The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 47 pages of information about The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction.

The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 47 pages of information about The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction.

It appears, on the most satisfactory authority, that the disease which has so long prevailed in the Russian dominions, and within the last six months, has been advancing in Europe, is contagious.  Our correspondent in Vienna says, that it is evidently a combination of plague and cholera morbus; i.e. the general disturbance of the system is of the nature of plague, and with such a state of constitution, the affection of the chylopoietic viscera, (in consequence of which the name of cholera morbus has been, given to it,) often terminates life in the course of three hours.  It appears, from the report of Professor Lichtenstein, of St. Petersburgh, that the proportion of deaths is one in four, and that in Moscow it has been one in three.  During the summer the mortality by the disease was certainly much greater than in winter.  All the modes of combating this most formidable malady that have been suggested by the different boards of health on the continent, and some practitioners of this country, have totally failed.  The remedies that have proved most successful in the cholera morbus of India have evidently proved injurious in the disease so denominated in Russia.  As a security against the contagion, our correspondent recommends brandy with laudanum; the former to keep up the vigour of the abdominal viscera, and the latter to prevent morbid excitability of the system, which predisposes the body to the action of the contagion.  In India, brandy and laudanum have been very successfully administered in cases of the cholera of that country.  As the recommendation of our correspondent appears to be very reasonable, we advise those who believe in the predictions of a certain popular preacher, that the disease will reach our shores before autumn, to lay in a good stock of genuine brandy and laudanum.  Notwithstanding bleeding, calomel in small and large doses, opium, cajeput oil, sub-carbonate of ammonia, muriatic acid, camphor fumigation, warm covering, and friction have been employed, the disease has run its regular course, and the result, in every case, seems to have depended on the natural stamina of the patients.  To those who had freely indulged in wine or spirits, it has generally terminated fatally.  Among the Russians it has proved more fatal than among the Poles, in consequence, as it is supposed, of the great quantity of fish-oil the former take at every meal.

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We quote the preceding from Dr. Reece’s Gazette of Practical Medicine.

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In the Atlas we find the following:—­An eminent surgeon, Mr. Hope, who has had thirty years’ practice, in which he has treated cases of cholera morbus very successfully, has made public the means which he used for the general good.  He says, “The remedy I gave was one drachm of nitrous acid (not nitric, that has foiled me), one ounce of peppermint-water or camphor mixture, and 40 drops of

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The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.