cal men of India.

In turning now more particularly to the work, or rather compilation,
of Dr. Bisset Hawkins, let us see whether we cannot discover among what
he terms "marks of haste" in getting it up for "the curiosity of the
public" (_curiosity_, Dr. Hawkins!), some omissions of a very important
nature on the subject of a disease respecting which, we presume, he
wished to enlighten the public. And first, glancing back to cholera in
the Mauritius, Dr. Hawkins might, had he not been so pressed for time,
have referred to the appearance of cholera in 1829, at Grandport in that
island; when, as duly and officially ascertained, it could not be a
question of importation by any ship whatever. The facility with which he
supplies us with "facts,"--the _false facts_ reprobated by Bacon, and
said by Cullen to produce more mischief in our profession than false
theories--is quite surprising; he tells us, point blank (p. 31),
speaking of India, that "when cholera is once established in a marching
regiment, it continues its course in spite of change of position, food,
or other circumstances!" Never did a medical man make an assertion more
unpardonable, especially if he applies the term _marching regiment_ as
it is usually applied. Dr. Hawkins leads us to suppose that he has
examined the India reports on cholera. What then are we to think when we
find in that for Bengal the following most interesting and conclusive
statements ever placed on record? Respecting the Grand Army under the
Marquis of Hastings, consisting of 11,500 fighting men, and encamped in
November 1817 on the banks of the Sinde, the official report states that
the disease "as it were in an instant gained fresh vigour, and at once
burst forth with irresistible violence in every direction. Unsubjected
to the laws of contact, and proximity of situation, which had been
observed to mark and retard the course of other pestilences, it
surpassed the plague in the width of its range, and outstripped the most
fatal diseases hitherto known, in the destructive rapidity of its
progress. Previously to the 14th it had overspread every part of the
camp, sparing neither sex nor age, in the undistinguishing virulence of
its attacks."--"From the 14th to the 20th or 22d, the mortality had
become so general as to depress the stoutest spirits. The sick were
already so numerous, and still pouring in so quickly from every quarter,
that the medical men, although night and day at their posts,