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LECTURE 
 
 ON 
 
 EPIDEMIC DISEASES GENERALLY, 
 
 AND PARTICULARLY 
 
 THE SPASMODIC CHOLERA, 
 
 DELIVERED IN THE CITY OF NEW YORK, MARCH, 1832, AND 
 
 REPEATED JUNE, 1832, AND IN ALBANY, JULY 4, 1832, 
 
 AND IN NEW YORK, JWNE, 1833. 
 
 WITH 
 
 AN APPENDIX, 
 
 CONTAINING 
 
 , SEVERAL TESTIMONIALS, AND A REVIEW OF BEAUMONT 's 
 EXPERIMENTS ON THE GASTRIC JUICE. 
 
 New Edition, revised and enlarged. 
 
 BY SYLVESTER GRAHAM, 
 
 PUBLIC LECTURER ON THE SCIENCE OF HUMAN LIFE. 
 
 BOSTON : 
 
 PUBLISHED BY DAVID CAMBELL, 
 
 No. 9, Washington Street. 
 
 1838. 
 
no* 
 
 
 AN EXPLANATION OF TECHNICAL, AND 
 OTHER HARD TERMS. 
 
 Abnormal, not according to the healthy laws position. . . 
 
 and operations of the system ; diseased. Idiopathic,the original disease ; original cnar- 
 Alimentary canal, includes the stomach and acter of the disease. 
 
 intestines. Lacteals, small vessels that convey the chyle 
 
 Arterial, belonging to the arteries. to the blood vessels. 
 
 Acute disease, comes on suddenly, with in- Lymphatics, small vessels that convey the 
 
 creased action, inflammation, &.c. lymph, &c. to the blood vessels. 
 
 Adscititio-us, added, supplemental, additional. Medulla oblongata, top of the spinal marrow. 
 Chyme, the digested food of the stomach : Morbid, diseased — morbific, causing disease. 
 
 chymification, making chyme. Mucous mcmbrane,\he membrane lining the 
 
 Chyle, the nutritious part of the food which alimentary canal, lungs, &c. 
 
 forms the blood ; chylification, making chyle. Malaria, bad, or poisonous air, pestilential 
 Capi llary, very small, hair-sized vessel. air, &c. 
 
 Calorific, having the power to produce heat; Messentary, the membrane to which the in- 
 
 calorifi cation, causing heat. testines are attached. 
 
 Chronic disease, of slow advances and long A "ormal, according to the healthy laws and 
 
 standing. ^operations of the system. 
 
 Collapse, falling together ; ceasing to act. Ossification, bony formation. 
 Calcidi, hard stone-like substances formed in Plexus, a number of nervous cords, woven 
 
 the liver, kidneys, bladder, &c. together. 
 
 Cholera morbus, a diseased flow of bile or gall Pneumo-zastric, belonging to the lungs and 
 Congestion, an over fulness of the blood ves- stomach. 
 
 sels, &o. Preternatural, above what is natural, or ordi- 
 
 Diaphragm, the membrane that divides the nary and healthy. 
 
 body into chest and abdomen, or belly. _ Physiology, the science of the properties and 
 Diabetes, disease of the kidneys ; excessive functions of animals and plants. 
 
 secretion. Pathology, the doctrine of diseases, their 
 
 Depurating, cleansing, purifying. , causes, symptoms, &c. 
 
 Endemic disease, a local disease peculiar to a Psycology, the doctrine of the nature and 
 
 country or place. ; properties of the soul. 
 
 Epidemic disease, general, extensive, com- Physiological pathology, disease connected 
 
 mon to many. with disordered function, &c. 
 
 Epigastric, round about the stomach. Pulmonary, belonging to the lungs. 
 
 Enteritis, inflammation of the intestines. Scirrus, or Scij-rhus, hardened indurated 
 Function, office of the organ ; digestion is the gland. 
 
 function of the stomach. Serous, thin, watery, like whey. 
 
 Filamentary, thread-like, smallest form of Tissue, a particular arrangement of nervous 
 
 the structure. or muscular fibres in the organs. 
 
 Ganglion, a bulbous enlargement, or knot of Therapeutics, that part of medicine which re- 
 nervous substance. .. spects the application of remedies, &c. 
 Gastric, belonging to the stomach — gastritis Venous blood, the blood of the veins. 
 
 inflammation of the stomach. Vascular, consisting of vessels, as tbe^arte- 
 
 Gastro -intestinal, belonging to the stomach ries, veins, &c. 
 
 and intestines. Vasculo-nervous, consisting of vessels and 
 
 Inosculate, to unite, to run into one. nerves. 
 
 Intercostal, between the ribs. Viscera, the internal organs, such aB heart, 
 
 Idiosyncrasy, peculiar temperament, predis- stomach, intestines, lungs, liver, &c. 
 
 Entered according to the act of Congress, in the year 1833, by Sylvester Graham, in the 
 Clerk's Office of the Southern District or .New York. 
 
INTRODUCTION TO THE SECOND EDITION. 
 
 I iting to the public a reprint of the following treatise on Epi- 
 diseases the editor is actuated by several considerations, to which 
 he re? r-ectfully invokes the attention of the reader. In the first place, 
 the former edition is entirely exhausted. Not a single copy is to be 
 had, notwithstanding frequent inquiry is made for the work. Jnthe sec- 
 ond place, it is believed that the intrinsic value of the work, as a scien- 
 tific and practical treatise, is such as not only to warrant, but actually to 
 demand the republication of it. For it is valuable not merely as a treat- 
 ise on epidemic diseases, but as a condensed system of physiological and 
 pathological science ; abounding in the most important practical precepts 
 and rules for the guidance of persons afflicted with every form of dis- 
 ease, as well as of those who are in the enjoyment of good health, and 
 desire to preserve it. In the third place, the republication of this work, 
 at this time, affords a very desirable opportunity to present the strongest 
 evidence of that cautious scrutiny and scientific accuracy with which Mr. 
 Graham has pursued all his investigations and arrived at all his conclu- 
 sions. And this is believed to be important, not merely as being lauda- 
 tory to the man, but as justifying that confidence which has been placed 
 in his doctrines by those who have listened to his public instructions, and 
 as warranting the fullest confidence of the public in him as a teacher of 
 the Science of Human Life. 
 
