MAY, 1885

A TREATISE

ON

ASIATIC CHOLERA

EDITED AND PREPARED BY

EDMUND CHARLES WENDT, M.D.,

CURATOR AND PATHOLOGIST OF THE ST. FRANCIS HOSPITAL CURATOR AND PATHOLOGIST OF THE NEW
YORK INFANT ASYLUM; MEMBER OF THE NEW YORK PATHOLOGICAL SOCIETY, OF THE
NEW YORK NEUROLOGICAL SOCIETY, OF THE MEDICAL SOCIETY OF

THE COUNTY OF NEW YORK, ETC., ETC.,

IN ASSOCIATION WITH

DRS. JOHN C. PETERS, OF NEW YORK; ELY MCCLELLAN, U.S. A.; JOHN B. HAMILTON, SURGEON-GENERAL U. S. MARINE HOSPITAL SERVICE; AND GEO. M. STERNBERG, U.S. A.

COPYRIGHT

WILLIAM WOOD & COMPANY

1885

THE PUBLISHERS' PRINTING AND ELECTROTYPING CO., 39 AND 41 PARK PLACE,

NEW YORK.

RC126

1885

PREFACE.

WHEN the publishers proposed to the editor the preparation, by a specified time, of a volume on Cholera, there was a very natural hesitancy on his part to accede to their request. Indeed, it was out of the question for a single individual in the given time to accomplish the task in anything like a satisfactory manner. However, having received assurances of coöperation from various sources, and especially after having secured the valuable collaboration of Dr. J. C. Peters, than whom probably no epidemiologist is better qualified to write on cholera, the editor overcame his misgivings and undertook to prepare the present treatise.

The object of the work is to furnish the physician with a faithful account of the actual state of our knowledge regarding a disease that, even at the present writing, is by many expected soon to visit our shores.

While the experience acquired in past epidemics has been utilized to its fullest extent, the contributors to this volume have not ignored the new light shed on the disease by the most recent researches. It is hoped that in this way the work may prove acceptable to a larger class of readers than if a more one-sided presentation of the subject had been undertaken. Of course the carrying out of such a plan has necessarily led to the embodiment of conflicting views, that may at times appear rather confusing.

Yet it is only in relation to the etiology of the disease that the discord of opinion becomes unpleasantly noticeable. Again, while the editor has not hesitated to freely express his own convictions, mere polemics and all theoretical disquisitions have been, as much as possible, avoided.

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Being intended mainly for the American reader, it is fitting that the history of cholera as it has affected our own country, should receive special attention. Accordingly no apology is needed for the introduction of a very complete account of the disease as observed in the different American epidemics. And it is hoped that Dr. Peters' name furnishes a sufficient guarantee of the thorough manner in which this part of the work has been accomplished.

Dr. McClellan's history of the epidemic as it has affected the United States Army constitutes an authentic record of a highly instructive subject. Certainly nothing could furnish a more convincing proof of the agency of human intercourse in the dissemination of cholera than this part of the volume.

A chapter will also be found giving the history of the disease as observed in the United States Navy. The manuscript was kindly supplied by the Bureau of Medicine and Surgery of the U. S. Navy Department, and the editor takes this opportunity of extending his thanks to said Bureau.

It seems unnecessary to indicate in detail the plan and scope of the book. The editor may, however, be permitted to call special attention to the valuable article on the prevention of cholera, from the pen of Dr. J. B. Hamilton, Surgeon-General of the Marine Hospital Service, and the equally important contribution of Dr. G. M. Sternberg, on the destruction of cholera germs.

As regards the editor's contributions, it is not pretended to lay claim to any originality. His aim has been the modest and yet difficult one of drawing from the recorded experience of the best writers as much of the truth concerning cholera as was possible. But he feels much more certain of the importance of what was attempted than of the value of that which has been accomplished. Still, it is hoped that by collecting from widely scattered sources, information not easily accessible to the practitioner, and especially by ample reference to the most recent researches into the nature of cholera, the work may be found of sufficient merit to take its place by the side of other treatises on the same subject.

Of course the doctrine of Koch has received considerable attention, and a special chapter has been devoted to an accurate account