ted from a
gentleman who had such ample means of witnessing the disease in its very
worst form, I must leave to others to say; but, referring again to the
highly interesting letter from Mr. Marshall on cholera, which appeared
in the _Glasgow Herald_, of the 5th of August last, and in which, from
many important observations which every body interested in cholera
should read and study, the following remarks will be found:--"In no one
instance did it seem to prevail among people residing in the same house
or barracks, so as to excite a suspicion that the contact of the sick
with the healthy contributed to its propagation." "The Indian Cholera,
as it is sometimes called, appears not to be essentially different from
cholera as it occurs in this and all other countries." "I consider it,
therefore, impossible for a medical practitioner to speak decisively
from having seen one, or even a few cases of cholera in this country,
and to say whether they are precursors of '_the epidemic_ cholera' or
not. That the disease is ever propagated by means of personal contact,
or by the clothes of the sick, has not, as far as I know, been
satisfactorily proved. The quality of contagion was never attributed
to the disease in Ceylon, and I believe no-where did it occur in
greater severity. I am aware that an attempt has been made to distinguish
the ordinary cholera of this country from the 'epidemic cholera,' by means
of the colour or quality of the discharges from the bowels. In the
former it is said the discharge is chiefly bile, while in the latter it
is said to bear no traces of bile, but to be colourless and watery. How
far is this alleged diagnosis well founded? I am disposed to believe
that, in all severe cases of cholera, whether it be the cholera of this
country, or the epidemic cholera, the secretion of bile is either
suppressed, or the fluid is retained in the gall-bladder." Mr. Marshall,
it may be observed, is the gentleman who was selected by the late
Secretary at War, in consequence of his known intelligence, to remodel
the regulations relative to military pensioners; and I understand that,
in consequence of the manner in which he executed that very important
duty, he has since been promoted. After what appears from the above
quotations, how perfectly unwarrantable must the assertion of Dr. Bisset
Hawkins seem, that "from the Coromandel coast it seems to have been
transported by sea to Ceylon!"

We shall, I think, be able to see