 The first edition of this work was published some months before Dr. 
 Beaumont's « € Experiments and Observations On the Gastric Juice and 
 the Physiology of Digestion," were given to the world, and contained 
 many views which at that time were considered not only as contrary to 
 the well established doctrines of the schools, but as wholly at variance 
 with the universal experience and common sense of mankind ; yet the 
 reader of the following pages, by comparing Mr. Graham's treatise with 
 the review of Dr. Beaumont's work in the Appendix will be astonished to 
 find that Dr, Beaumont has so fully demonstrated, by actual experiment 
 on the human stomach, the truth of what Mr. Graham had before pub- 
 lished as the result of his scientific investigations. Indeed, with the ex- 
 ception of the question of flesh eating, which Dr. Beaumont does not at- 
 tempt to decide, there is scarcely a doctrine advanced by Mr. Graham 
 in this treatise which is not confirmed by Dr. Beaumont. 
 
 The following treatise, as will be perceived by a reference to Mr. Gra- 
 ham's advertisement to the first edition, was prepared and first publicly 
 delivered in New York, in March, 1832 ; full three months before the 
 cholera appeared in this country; a«d again delivered in the same city, 
 in June following, and published in the summer of 1833. 
 
 At the time it was prepared, therefore, Mr. Graham had seen nothing of 
 the epidemic cholera, and had, as he informs us, no other knowledge of 
 it than such as was derived from the accounts of its symptoms and rava- 
 ges in Asia and Europe — published in the newspapers and explained by 
 his own physiological and pathological views. He had never seen nor 
 heard of a post mortem examination of a cholera subject, and the modes 
 of practice adopted abroad were as various and contradictory as they 
 well could be. He was, therefore, under the necessity of forming his 
 own theory of the nature and cause of the disease, according to what he 
 considered the true principles of physiological and pathological science. 
 
IV 
 
 The conclusions to which he arrived in regard to the nature — the re- 
 mote and immediate causes, and the prevention and remedy of the dis- 
 ease, were almost totally different from the opinions held by foreign phy- 
 sicians and entertained by the faculty in this country. Yet it is now well 
 known that the experiment in the city of New York in the summer of 
 1832, powerfully confirmed the truth of Mr. Graham's views, in regard 
 to the best means of preventing and remedying the cholera, and so far 
 as any just inference can be drawn from the history of the disease through- 
 out our country, it is fully corroborative of the results of the experiment 
 in New York. 
 
 Guided solely by the physiological and pathological views which gov- 
 erned his reasonings in relation to the epidemic cholera, Mr. Graham 
 was led to give it as his opinion that the disease which followed the eat- 
 ing of the quails, by the Jews in the wilderness, was a form of cholera. 
 [See Lecture, page 17, fourth paragraph.] Several months after the 
 publication of the first edition of this work Dr. DeKay's " Sketches of 
 Turkey " issued from the New York press and from that work the fol- 
 lowing extract is taken. 
 
 " Traces of the cholera may be found among the Jews, three thou- 
 sand years ago. It is stated in the Old Testament that the Lord, after 
 promising the Jews abundance, (Num. xi. 20,) declares that they shall 
 be fed upon this food until it comes out at their nostrils ; and until, as 
 the Septuagint expresses it, they have the cholera (^oxsva.) which in 
 fact afterwards appeared. In our English version it is translated loath- 
 someness, but we are informed by an intelligent Hebrew that the origi- 
 nal Hebrew word ('zorah') means nausea, which is one of the most 
 constant symptoms of cholera." 
 
 Whether Dr. DeKay when he wrote this, had seen Mr. Graham'sLec- 
 ture on the Cholera, which had been on sale in New York some months 
 before his work was published, we do not know ; but at any rate the 
 coincidence is worthy of remark. 
 
 It has already been stated that Mr. Graham had never seen nor heard 
 of sl post mortem examination of a cholera subject when he wrote the 
 following treatise, and therefore, what he said concerning the seat, pa- 
 thological physiology, and the morbid anatomy of Cholera (see Lecture, 
 pp. 23, 24, 25 and 35,) was wholly predicated on what, according to his 
 views, was clearly indicated by the general symptoms of the disease. 
 
 The 32d number of the " American Journal of the Medical Sciences," 
 published in Philadelphia, August, 1835, (more than three years after the 
 following treatise was first delivered, and two years after it was publish- 
 ed) contains an article " On the Anatomical Characters of Asiatic Chol- 
 era, with Remarks on the Structure of the Mucous Coat of the Alimen- 
 tary Canal. By W. E. Horner, M. D., Professor of Anatomy in the 
 University of Pennsylvania," from which the following extracts are 
 taken. 
 
 " In admitting the central point of cholera to be the abdomen, there 
 are three leading theories which profess to explain the character of the 
 lesion. " One of them is the nervous theory : the second, that of pas- 
 sive vascular congestion, and the third, that of acute inflammation." 
 
 Having made these statements, Dr. Horner briefly presents his reasons 
 for rejecting the first and second of these theories, and then proceeds to 
 advance his facts and reasons in favor of the third, or that of acute in- 
 flammation. 
 
 In reply to the reasonings of Magendie, in support of the theory of 
 
congestion, or "suspension of the circulation, arising principally from 
 a debilitated contraction of the ventricles of the heart." Dr. Horner re- 
 marks, " The general capillaries unquestionably execute languidly in 
 cholera, their office of forwarding the blood, and we may hence natural- 
 ly infer that they are affected with atony ; but does it not appear more 
 probable that the latter is a sympathetic condition produced by the ex- 
 treme pathological actions of the mucous membrane of the alimentary 
 canal ; the sympathies being conveyed, either by the great sympathetic 
 nerve, or by that more refined innervation of parts, of which anatomy 
 knows so little but which unquestionably exists." 
 ■ .." Dr. DeGravier, the chief French Physician at Pondicherry, saw the 
 inflammation of the stomach and intestines so well marked that he con- 
 sidered it to give rise to all the other symptoms by means of irritation, and 
 went so far as to call the disease gastro-enteritis. Mr. Corbyn details 
 such appearances of inflammation in the stomach and bowels as should 
 leave no doubt of the fact." 
 
 " For my own part, considering the rapid secretion from the alimentary 
 canal of serum and of fibrin, and knowing that this act itself is calculat- 
 ed, as in pleuritis, to relieve the inflammatory congestion of the vessels, I 
 have but little difficulty in viewing cholera as a decided inflammation 
 from the beginning. 
 
