The following statement from the Duke de Mortemar will be considered
probably, very curious, considering that, as already stated, he seems
to believe in something like contagion--and for no earthly reason, one
may suppose, than from his inability to satisfy himself of the existence
of another cause--as if it were not sufficient to prove that in reality
the moon _is not_ made of green cheese, but one must prove _what it is_
made of! But, to the quotation--"The conviction now established, that
intercourse with sick produces no increase of danger, should henceforth
diminish the dread of this calamity (the cholera). It differs from the
plague in this, that it does not, by its sole appearance, take away
all hope of help, and destroy all the ties of family and affection.
Henceforth those attacked will not be abandoned without aid and
consolation; and separation or removal to hospital, the source of
despair, will no longer increase the danger. The sick may in future be
attended without fears for one's self, or for those with whom we live."
How delightful is the simplicity of truth! Why, Sir, a morceau like
this, and from an honourable man, let him call himself contagionist or
what he may, is more precious at this moment than Persian turkois or
Grecian gems. Make me an example, men say, of the culprits "who let
the cholera morbus into Sunderland," concealed in "susceptible"
articles!--yes, and that we may be on a level in other matters, destroy
me some half dozen witches, too, as we were wont to do of yore. But
let us have more tidings from Russia to comfort the country of our
affections in the hour of her affliction, when so much craft and
subtlety is on foot to scare her. Dr. Lefevre, physician to our embassy
at St. Petersburg, has just given to the public an account of his
observations there during the epidemic, from which the following
extracts are made:--
"As far as my practice is concerned both in the quarter allotted to me,
and also in private houses in different parts of the town, I have no
proof whatever that the disease is contagious.
"The first patient I saw was upon the third day of the epidemic, and
upon strict inquiry I could not trace the least connexion between the
patient, or those who were about her person, with that part of the town
where it first appeared--a distance of several versts.
"As regards the attendants of the sick, in no one instance have I found
them affected by the disease, though in many cases they paid the most
assiduous attention, watched day and night by the beds of the afflicted,
and administered to all their wants.
"I knew four sisters watch anxiously over a fifth severely attacked with
cholera, and yet receive no injury from their care.
"In one case I attended a carpenter in a large room, where there were at
least thirty men, who all slept on the floor among the shavings; and,
though it was a severe and fatal case, no other instance occurred among
his companions.
"In private practice, among those in easy circumstances, I have known
the wife attend the husband, the husband the wife, parents their
children, children their parents, and in fatal cases, where, from long
attendance and anxiety of mind, we might conceive the influence of
predisposition to operate, in no instance have I found the disease
communicated to the attendants."--p. 32, 33.
"The present disease has borne throughout the character of an epidemic,
and when the proofs advanced in proof of its contagion have been
minutely examined, they have been generally found incorrect; whereas
it is clear and open to every inquirer, that the cholera did not occur
in many places which had the greatest intercourse with St. Petersburg
at the height of the malady, and that it broke out in many others which
have been subjected to the strictest quarantine."--p. 34.[16]
[Footnote 16: It is remarkable enough that Aretæus, who lived, according
to some authors, in the first century, gives exactly the same reason
which Dr. Lefevre does for the suppression of urine in cholera. So true
it is, that that symptom, considered as one of the characteristics of
the Indian cholera, was observed in ancient times.]
Hear all this, Legislators! Boards of Health throughout the country,
hear it! Then you will be able to judge how exceedingly frivolous the
idle _opinions_ and _reports_ are which you have obtruded so
industriously upon your notice.
But one more short quotation from Dr. Lefevre, a gentleman certainly
not among the number of those who stand denounced before the
professional world as unworthy of belief. He says:--"As for many
reports which have been circulated, and which, _primâ facie_, seem to
militate against the statement [communication to attendants, &c.]. I
have endeavoured to pay the most impartial attention to them; but I
have never found, upon thorough investigation, that their correctness
could be relied upon: and in many instances I have ascertained them to
be designedly false."--DESIGNEDLY FALSE! Alas! _toute ça on trouve
dans l'article_ HOMME; and any body who chooses to investigate, as
I have done, the history of epidemics, will find that falsehoods foul
have been resorted to--shamelessly resorted to--by persons having a
direct interest in maintaining certain views. Enough, then, has been
said to put Boards of Health, &c. on their guard against admitting
_facts_ for their guidance from any quarter whatever, if the purity
of the source be not right well established. There is too much at stake
just now to permit of our yielding with ill-timed complaisance to
_any authority_ without observing this very necessary preliminary.
One word, and with all due respect, before closing, on the subject of
Dr. James Johnson's "_contingent_ contagion," which, though occurring
in some diseases, and extremely _feasible_ in regard to others, will,
if he goes over the evidence again, I am sure, be shown not to apply to
cholera, which is strictly a disease of _places_, not persons, and can
no more be generated by individuals than ague itself can. I can only say
of it, with the philosophic poet, that--
--------------------"A secret venom oft
Corrupts the air, the water, and the land."
Mr. Searle, an English gentleman, well known for his work on cholera,
has just returned from Warsaw, where he had the charge of the principal
cholera hospital during the epidemic. The statements of this gentleman
respecting contagion, being now published, I am induced from their high
interest to give them here:--
"I have only to add my most entire conviction that the disease is not
contagious, or, in other words, communicable from one person to another
in the ordinary sense of the words--a conviction, which, is founded not
only upon the nature of the disease, but also upon observations made
with reference to the subject, during a period of no less than fourteen
years. Facts, however, being deservedly of more weight than mere
opinions, I beg leave to adduce the following, in the hope of relieving
the minds of the timid from that groundless alarm, which might otherwise
not only interfere with or prevent the proper attendance upon the sick,
but becomes itself a pre-disposing or exciting cause of the disease; all
parties agreeing that of all the debilitating agencies operating upon
the human system, there is no one which tends to render it so peculiarly
susceptible of disease, and of cholera in particular, than fear.
"The facts referred to are these:--during two months of the period, that
I was physician to the principal hospital at Warsaw, devoted to the
reception and treatment of this disease, out of about thirty persons
attached to the hospital, the greater number of them were in constant
attendance upon the sick, which latter were, to the number of from
thirty to sixty, constantly under treatment; there were, therefore,
patients in every stage of the disease. Several of these attendants,
slept every night in the same apartments with the sick, on the beds
which happened to be unoccupied, with all the windows and doors
frequently closed. These men, too, were further employed in assisting
at the dissection of, and sewing up of, the bodies of such as were
examined, which were very numerous; cleansing also the dissecting-room,
and burying the dead. And yet, notwithstanding all this, only one,
during the period of two months, was attacked by the disease, and this
an habitual drunkard, under circumstances, which entirely negative
contagion, (supposing it to exist), as he had nothing whatever to do
with the persons of the sick, though he occasionally assisted at the
interment of the dead. He was merely a subordinate assistant to the
apothecary, who occupied a detached building with some of the families
of the attendants; all of whom likewise escaped the disease. This man,
I repeat, was the only one attacked, and then under the following
circumstances."
Here Mr. S. relates how this man, having been intoxicated for several
days--was, as a punishment locked up almost naked in a damp room for two
nights, having previously been severely beaten.
From the foregoing facts, and others pretty similar in all parts of the
world where this disease has prevailed, we are, I think, fairly called
upon to discard all special pleading, and to admit that man's _best
endeavours_ have not been able _to make it_ communicable by any manner
of means.