disposed to conclude
that this had been the actual cause of her sufferings and dissolution.

In 1821 the cholera raged with even greater violence than on its first
appearance in Hindoostaun; by that time many remedies had been suggested,
through the medium of the press, by the philanthropy and skill of European
medical practitioners, the chief of whom recommended calomel in large
doses, from twenty to thirty grains, and opium proportioned to the age and
strength of the patient. I never found the Natives, however, willing to
accept this as a remedy, but I have heard that amongst Europeans it was
practised with success. From a paragraph which I read in the Bengal papers,
I prepared a mixture that I have reason to think, through the goodness of
Divine Providence, was beneficial to many poor people who applied for it
in the early stages of the complaint, and who followed the rule laid down
of complete abstinence, until they were out of danger from a relapse, and
even then for a long time to be cautious in the quantity and digestible
quality of their daily meal. The mixture was as follows:

Brandy, one pint; oil or spirit of peppermint, if the former half an
ounce--if the latter, one ounce; ground black pepper, two ounces; yellow
rind of oranges grated, without any of the white, one ounce; these were
kept closely stopped and occasionally shook, a table-spoonful administered
for each dose, the patient well covered up from the air, and warmth
created by blankets or any other means within their power, repeating the
close as the case required.

Of the many individuals who were attacked with this severe malady in our
house very few died, and those, it was believed, were victims to an
imprudent determination to partake of food before they were
convalescent,--individuals who never could be prevailed on to practise
abstemious habits, which we had good reason for believing was the best
preventive against the complaint during those sickly seasons. The general
opinion entertained both by Natives and Europeans, at those awful periods,
was, that the cholera was conveyed in the air; very few imagined that it
was infectious, as it frequently attacked some members of a family and the
rest escaped, although in close attendance--even such as failed not to pay
the last duties to the deceased according to Mussulmaun custom, which
exposed them more immediately to danger if infection existed;--yet no
fears were ever entertained, nor did I ever h