 M The precise state of the venous system of the digestive canal is 
 among all the traits of cholera, that which will most fully account for its 
 destructiveness to human life. The minute anatomy of this system has 
 already been explained, and we now resume the general fact that the 
 mucous membrane is formed by an intertexture of these veins, resem- 
 bling a net, or more exactly, a plate of metal pierced with holes ; these 
 holes being the follicles whose aggregate number is forty-six millions at 
 least, and probably much more. 
 
 " It is to be borne in mind that it is the whole of this vaseular and 
 follicular structure, endowed with vital actions the most important to life, 
 and presenting in the aggregate an area of about thirteen square feet — the 
 size of a small breakfast table, whose morbid derangements constitute 
 the essential features of cholera. 
 
 " The most undeniable fact of cholera, is a rapid fluxion of the 
 blood to the whole digestive mucous membrane, with a diminishing of its 
 own volume by large losses at the part, as the immense serous discharges 
 prove ; but here is an action extending over an area of at least two thou- 
 sand square inches — I say the size of a small breakfast-table. 
 
 " Under such overwhelming circumstances of disease, can we wonder 
 if the exterior symptoms of inflammation do not exist, that the inflamma- 
 tion instead of acting as a stimulus, as in common diseases, so as to dif- 
 fuse the blood more rapidly towards the periphery of the body, increasing 
 the heat of the skin and the volume of the arteries in the limbs, &c. 
 should, on the contrary, prostrate every action of the system, except on 
 the surface where itself prevails ? 
 
 " The majority of the cases of cholera probably suffer extreme vio- 
 lence only upon particular sections of the digestive mucous membrane. 
 Some have it in the stomach chiefly ; others in the colon also, — others 
 may have it chiefly in the small intestines. But in all cases, some de* 
 gree of irritation extends along the whole canal ; the resistance of an in- 
 dividual to the disease will therefore depend mainly upon the quantity of 
 surface vehemently attacked." 
 
 Let any intelligent person compare these extracts from the American 
 Journal, w\\\i pag§s 23, 24, 25, and 35, of the following Lecture, 
 
Vi 
 
 and it will seem almost impossible to him that the writer of the one should 
 not have been acquainted with the views of the author of the other. And 
 yet Mr. Graham's Lecture was written and published years before Dr. 
 Horner's article was, but, probably, never seen nor heard of by him. 
 We see one man, therefore, reasoning purely from the symptoms of the 
 living subject, according to his own physiological and pathological views, 
 and another man reasoning from the demonstrations of morbid anatomy 
 in the dead subject, and both arriving at the same conclusions, and with- 
 out any knowledge of each other. 
 
 Compare also Note A, page 82, with the fourth paragraph of the 43d 
 page of the Lecture. 
 
 Now then, the honest question is, did Mr. Graham arrive at his con- 
 clusions by mere conjecture, and guessing, and without any accurate 
 knowledge of physiological and pathological science, or did he arrive at 
 them by sound philosophical and scientific investigation and induction ? 
 The former cannot for a moment be supposed, and if the latter be ad- 
 mitted then is it most evident that he is no tyro in the science which he 
 professes to teach. 
 
 The man who, breaking away from the trammels of education and the 
 shackles of popular opinion, 13 able to stand alone in the strength of his 
 own philosophy, and with the clear vision of scientific truth, perceive 
 and announce those deep principles, which others cannot discern and 
 will not believe till severe experience and sensible demonstration compel 
 them to, may indeed — nay, will be certain to be reviled by multitudes 
 whose confidence and respect he deserves. Yet they who are willing to 
 open their eyes to the light of truth, and are capable of appreciating the 
 merits of such a teacher, will feel their confidence in him increased ra- 
 ther than diminished by the reviling of a blinded and misguided world. 
 
 It is no small tribute of respect to the author of the following treatise, 
 however, that one of the most eminent and distinguished professional 
 gentlemen of this country, procured a copy of it as soon as it was pub- 
 lished and sent it to his son, who was completing his professional studies 
 in Paris; and another professional gentleman, no less eminent and dis- 
 tinguished, has declared that, " it ought to be printed in large type and 
 fastened to the wall of every parlor, and posted over every kitchen fire- 
 place, in every community." 
 
 It is believed, therefore, that in republishing this valuable treatise, a 
 decided good is done to soeiety, and it is hoped that every one into 
 whose hands it may fall, will not only read it with attention but care-* 
 fully study it. 
 
 BosTox 3 May, 18S8, 
 
 ADVERTISEMENT TO THE FIRST EDITION. 
 
 The following Lecture on the Cholera, was first delivere at the 
 close of my course of Lectures on the Science of Human Life, in 
 the Baptist Meeting-house, in Mulberry Street, New York, in March, 
 1832, in the presence of more than two thousand people. The effect 
 produced was very considerable, and the Lecture became the topic of 
 conversation and remark somewhat extensively in the city. 
 
 Soon after this, an editorial article appeared in the Courier and Enquirer 
 under the head of 4 ' Facts, not Theory, in regard to Asiatic Cholera." 
 In thi3 article it was attempted to be shown, that " the Cholera originated 
 and raged most fatally among the Hindoos who subsisted on rice, and 
 
Vil 
 
 were the most temperate people in the world ; M and therefore, it wag 
 better for the people of this country to eat atleast their usual proportion 
 of flesh and other things to which they were accustomed, than to abstain 
 from flesh entirely, with a view to avoid or mitigate the Cholera. I im- 
 mediately replied to this article, in the most respectful manner, but the 
 Editor did not find it convenient to publish my reply. 
 
 Not long after this article appeared in the Courier and Enquirer, a let- 
 ter o considerable length, from Dr. De Kay, appeared in the Evening 
 Post, in which it was stated that the et occasional use of stimuli in the 
 form of generous wine or brandy, or gin and water, was found decidedly 
 beneficial during the prevalence of the Cholera at Constantinople — that 
 this epidemic broke out and raged with great violence among the Jews at 
 Smyrna, during one of their religious fasts , and had proved peculiarly 
 fatal among that class of people generally, in Asia and Europe, whose 
 diet was particularly meagre and abstemious." 
 
