YANDELL on Spasmodic Cholera.



fidence, in the most efficient doses. If more be given than
can be brought into action, the excess is carried offi, as com-
paratively an inert mass, without producing any disturbance
in the system, that I have witnessed, or seen mentioned by
writers on, the Materia Medica.
   The result of my practice being in harmony with these
views, I have felt less hesitation in laying them before the
profession. No one of my patients was seriously salivated.
Their convalescence has been as rapid as that of others
who took less calomel. In no case have I seen what is term-
ed bad health, as a consequence of it. On the contrary,
those who suffered last season, as well as those who were af-
fected in the late epidemic and survived, are now enjoying
their usual health, and some have even felt it improved by
the course of medicine.
  In reference to their termination, the cases of cholera, as
the disease appeared here, and no doubt manifested
itself in other places, may be divided into two classes.
The first matured slowly, being generally preceded, for a
day or so, by some slight indisposition. The faecal diarrhoea
continued several hours, and occasionally more than a day,
before the appearance of rice water, and the more formidable
symptoms. In such cases, the cure was comparatively cer-
tain. Time sufficient was-afforded for the patient to take
alarm, and for medicine to impress the system. In the se-
cond class, the invasion was sudden and overwhelming. Al-
most without premonition, the patient felt himself struggling
with the disease in its matured form. Diarrhaea had scarce-
lv made its appearance, before the vital forces gave way, and
the system sunk, without commotion, as in the worst cases of
the epidemic of London, described by Sydenham. The sub-
jects of these attacks were for the most part aged persons,
or those who were debilitated by disease, or intemperance,
and the issue, it need scarcely be added, was rarely favorable.
  This brings me to remark, that the epidemic appears to
have acquired fresh vigor by its repose during the last win-
ter, or that it has found, in the Valley of the Mississippi, a



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