Bell and Condie on Cholera. 337 ill-ventilated rooms in streets, alleys or courts, in which the disease once showing itself would, without some such precautionary measures, commit dreadful ravages. Immediate specification may be made of a great number of under-ground rooms, used for lodging and sleeping, in the row of buildings between Front and Water streets, and of cellars in various parts of the city, in which men both work and sleep, Not only are the tenants of such rooms more prone to the disease, but they are also less advantageously circumstanced for recovering from its attacks; nor can they be properly attended by physicians, nurses and friends, without detriment, and even danger to these latter, who would then be respiring a damp, close and impure air, and be liable to have their bodies suddenly chilled, after passing from the outer warm air into such a medium. BELL AND CONDIE ON CHOLERA. THE work by Drs. Bell and Condie on Cholera, advertised by T. Desilver, Jr. Market street, will enable American physicians to learn what has been the practice pursued in the treatment of this disease in the different countries in which it has prevailed. In the numerous essays and books on the subject, the reader is merely told of the treatment adopted by the writer, or in this or that hospital. He is not enlightened by all the previous experience of other practitioners, in former seasons or other countries. Hence, to acquire the information contained in the present small volume, it would be necessary to peruse, probably, fifty different works, and even then there would be no small difficulty in separating the essential facts from extraneous matter. The report of the College of Physicians, an extract of which is given in our preceding pages, forms the introduction to the work of Drs. Bell and Condie. The former contains nearly all that would interest the general reader and public at large. The latter is more especially intended for the professional man, who will at once become acquainted with all the remedial means employed in cholera, and be ready to make the most judicious selection, so as to adapt them to the particular stage of the disease. The close connexion between epidemic cholera on the one side, and our common cholera morbus of adults, and cholera infantum, bilious cholic, and the cold stage of intermittent fever on the other, is pointed out by the authors of the work before us. Some curious information respecting former pestilences, especially of the great plague in the early part of the 14th century, is also given in the first 338 Advertisements, &c. chapter of this work-in illustration of the nature and spread of epidemic diseases. LONGEVITY. The Raleigh Register states that there is a "centenarian in every 2425 persons throughout the state," and then it asks"what will foreigners, who deny American longevity, say to this?" Caution. Such were the evidently pestiferous effects of drinking ardent spirits during the prevalence of the Epidemic Cholera at Montreal, that the Taverns and Grog-shops were ordered to be closed by the authorities. In Quebec the sale of ardent spirits in less quantities than two gallons is interdicted on the recommendation of the Board of Health, on account of the Cholera. Shall these lessons— shall the whole experience, of a similar tenor, of Europe, be lost on the people of the United States in their preventive measures against this dire disease? OUR readers will have seen, by the announcement in our last number, that Mr. ATKINSON has become the proprietor and publisher of the Journal of Health. As this measure is one which meets with the entire consent of the Editors, it will be an additional incentive to them for renewed exertions to sustain the interest of this work. It will be their aim to impart as much variety to its pages as is consistent with adherence to their original plan. Hence they will borrow freely from Travels, Biography, Sketches of character, &c. &c.; enlist on suitable occasions in their cause Popular Science and maxims of Domestic Economy. Education, both physical and moral, as laying, according as it is well or ill conducted, a foundation for future happiness or misery, comes strictly within their province: Nor shall rational amusement, and the means of being amused, fail to receive a due share of attention. Publishers and Editors, acting in concert and with a steady aim to the instruction and entertainment of the public, cannot, we are persuaded, fail to give satisfaction. Is published by Thomas Desilver, jr. and for sale, at his book store, 247, Market street, and at the principal booksellers in the city, A History of the Epidemic Cholera, and the means of preventing the disease; being a Report of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia, to the Board of Health of the same city: to which is added a full account of the Symptoms and Seats of the disease, and the Method of Treatment adopted in the different countries in which the Cholera has prevailed. -Bv John Bell, M. D. and D. F. Condie, M. D. THE Health Almanac is published, and for sale to the trade and others, by Key, Mielke & Biddle. THE events which have transpired in so many other and remote countries—those which are now of daily occurrence in our own land—are filled with more solemn warning than even the woes threatened by another Isaiah or Jeremiah, were such inspired personages once more sent abroad to admonish the people of their enormities, and to call them back, under dreadful penalties, to order and virtue. The denunciation by the former of these prophets "Wo to the crown of pride, to the drunkards"-"Wo to them that are mighty to drink wine," is now in course of fulfilment. The pestilence which has scourged Asia, destroying millions, and carried off from Europe tens of thousands of her inhabitants, has now appeared on this continent, with all the fearful and terrific traits, and deadly effect, which have hitherto ditinguished it. We, at this time, and in this place, will not venture an opinion that the progress of pestilence is a special providence-the direct infliction of punishment on the sinful of the earth; but every individual in the community is free to proclaim, as a matter of history, full of solemn warning, weighing down, perhaps, still more his own wounded spirit, that the drunkard, the dissolute, the uncleanly-those regardless of the laws of God and the nobler feelings of man, have been, and continue to be in large numbers, the victims of the devastating cholera. Whether on the banks of the Ganges and the Indies, or the Wolga and the Neva--wheVOL. III.