 Whatever might have been the design- of the writers of these articles, 
 the citizens of New York universally received them as specially intended 
 to bear against the dietetic doctrines which I had taught in my Lecture 
 on the Cholera, and immediately, throughout the city, the clamor was 
 raised, " If the Cholera comes here, all the Grahamites will certainly 
 die with it."— I am sorry to say, that too many physicians, who were 
 ignorant of what I had really taught, gave countenance to this hue and cry. 
 
 When the news reached New York that the Cholera had appeared in 
 Canada, the panic in the city exceeded all bounds. I had closed my 
 Lectures for the season, and according to arrangements, made several 
 months before, was about to proceed with my family to Rhode Island, 
 where I had engaged to be as early as the fourth of July ; but such wa3 
 now the panic in the city, and so much was I urged to repeat my Lec- 
 ture ori the Cholera, that I consented to defer my departure, and com- 
 ply with the wishes of my friends. In announcing the Lecture through 
 the newspapers, I particularly invited the Corporation, and the medical 
 gentlemen of the city, to attend. I also sent a special invitation to the 
 Board of Aldermen, by whom it was formally accepted, and put a quan- 
 tity of tickets into the hands of Dr. Lee, who engaged to see that at 
 least a considerable portion of the physicians were furnished. 
 
 In the mean time the clamor and excitement were increasing, and I 
 was respectably informed that some physicians at least, were visiting 
 families in which they practised, and advising them to subsist principally 
 on animal food, and always to take a little brandy or wine with their wa- 
 ter. On the evening of the 21st of June I repeated my Lecture in the 
 Chatham Street Chapel, without any other alteration than the addition 
 of such important facts and matter as circumstances presented. That 
 is, the doctrine of the causes, nature, prevention, and remedy, of the 
 Cholera, as it now stands in the text of the following Lecture, is pre- 
 cisely the same that 1 delivered in March preceding. The additional 
 matter is principally in reference to the articles which appeared in the 
 Courier and Enquirer and the Evening Post. 
 
 I again began to prepare to leave the city for Rhode Island, when I re- 
 ceived a letter from Dr. Beck of Albany, as the Secretary of the City 
 Temperance Society, requesting me to come to that city, and deliver a 
 lecture, on the 4th of July. It was impossible for me to comply with 
 this request without putting myself and family, and some of my friends 
 in the city, to very great inconvenience, and disappointing my friends in 
 Rhode Island ; nevertheless it seemed to be my duty to go to Albany, 
 and I concluded to go. - 
 
via 
 
 On the 2d of July, 9 cases of the Cholera were reported in New 
 York : on the 3d I went to Albany: on the evening of the 4th, deliv- 
 ered my Lecture on the Cholera there, and on the 5th returned to New 
 York, and found that Mrs. G. had engaged our passage to Newport 
 for the 6th. I found also that the cry was up, in which even some re- 
 spectable physicians had a voice, that I had fled from the city in such 
 a panic, on account of the eholera, lhat I had left my family behind. 
 I endeavored to persuade my family to proceed to Rhode Island 
 without me, but not being able to succeed, I left the city for Newport 
 on the 6th of July ; and then the cry became louder and more gene- 
 ral, that Graham had fled from the city in a panic, and all his follow- 
 ers were dead or dying with the Cholera. This. cry was kept up 
 through the whole season of sickness, in order to destroy all the con- 
 fidence of the people in my doctrines, and drive them to flesh-eating, 
 and brandy and wine-drinking. But not every one was shaken. Some 
 were steadfast, and they fully realized all the benefits I had promised. 
 [See the Appendix.] Immediately after my arrival in Rhode Island, 
 X sat down and prepared the following lecture for the press, just as the 
 text is now published, with an intention of sending it back to the city 
 for publication ; but all communication being cut off, I was disappoint- 
 ed, and the manuscript remained on hand. 
 
 Some days after I had delivered my lecture the second time, the two 
 Clinical Lectures on the nature, treatment, and symptoms of Spasmodic 
 Cholera, by Broussais, appeared in an English dress in New York. I 
 read these Lectures, and was not a little surprised to find a very striking 
 resemblance, in many respects, between them and mine — especially as I 
 had read no other medical treatise on the cholera whatever — my own lec- 
 ture being written from the information I had gathered, as to facts, from 
 the public papers, and from my own physiological and pathological views. 
 And whatever may be thought of my opinion as to the epidemic cause of 
 the cholera throughout the world, — let it be remembered that even if 
 this opinion were shown to be incorrect, all my other reasoning would be 
 none the less true. 
 
 On the evenings of June 7th and 13tb, 1833, I repeated this Lecture 
 again at Clinton Hall : and now I present it to the public in print for sev- 
 eral reasons. In the first place, the doctrines of this Lecture have been 
 so entirely confirmed by the whole history of the cholera in this country 
 up to the present moment, that I feel it the more important that it should 
 be published as extensively as possible. In the second place, as it is 
 not exclusively applicable to the epidemic cholera, but summarily em- 
 braces all epidemic, chronic, and acute diseases, so it will at all times 
 and in all places be useful instruction to the people. In the third place, 
 those who have heard the Lecture have generally requested that it should 
 be published. Finally, the mode of treatment pointed out in the Lecture 
 for diarrhoea is equally applicable to all kinds of bowel-complaints, at all 
 times, and therefore should the epidemic cholera never again appear in 
 this country, this Lecture will be perhaps equally useful. 
 
 August 20, 1833. S. Graham. 
 
LECTURE 
 
 Almost every writer on physiology, who has made any 
 pretensions. to originality, has attempted to define or explain 
 vvhat'is. signified by the word life : hut if a want of correct 
 knowledge, and of. a sound judgment, has not led me to an 
 erroneous 'opinion on the subject, all have- failed, through an 
 endeavor to find, in the principles and properties, common to 
 inorganic matter, the elementary causes of organic life. 
 
