by Mr.
Searle, a gentleman who served in India, and who was in Warsaw during
the greater part of the epidemic which prevailed there this year, the
following statement:--"I have only to add, that after all I have heard,
either in India or in Poland, after all I have read, seen, or thought
upon the subject, I arrive at this conclusion, that the disease is not
contagious."

In confirmation of the opinion of Mr. Searle, we have now the evidence
of the medical commission sent by the French government to Poland.
Dr. Londe, President of that commission, arrived in Paris some days ago.
He announced to the minister in whose department the quarantine lies,
as well as to M. Hely D'Oissel, President of the Superior Council of
Health, that it was proved in Poland, entirely to his satisfaction,
as well as to the satisfaction of his five colleagues, that the cholera
_is not a contagious disease_.

The Minister of War also sent _four_ medical men to Warsaw. Three of
them have already declared against contagion; so it may be presumed that
the day is not far distant when those true plagues of society, cordons
and quarantines against cholera, shall be abolished. Hear the opinion of
a medical Journalist in France,--after describing, a few days ago, the
quarantine and cordon regulations in force in that country:--"But what
effect is to be produced by these extraordinary measures, this immense
display of means, and all these obstructions to the intercourse of
communities, against a disease not contagious; a disease propagating
itself epidemically; and which nothing has hitherto been able to arrest?
To increase its ravages a hundred-fold,--to ruin the country, and to
make the people revolt against measures which draw down on them misery
and death at the same time." What honest man would not _now_ wish that
in this country the cholera question were placed _in Chancery_; where,
I have no doubt, it would be quickly disposed of. I shall merely add,
that the ten medical men sent from France to Poland, for the purpose
of studying the nature of cholera, have all remained unattacked by the
disease.

October 15, 1831.

LETTER V.

It was well and wisely said, that to know any-thing thoroughly, it must
be known in all its details; and, to gain the confidence of the public
in the belief of non-contagion in cholera, it is in vain that they are
informed that certain alleged facts, brought forward industriously
by contagionists, are quite gr