-43. 339 ther on the Danube or the Seine, the Thames or the St. Lawrence, the same dread selection has been uniformly made of the intemperate-not merely the drunkard, but the free drinker, for the first and chief victims to this disease. It matters not under what name goes the distilled liquor drunk by the various people who have been destroyed by cholera. Arrack, vodky, brandy, gin, whiskey-all and each are now admitted to be the strongest allies, the most ready inviters, of this scourge. Nor is this a new fact in the history of epidemical and pestilential diseases. Its force has indeed been hitherto more successfully masked by sophistry, and been misunderstood through ignorance. But for a long time, and oft, has its truth been proclaimed. Danger in the wine-cup-sickness and death in the still-has been the language held of late years, in nearly every section of our country. If it has not reached every house, and carried conviction to every inhabitant, let those who have scoffed at Temperance Societies, who have ridiculed temperance reforms, who have sometimes for the love of opposition, sometimes from wilful ignorance, at times from sordid interest, insisted on the necessity of a people having strong drink, on the necessity of a moderate quantity of ardent spirits after labour and fatigue, or to keep up the body to its natural tone, in order to ward off disease;-let those persons, we say, answer, and tell why it was, and by what means, this all-important knowledge of the uniformly deleterious effects of ardent spirits was kept back from so many of their fellow-citizens, and prevented from reaching every nook and corner of the land. Are the ministers of the gospel, are the judges and expounders of our laws, are our legislators or framers of our laws, are our learned men, who aim at giving a direction to public sentiment, are our teachers in schools and colleges, are our elders and matrons, entirely guiltless in this matter? Have they, either by their example or their opinion, in aught tended to keep up the too prevalent delusion, that ardent spirits, in any quantity, under any circumstances of life and situation, is a fit drink for daily or habitual use. If they have, let them now behold, in the history and statistics of cholera, the mournful commentary on their doctrine, the awfully practical refutation of all their sophisms. Diseases without number-insanity, apoplexy, fevers of the worst grade, dyspepsy in all its harassing varieties, deforming discolorations and eruptions of the skin, rheumatism, &c., were pointed out again and again as common effects of the use of strong drinks. The facts were as clear as any of the most familiar daily occurrence-but the conclusion from them was either denied, or perverted from its true meaning. At length the Cholera came-and the evasions of the drunkard, and of the drunkard's advocates, were done away with-silenced, in a manner, and by arguments which could no longer be mistaken.—It was by the death of the drunkard and the alarm of the survivor. Shall it be said that the laws of hygiene, the maxims of dietetics of long and tried value, must be waived in the case of cholera-and that the rules for its prevention are new and peculiar, exceptions to the common line of conduct, as it is thought to be to the diseases which have hitherto afflicted mankind? So far from this being true, we have the most positive and conclusive evidence to show that every measure of wise precaution, sanctioned by time and experience, for the preservation of health and avoidance of disease is strictly applicable to the present emergency. Plain and nutritive diet, due proportion of ‘animal and vegetable food; cleanliness, by bathing and frictions of the skin; clothing calculated to keep up an equable temperature of the body; abstinence from intoxicating drinks; exercise in a pure air; and equanimity of mind-are the means which, in this journal, we have unceasingly indicated as the best means of preserving bodily health and vigour, in all seasons of the year; and of warding off the attacks of epidemical diseases. These means are now universally admitted to be the most effectual preservatives against cholera. Ardent spirits, we contended, was always detrimental when used as drink, or with a view to prevent disease, or to give additional powers of enduring fatigue. Our opinions in this respect, though sustained by a large body of evidence, were disputed, and the great and little vulgar took pains to show that the people required some such stimulus. The cholera comes-and every affirmation of ours, and of the true advocates of temperance, is confirmed to a tittle. If ardent spirits, under any circumstance, had the virtues attributed to them by their friends, this was the time to show it-when all that could impart healthful energy to the system was eagerly sought after. But vain was the appeal to the alcoholic school for maxims for the use of the people. For the first time they were compelled to admit that the use of distilled liquors was an abuse full of danger, carrying disease and death in its train. The East Indian, the Persian, the Russian, the German, the Frenchman, the Briton, the Canadian, the American,-Indian and African, all felt—all acknowledged, the increased proneness to an attack of cholera, the diminished chances of recovery from it, by the use of ardent spirits. The stomachic bitter, the morning dram, the spiritous cordial, all lost that reputation in the eyes of the multitude which they had always lost in the eyes of discerning and humane men. The strong arm of government was often interposed to prevent the sale of these liquors; taverns were closed, and the retailing of drams forbidden. To use brandy as a drink during the prevalence of cholera, say German accounts, is death; and brandy has been thought by some the best of distilled liquors. In |