 While, however, so much obscurity, if not* impenetrable, 
 mystery, hangs over the nature of organic life, the vital con- 
 duct, or the means, and manner, by which life maintains it- 
 self in Hs organic domain, against the power of counteract- 
 ing agents, and influences,, is "better understood : and the 
 continued, antagonistic conflict between 'vitality, in accom- 
 plishing its functions, and the more primitive affinities of in-v 
 organic chemistry, was beautifully expressed by our late dis- 
 tinguished Doctor Rush, of Philadelphia, when he said that 
 " Life is a temporary victory over the causes which induce 
 death." . In producing each and, all of its peculiar and legit- 
 ' imate 4 results, vitality necessarily overcomes the laws, and 
 counteracts the affinities of inorganic matter; and exerts 
 molecular affinities, of a. totally distinct and opposite charac- 
 ter, — which result in aggregations and structures, entirely 
 different from those of inorganic matter : — and hence it is 
 true, that all the inorganic affinities in Nature, are adverse to 
 organic structure, and life : and hence also," it is true, that 
 life maintains its power, and performs its functions, in oppo- 
 sition to the ordinary laws of inorganic matter, and, within 
 its own appropriate domain, resists the operations of those 
 laws, while its power is paramount. 
 
 Thus, the vegetable seed, which, being deprived of life, 
 
 would soon yield to the action of the more primitive laws of 
 
 matter, and by the process of what we call decay, pass into 
 
 other forms : — yet while its vitality remains, it resists those 
 
 1 
 
laws, and preserves its form and structure, and vital proper- 
 ties and powers so perfectly, that even after a lapse of centu- 
 ries, if placed in genial circumstances, it will vegetate, like a 
 last year's seed, and develope its appropriate form of plant 
 or tree. 
 
 By the same power, the hybernating animals, lying in a 
 torpid state, without nourishment, resist dissolution and de- 
 cay for months ; and in some instances, there is reason to 
 believe, even for many years, and again awake to the active 
 manifestations of life, and the powers of locomotion. And 
 by the same controlling power, the living body preserves its 
 own peculiar temperature, and with little variation, in arctic 
 winters and tropic summers; and converts foreign matter to 
 its own substance ; disposing of the various materials of 
 which itself consists, with the utmost integrity, regularity 
 and precision, according to its wants. 
 
 All the interesting effects of organic life are embraced in 
 the economy of the grand vital function of Nutrition. 
 
 The food of various kinds, which we receive into the 
 stomach for the sustenance of the body, if the vitality of the 
 stomach were destroyed, would naturally take on a chemical 
 action, and soon run into fermentation and putrefaction, and 
 pass entirely into other forms of inorganic matter : and this 
 is ever the more natural and inherent tendency of the food 
 received into the living stomach. Vitality alone, therefore, 
 overcomes this tendency, and counteracts the inorganic affin- 
 ities, and transforms the nutritious properties of the several 
 kinds of food, into a nearly homogeneous substance, of a 
 very different character from what it was when first swal- 
 lowed. 
 
 Destroy vitality here, and the process of digestion would 
 instantly cease, and the chyme would yield to inorganic affin- 
 ities. But vitality, " maintaining its victory over the causes 
 which induce death,'' - carries on the living function, and still 
 farther digests the contents of the alimentary canal, and 
 elaborates the chyle, and carefully conveys it through living, 
 and in some measure, vivifying tubes, to the blood vessels ; 
 and through the office of the heart, ushers it into the capil- 
 laiies of the lungs, and by the vital functions of these or- 
 gans, completes the transformation into living arterial blood: 
 — and this, possessed of all the properties necessary for the 
 nutrition of the body, is, by the vital power and functions of 
 the appropriate organs, distributed into every part of the 
 beautifully complicated system. — where, according to the 
 wants of the several parts and substances of the body, por- 
 
tionsof the blood are detained, and, by a process of purely 
 vital chemistry, transformed into bone, cartilage, muscle, 
 nerve, &,c, while at the same time, particles of each and 
 all of these substances, after having fulfilled their time and 
 purpose in the organic structure, are, by the same vital pow- 
 er, continually undergoing a change back into a limpid fluid, 
 which is conveyed by appropriate vessels, and mingled with 
 the returning blood, that, from every part of the system comes 
 back to the centre, through the veins, dark, and full of im- 
 purities, and destitute of those properties which are necessa- 
 ry to nourish the body, and sustain the functions of life. 
 
 By the vital powers and functions of the several organs — 
 especially the skin, lungs, and kidneys, the impurities of the 
 venous blood are separated out, and cast off from the organ- 
 ic system, and the blood is completely purified and renovat- 
 ed, and fitted again for all the purposes of arterial circula- 
 tion. 
 
 Thus, from the very commencement of digestion in the 
 stomach, to the last office of the skin and other organs, in 
 throwing off the worn-out and offensive matter of the system, 
 vitality exerts its efficient and controlling power,~and main- 
 tains its victory over the causes which induce death : — for 
 if the vital power should be overcome in any stage of this 
 general function, the process would be immediately arrested, 
 and dissolution would ensue. Even the arterial blood, which 
 is itself a highly vital fluid, depends on the vitality of the liv- 
 ing vase in which it flows, for the continuance of its life, and 
 for its vital results : — for if a portion of the blood be confined 
 in a section of the living and healthy artery, the vitality of 
 the blood is preserved, so long as the artery remains in a liv- 
 ing and healthy state ; but if the vitality of the artery be de- 
 stroyed, the life of the blood contained in it, is soon lost. 
 
 In the same manner, vitality exerts its conservative and 
 controlling influence, over every substance within* its domin- 
 ion — even over the effete or worn-out matter of the body, re- 
 straining it from taking on the action of inorganic affinities, 
 until it is conducted beyond the threshold of organic function 
 and vital welfare. 
 
 In order to a better understanding of the economy of the 
 vital power, it is necessary to ascertain the tissue in which 
 vitality more particularly resides, or with which it is more 
 immediately connected. 
 
 In the language of physiologists, man has an animal life, 
 and a vegetative or organic life. His animal life comprises 
 his organs and powers of sensation, voluntary motion and 
 
volition: — arid his vegetative or organic Fife comprises his or- 
 gans and powers concerned in the grand function of nutri- 
 tion : such as appertain to digestion, respiration, circulation, 
 secretion, absorption, excretion, &lg\ 
 
 Corresponding with this division, man has' two classes, or 
 what, indeed, may almost be called two systems of nerves. 
 The nerves which appertain to animal life, are connected 
 with the brain and spinal marrow, and are distributed princi- 
 pally to the muscles of voluntary motion, and to the sensitive 
 surface of the body, or external skin. The nerves which ap- 
 pertain to organic life, arid which, in regard to the subject 
 before us, are altogether the most important to us, are be- 
 lieved to originate with the organs themselves, in a kind of 
 rudimentary "brain, or bulbous enlargement of nervous sub- 
 stance, Which, is .called a gauglion or knot, of which there is 
 a large number in the different parts of the body. 
 
