Page:McCosh, John - Advice to Officers in India (1856).djvu/237

 say, which is the first cause of Cholera, nor do I think we shall arrive at that knowledge till the analysis of the atmosphere is carried to infinitely greater perfection than it is at present; till we are able to separate the principles of small-pox, plague, and intermittent fever from the air we breathe, and bottle them up as we do oxygen, nitrogen, and carbonic acid gas. I consider cholera essentially a disease of secretion, of immoderate secretion of serum from the skin and the intestines. In the first few hours so much liquid is withdrawn from the blood, that it becomes too much inspissated to pass through the capillaries from the arterial into the venous system; the whole course of circulation is stopped nearly as effectually, as if the arteries were filled with treacle or tar, for the blood soon becomes of that consistence. Hence engorgement of the arterial system, suppression of all glandular secretion, of bile, of urine, of saliva; hence congestion of the lungs and asphyxia, imperfect oxidation of the blood, and lividity of countenance, cramps and spasms, clammy coldness and death. I believe, I am correct in stating, that during an experience of twenty-five years, I have not met with cholera in an epidemic form more than five times.

I do not intend to enter upon the questio vexata as the contagiousness of cholera, but shall merely