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presenting this Treatise on Asiatic Cholera to my professional brethren I must apologize for much that is rough and unfinished in its composition. Had I seen my way to a release from the drudgery of practice, I should have endeavoured to have thrown more force into my argument, and have elaborated my diction so as to have made my work more readable than I fear it is at present. The leisure .hour may, however, never come; and what is of great importance, I can now do battle for my own views, if, as I trust, they may be assailed by those anxious to satisfy themselves on this important subject, or to demolish my arguments if they are unsound.

I have not aimed at originality, but simply to record the work I have done, and the opinions I have formed, during nearly fifteen years' consecutive labour in the endemic area of cholera. In doing this I have necessarily had to criticise the views and actions of others; but I have earnestly endeavoured while doing so to keep within the bounds of just criticism, acting upon