 As the several organs with which they are connected, ad- 
 vance in their formation, these ganglions increase in size, 
 and throw out cords or branches, some of which go to con- 
 nect them directly with each other, and form a general union, 
 or system of the whole ; while other branches, from different 
 ganglions, interweave and inosculate, and form plexuses, 
 from which, again, n-umerous branches are given off, to sup- 
 ply the stomach, and heart and lungs, and liver and kidneys, 
 and all the other organs concerned in the general function of 
 nutrition. 
 
 Besides the more deeply seated ganglions connected with 
 the principal viscera, there are two series of them, which 
 range along the anterior sides of the back bone, connected 
 together, in a chain, on each side, by nervous-cords which 
 extend from the lower extremity of the spine io the base of 
 the cranium, and enter by small branches through the carotid 
 canal with the artery, and form connections with branches 
 of the fifth and sixth pairs of nerves of the brain. These 
 two series of what are called peripheral ganglions, with their 
 connecting cords, are denominated the sympathetic nerves, 
 because they are believed to form the most intimate union of 
 sympathy between all the viscera concerned in organic life. 
 
 Besides the cords which connect these peripheral ganglia 
 ons with each other, each ganglion gives off a short thick 
 cord outwardly, to join a cord coming from the spine, and 
 also receives a branch frorh each cord coming fram the spine 
 — and each ganglion gives off one or more branches, whieh 
 run inwardly to interlace and inosculate with each other, and 
 with branches from the more deeply seated ganglions, fofm- 
 
9 
 
 ing the plexuses from which the several organs are supplied 
 as just described. From three, four, five, and sometimes 
 more, of the ganglions within the chest, belonging to the 
 sympathetic nerve on each side of the spine, large cords are 
 given off, and run inward and downward, and finally uniting 
 into one cord on each side and passing through the diaphragm, 
 form at its base, on the anterior sides of the spine, two large 
 ganglions, called the semilunar ganglions. These ganglions 
 give off numerous large branches, which, together with seve- 
 ral from other parts, and some from within the cranium, form 
 a very large central plexus, in front of the spine, which con- 
 stitutes a kind of common centre of action and sympathy, to 
 the whole system of organic nerves. This is called the so- 
 lar plexus. From it branches are given off in every direction, 
 to enter into other plexuses, and to supply organs. Some of 
 its largest cords go to the stomach, which lies just in front of 
 it, and are distributed over that organ, interweaving and 
 uniting with numerous branches of the pneumo-gastric nerve, 
 from the grand centre of perception and action within the 
 cranium, with which, also, the stomach is largely supplied. 
 
 From the solar plexus, also, numerous branches issue, 
 which invest the arterial trunks with a kind of nervous lace- 
 work, and proceed with them through all their distributions 
 and ramifications, even to their capillary terminations, in the 
 glandulous structures, and the vaseulo-nervous texture which 
 forms the skin, and mucous membrane of the alimentary ca- 
 nal, and lungs, and the membranes of other surfaces. 
 
 Thus all the nerves of organic life are intimately woven 
 together into a common web of sympathy, and harmony of 
 action — pervading all the organs concerned in the general 
 function of nutrition ; bringing them into general and special 
 relations, and supplying them with that peculiar vital power 
 by which each is enabled to perform its particular office. 
 
 The stomach, the intestines, the lacteals, the lungs, the 
 heart, the arteries, the capillaries, the veins, the lymphatics, 
 the liver, the kidneys, the skin, &c. &c, depend upon the 
 nerves of organic life for that vital power by which are per- 
 formed the functions of chymification and chylification, and 
 absorption, and respiration, and circulation, and organiza- 
 tion, and calorification, and secretion, and excretion, &c. 
 &c. It is by the power^derived from or through these nerves 
 that the food is transformed into chyme, and the chyme into 
 chyle, and the chyle into blood, — and the blood preserved in 
 its fluidity and vitality, and distributed throughout the whole 
 system, and portions of it transformed into bone and cartil- 
 1* 
 
10 
 
 age, and muscle and nerve, and every other substance in the 
 body; and all the various secretions are performed, and the 
 skin, and lungs, and kidneys, and other depurating organs, 
 separate out and throw off the impurities of the venous blood. 
 Hence the vital power which resists, counteracts, and sub- 
 dues, chemical affinities and noxious agents — the vital power 
 which maintains its victory over the causes which induce 
 death, resides in or acts through, the nerves of organic life, 
 in the performance of its great conservative functions,— for 
 organic life may continue when animal life is suspended, and 
 even for a short time after animal life is extinct— but animal 
 life cannot continue an instant after organic life is destroyed. 
 
 lathe early stages of the organic developement, each of 
 the move deeply seated ganglions, is supposed to constitute a 
 kind of independent centre of action,— presiding in. its own 
 appropriate sphere : but as the system advances in growth, to 
 that state in which it will be necessary for it to perform inde- 
 pendently, its own general function, of nutrition, the several 
 ganglions become^ as we have seen, intimately connected to- 
 gether, and by their peculiar arrangements, form a common 
 centre of sympathy and action, for the nerves of organic life, 
 in the semilunar ganglions and solar plexus. 
 
 Again :— by means of the connections formed betweeu the 
 ganglions- of the spmpathetiCj and the intercostal nerves of 
 the spinal marrow, and more particularly by means of the 
 connection formed between the top of the medulla oblongata, 
 or head of the spinal marrow within the cranium, and the 
 semilunar ganglions and solar plexus, by thepneumo-gastric 
 nerve, some of whose branches run directly.to this last Gen- 
 tre> and more of them interweave and unite with branches 
 from the solar plexus in the stomach,- — a common point of 
 union, and centre of perception and <)f action, is established 
 in the top of the medulla oblongata, for all the normal ope- 
 rations of the united system of animal and organic life. 
 
