, nay,
in the same week, it was raging in the unconnected and far-distant
districts of Behar and Dacca." (Bengal Reports, p. 125.) Again (p. 9),
that in Bengal "it at once raged simultaneously in various and remote
quarters, without displaying a predilection for any one tract or
district more than for another; or any thing like regularity of
succesion in the chain of its operations." In support of what is stated
in these extracts, the fullest details are given as to dates and places;
and at page 9 of those Reports, a curious fact is given, "That the large
and populous city of Moorshedabad, from extent and local position
apparently very favourably circumstanced for the attacks of the
epidemic, should have escaped with comparatively little loss, whilst all
around was so severely scourged." This seems to have been pretty similar
to what is now taking place with respect to the city of Thorn, which
remains free from cholera, though the communication is open with divers
infected places in every direction. Should Thorn still be attacked by
the disease (as it sooner or later will, in all human probability), the
contagionists _par metier_ will try to establish a case of hemp or
hare-skin importation, I have no doubt. I wonder much that Dr.
Macmichael or Dr. B. Hawkins, when favouring us with eastern quotations,
did not give the public the opinion of Dr. Davy, who is so well known
in Europe, and who saw the cholera in Ceylon; his conjecture (quite
accessible, I believe, to every medical man in London) may perhaps be
as valuable as that of any other person. The following is a copy of
it:--"The cause of the disease is not any sensible change in the
atmosphere; yet, considering the progress of the disease, its epidemic
nature, the immense extent of country it has spread over, we can hardly
refuse to acknowledge that its cause, though imperceptible, though yet
unknown, does exist in the atmosphere. It may be extricated from the
bowels of the earth, as miasmata were formerly supposed to be; it may
be generated in the air, it may have the properties of radiant matter,
and, like heat and light, it may be capable of passing through space
unimpeded by currents; like electricity, it may be capable of moving
from place to place in an imperceptible moment of time." Dr. Davy is an
army physician, and the report of which this is an extract, may be seen
at the Army Medical Office, a place which, of late years, has become a
magazine of medical in