times refuted
doctrine of the disease spreading from a point in _two_ ways, or in one
way, tallied with the facts? We were desired to believe that in India,
Persia, &c., "the contagion _travelled_," as the expression is, very
slow, because this entity of men's brains was obliged to wend its way
with the march of a regiment, or with the slow caravan: now, however,
when fifty facilities for the most rapid conveyance have been afforded
every hour since its first appearance, it will not put itself one bit
out of its usual course. And then what dangers to the attendants on the
sick to the members of the same family--to the washerwomen--to the
clergymen--to the buriers of the dead--even to those who passed the door
of the poor sufferer! Well, what of all this has occurred? Why it has
occurred that this doctrine, supported by many who were honest, but had
not duly examined alleged facts, and by others, I regret to say, whose
interests guided their statements--that the absurdity of this doctrine
has now been displayed in the broad light of day. Make allowance (even
in this year of great notoriety for susceptibility to cholera in the
people at large in this country) for _insusceptibility_ on the part of
numbers who came into contact at Sunderland and Newcastle, with the
persons of cholera patients, with their beds, their furniture, their
clothes, &c., yet, if there had ever been the slightest foundation
for the assertions of the contagionists, what numbers _ought_ to have
been contaminated, in all directions over the face of the country,
even within the first few days, considering the wonderful degree of
intercourse kept up between all parts. But we find that, as in Austria
and Prussia, "_la maladie de la terre_" is not disposed here to
accommodate itself to vain speculations. _Now_ the matter may be
reduced to the simple rules of arithmetic, viz.:--if, as "contagionists
_par metier_" say, the poison from the body of one individual be, in
the twinkling of an eye, and in more ways than one, transmitted to
the bodies of a certain number who have been near him, &c., how many
thousands, or tens of thousands, in every direction, should, in a
multiplied series of communications and transmissions, be now affected?
Those who have watched the course of matters connected with cholera in
this country, have not failed to perceive, for some time past, the
intent and purport of the assertion so industriously put forth--that the
disease might be introduced by people in perfect health; and we have
just seen how this _ruse_ has been attempted to be played off at
Sunderland, as the history of such matters informs us has been done
before in other instances, and public vengeance invoked most _foully and
unjustly_ upon the heads of guiltless persons in the Custom House or
Quarantine Department, for "permitting a breach of regulations;" but the
several pure cases of spasmodic cholera, in many parts of England
besides Sunderland, long before--months before--the arrival of _the_
ship (as shewn in a former letter) leave no pretence for any supposition
of this kind.
I request that the public may particularly remark, that, frequently as
those cases have been cited as proofs of the absurdity of _expecting the
arrival_ of the disease by a ship, THEIR IDENTITY HAS NEVER ONCE BEEN
DISPUTED BY THOSE MOST ANXIOUS TO PROVE THEIR CASE. No; the point has,
in common parlance, been always _shirked_; for whoever should doubt it,
would only hold himself up to the ridicule of the profession, and to
admit it would be to give up the importation farce.
Others have remarked before me that, though a very common, it is a very
erroneous mode of expression, to say of cholera, that _it has travelled_
to such or such a place, _or has arrived_ at such or such places, for it
is _the cause_ of the malady which is found to prevail, for a longer or
shorter time, at those different points. It cannot be expected that
people should explain such matters, for, with regard to them, our
knowledge seems to be in its infancy, and "we want a sense for atoms."
However, as people's minds are a good deal occupied upon the point,
and as many are driven to the idea of contagion in the face even of
evidence, from not being able to make any thing of this _casse-tête_,
the _best guess_ will probably be found in the quotation from Dr. Davy,
at page 19.
I perceive that the Berlin Gazette is humanely occupied in recommending
others to profit by the mistakes regarding contagion which occurred in
that country:--"Dr. Sacks, in No. 38 of his Cholera Journal, published
here, has again shewn, against Dr. Rush, the fallibility of the doctrine
of contagion, as well as the mischievous impracticability of the
attempts founded on it to arrest the progress of the disorder by cutting
off the communications. It is to be hoped that the alarm so methodically
excited by scientific and magisterial authority in the countries to the
west of us [!!] will cease, after the ample experience which we have
dearly purchased (with some popular tumults), and that the system of
incommunication will be at once done away with by all enlightened
governments, after what has passed among us."--I am sure, good people,
nobody can yet say whether those calling themselves scientific, will
allow us to profit by your sad experience; but I believe that the people
of Sunderland are not to be shut in, but allowed to remove, if they
choose, in spite of silly speculations.
It may not be uninteresting to mention here, that there are no
quarantines and no choleras in Bohemia or Hanover.