 Here, then, we see this beautifully complicated system of 
 organs, each constituted for its particular office, and all nice- 
 ly adjusted for One grand, vital result; — so woven together in 
 one general web of nervous texture, that a community of life 
 and energy constitute their vitality and functional power — 
 each, so immediately and powerfully sympathizing with all, 
 and all with each, that no one organ can be diseased, — no 
 one function can be disordered, without affecting in a great- 
 er or less degree, the condition and conduct of the whole. 
 We see also, that the mucous membrane which lines the 
 whole length of the alimentary canal, from the lips of the 
 
11 
 
 mouth to the inferior extremity, is formed, principally, of the 
 filamentary ends of nerves of organic life, with capillary 
 terminations of blood-vessels, absorbents, &,c, so that the 
 whole extended surface is one sheet of sympathy, with which 
 every part of the system reciprocates its influences, and di- 
 rectly sympathizes in all conditions. 
 
 But the inner surface of the stomach is more peculiarly 
 the centre of sympathy to the whole organic system ; sup- 
 plied as it so largely is, with nerves from the solar ple^s and 
 from several other plexuses, and from the medulla oblongata, 
 it is brought into direct and special relation with the brain, 
 heart, lungs, liver, skin, and indeed with all the organs of 
 the system: so that every affection and every disturbance of 
 the stomach, influences, in. a greater or less degree, every 
 organ and every function in the body. 
 
 Although the stomach is, by no means, the source of ner- 
 vous energy to the system, yet such is its nervous supply, 
 and such a-re its constitutional relations, that it may with 
 propriety be considered the common index of the whole sys- 
 tem : for the vital power of the system to resist the influence 
 of noxious agents, and. to accomplish the functions of life, 
 always corresponds with the condition of the stomach. 
 
 When this organ is in good health, and properly supplied 
 with healthful food, and the function of digestion is vigo- 
 rously and healthfully going on, then it is that all the vital 
 functions of organic life, are most vigorously and perfectly 
 performed, — then it is, that man has the greatest physical 
 power for achievement and endurance ; then, has life the 
 most complete victory over the causes which induce death; 
 then has man the greatest power to resist the influence of 
 cold and heat, wet and dry, malaria, or the subtile breath of 
 pestilence, or whatever infectious or malignant causes may 
 exist around him, and act upon him. And on the contrary, 
 when the stomach is debilitated and disordered,— ^when its 
 natural and healthy susceptibilities have given place to pre- 
 ternatural and diseased excitability, and irritability, and 
 when its vital energies are scarcely sufficient to perform, even 
 imperfectly, the function of digestion,- — then every other or- 
 gan in the system sympathizes, and every other function lan- 
 guishes : — respiration is less full and perfect, less oxygen of 
 the air is inhaled and appropriated by the lungs, the blood is 
 not so completely purified and renovated, circulation is less 
 vigorous and copious, assimilation and organization are more 
 feebly carried on, the secretions are either diminished or 
 morbidly excessive : — the skin which should throw off, in 
 
12 
 
 the form of insensible perspiration, more than half of the 
 impurities of the blood, becomes enfeebled, and less perfect- 
 ly performs its depurating functions; — and the vital power of 
 the system, to regulate its own temperature, and resist the in- 
 fluence of noxious agents, is always diminished : — and in 
 this condition of the system it is, that the vital functions are 
 always most easily disturbed by foreign agents, and the body 
 is most liable to injury from the action of morbific causes. 
 In th# condition, man is less able to endufe fatigue, and U> 
 resist the influence of heat and cold, wet and dry, unhealthy 
 atmospheres, and infectious and pestilential causes. 
 
 Thus we see that the healthful performance of the vital 
 functions, and the power of the living body to resist the in- 
 fluence of noxious agents, depend on the health and integrity 
 of the nerves of organic life. 
 
 These nerves, in a perfectly healthy state, are endowed 
 with a nice and peculiar susceptibility, which renders them 
 capable of being acted on by their own natural and appro- 
 priate stimuli ; and the most perfect integrity of the nerves 
 themselves, and of the functions resulting from their energy, 
 depends on the unimpaired healthfulness of this suscepti- 
 bility. 
 
 In their healthy state, the nerves of organic life have no 
 sensibility ; and hence they are also called the nerves of veg- 
 etative life ; because the functions of the organs depending 
 on them for nervous energy, are, in their healthy state, per- 
 formed without the consciousness of the animal. But these 
 nerves are capable of being irritated into a state of excessive 
 irritability and diseased sensibility, which is utterly incom- 
 patible with their healthy and peculiar susceptibility; and 
 consequently, incompatible with the healthy performance of 
 the functions of those organs which depend on them for ner- 
 vous energy. 
 
 Unhappily for man, almost every circumstance and influ- 
 ence in civic life, tend to the developement of preternatural 
 irritability and diseased sensibility in these nerves. All un- 
 due excitements and exercises of the mind, and of the pas- 
 sions ; all excessive indulgences of the appetites; improper 
 qualities and quantities of food; the debilitating habits of 
 indolence'and effeminacy; the various customs and circum- 
 stances of artificial life, such as appertain to habitation, cloth- 
 ing, locomotion, the preparation of food, &,c. &,c. ; and 
 worst of all, the habitual use of artificial stimulants, such as 
 the heating and irritating condiments of the table, and more 
 particularly the various narcotic and alcoholic substances; — 
 
13 
 
 all act upon the stomach to disturb its functions, and to im- 
 pair the health of its nervous and muscular tissues, and, 
 consequently, tend to debilitate that organ ; and, by continu- 
 ed or repeated irritation, to develope and establish in it a dis- 
 eased excitability and irritability, resulting often in chronic 
 or acute inflammation, and painful sensibility and disorgani- 
 zation. 
 
 But this is not all; the stomach cannot suffer alone; be- 
 ing, 'as it were, a kind of retina or sensorium to the nerves 
 of organic life, the whoje -system of those nerves, and 
 consequently all the organs supplied by them, sympathize 
 powerfully in all its conditions and affections, partake of all 
 its irritations, and suffer a consequent debility. The brain, 
 the heart, the lungs, the liver, the kidneys, the skin, and oth- 
 er organs, participate in all its irritations, and are- affected by 
 all its conditions. The necessary consequence is, that the 
 natural and healthy susceptibility of the nerves is impaired, 
 general debility of functional power ensues, tending always 
 to diseased irritability, inflammation, painful sensibility, and, 
 finally, disorganization arid death. 
 
