oundless, unless proofs are given showing
this to be the case. The public must, in short, have those alleged
instances of contagion which have gained currency circumstantially
disproved, or they will still listen to a doctrine leading to the
disorganization of the community wherever it is acted upon. It is
solely upon this ground that these letters have any claim to attention.
Dr. James Johnson, of London, has, since my last letter, publicly
contradicted, with all the bluntness and energy of honest conviction,
the statement by Sir Gilbert Blane, Drs. Macmichael, Hawkins, &c., as to
the importation of the cholera into the Mauritius by the Topaze frigate;
but _evidence_ is what people want on these occasions, and, relative to
the case in question, probably the public will consider what is to be
found in my third and fourth letters, quite conclusive. Having again
mentioned the Mauritius, I cannot refrain from expressing my great
surprise that Mr. Kennedy, who has lately published on cholera, should
give, with the view of showing "the dread and confusion existing at the
time," a proclamation by General Darling, while he does not furnish a
word about the result of the proceedings instituted by that officer, as
detailed in my third letter, relative to the non-contagious nature of
the disease, a point of all others the most important to the public. As
to accounts regarding the confusion caused by the appearance of epidemic
cholera, we have had no lack of them in the public papers during many
months past, from quarters nearer home.

Regarding a statement made by Dr. Hawkins in his book on cholera, viz.
"That Moreau de Jonnes has taken great pains to prove that the disease
was imported into the Russian province of Orenburg," Dr. H. omits to
tell us how completely he failed in the endeavour. In the _Edinburgh
Medical and Surgical Journal_ for July, 1831, there is a review of a
memoir by Professor Lichtenstaedt, of St. Petersburg, in which M.
Moreau's speculations are put to flight. From the efforts of this
_pains-taking_ gentleman (M. Moreau) in the cause of contagion in
cholera, as well as yellow-fever, he seems to be considered in this
country as a medical man; but this is not the case: he raised himself by
merit, not only to military rank, but also to literary distinction, and
is a member of the Academy of Sciences, where he displays an imagination
the most vivid, but as to the sober tact necessary for the investigation
of suc