 The constitutional- susceptibilities of our nature, when 
 properly and healthfully acted on, always afford pleasure 
 from the excitement or stimulation ; and hence there is in hu- 
 man nature, a constitutional love of stimulation; and this 
 love or desire always tends to excess of indulgence— and the 
 more so, as indulgence becomes excessive, and is followed 
 by exhaustion of the vital energy, and abatement of vital 
 power; and this result always obtains to a. greater degree^ 
 and more permanently, from the action of the artificial than 
 of the natural- stimuli. 
 
 From this constitutional principle springs the almost uni- 
 versal propensity, in the human race, to indulge in excessive 
 stimulation :— and hence, the substances and means of arti- 
 ficial stimulation and intoxication, have been among the ear- 
 liest discoveries and inventions of social life in almost all the 
 different tribes and nations of men since the creation of the 
 human species. And, unfortunately, as men have emerged 
 from the savage or barbarous state, and advanced in those 
 refinements and luxuries of civil life, which rendered them 
 more susceptible of the pernicious effects of artificial stimu- 
 lants, and .left them less vital power to react against them, 
 they have also greatly multiplied the forms of those stimu- 
 lants, and increased the deleteriousness of their qualities. 
 
 The effects of this combination of causes, on the human 
 race, have been just such as every sound and sagacious phys- 
 
14 
 
 iologist might have distinctly and confidently predicted from 
 a priori reasoning. 
 
 Continued irritation and disturbed functions have necessa- 
 rily resulted in general debility of the nervous system, and 
 reduction of vital power. The stomach, heart, lungs, liver, 
 kidneys, skin, and other organs concerned in the grand func- 
 tion of nutrition, have all participated in the general wither- 
 ing, and each particular function has been enfeebled, and the 
 vital power of the body to resist the noxious agents that sur- 
 round and act upon it, has been proportion ably diminished. 
 
 In this manner, chronic diseases, corresponding in charac- 
 ter with the peculiarities of circumstances, of causes, and of 
 individual idiosyncracies, or predispositions, have been, gen- 
 erally, by slow and imperceptible degrees, developed in the 
 human system; and to a very great extent, rendered constitu- 
 tional, — at least so far as to involve decided, and often very 
 strong predispositions. In the same manner, by the more 
 sudden and powerful action of causes, acute diseases are in- 
 duced, which are much more rapid and violent in their pro- 
 gress, and sudden in their results. 
 
 Thus, by various causes, and particularly, by the habitual 
 use of artificial stimuli, the vital energies of the human race, 
 from generation to generation, have been exceedingly impair- 
 ed, and the vital power of resistance to the causes which in- 
 duce disease and death, reduced. I say, " particularly, the 
 habitual use of artificial stimuli," because it is a notable fact, 
 worthy of profound consideration, that all those tribes which 
 have been found on islands and elsewhere, whose diet was 
 plain, coarse and simple, and who were entirely free from the 
 use of aritficial stimulants, have also been almost as entirely 
 free from all kinds of disease ; while, on the other hand, all 
 those tribes whose circumstances were, in all other respects 
 equal, but who habitually, and often freely used artificial stim- 
 ulants, have been afflicted with various forms of chronic and 
 acute disease ; and frequently visited with extensive and ter- 
 ribly malignant epidemics. 
 
 Many of the practices which prevail in society, are such 
 as would destroy life at once, if they were not entered into 
 by very small degrees of increase. By these means we grad- 
 ually destroy those peculiar susceptibilities of the healthful 
 living tissues, which in an unimpaired state immediately de- 
 tect the presence of deleterious substances, and summon all 
 the instinctive energies of the system to throw them off, when 
 the action of the poison is sufficiently powerful to endanger 
 the vital welfare of the body. 
 
15 
 
 In this manner the system is made to yield, and yield before 
 the encroachments and depredations of those practices which 
 are continually violating the laws of life, and diminishing the 
 power of vital resistance. 
 
 This important doctrine cannot, perhaps, be better illus- 
 trated, than by adducing the effects of that most loathsome of 
 all substances, tobacco, on the living body. This plant is 
 one of the most powerful narcotic poisons in the vegetable 
 kingdom. Should a man, entirely unaccustomed to the use 
 of it, take into his mouth, at once, such a cud as is ordinari- 
 ly used by the confirmed tobacco-eater, and in the same man- 
 ner, chew it and retain it there, the natural susceptibilities of 
 his nerves would give the alarm instantly. The distressing 
 sympathy would soon extend to the stomach and brain, and 
 thence throughout the whole system. All the energy of vital 
 resistance would be summoned up, and the most loathsome 
 sickness, and violent, continued and convulsive efforts, by 
 vomiting and otherwise, would be instinctively made to re- 
 ject the destructive poison. If the vital powers were suffi- 
 cient to sustain the conflict till the offending cause was en- 
 tirely removed, the individual would survive : if not, the most 
 distressing exhaustion, and collapse, and death would ensue. 
 In such a case, the manifestations of poison would be such as 
 to render it impossible for any one to doubt the deleterious 
 properties of tobacco. But why then does not tobacco, at 
 all times and in all cases, produce such manifestations of its 
 poisonous character 1 The reason is not because the tobacco 
 in any degree changes its character or power, but because a 
 change is effected in the condition of the nerves on which it 
 acts. 
 
 However small the quantity of tobacco used at first, the 
 unimpaired susceptibilities of the nerves detect its poisonous 
 qualities, and give an alarm equal to the danger, producing 
 vertigo, nausea, and perhaps vomiting. But if the quantity 
 taken into the mouth at first is so small, as not seriously and 
 . immediately to endanger the vitality of the system, the in- 
 stinctive alarm given is comparatively limited and feeble, and 
 the efforts to throw it off correspond, in power and continu- 
 ance, with the degree of excitement. Yet the evil ends not 
 here. All the organs of the system have been more or less 
 irritated, and their functions more or less disturbed, — and 
 still worse, the peculiar susceptibilities of the nerves, which 
 at first enabled them so promptly to detect the poisonous 
 qualities of the tobacco, have been seriously impaired ; so 
 that ordinarily, if, after the irritation produced by the first 
 
16 
 
 dose is entirely removed, another dose of equal quantity 
 and power be taken, the nerves have less ability to detect its 
 poisonous qualities, and consequently, less alarm will be given 
 and less effort will be made to throw it off. By continuing 
 the use of tobacco, and by slowly increasing its quantity, the 
 peculiar susceptibilities of the nerves, which enabled them to 
 detect its poisonous qualities, are more and more impaired,— 
 till, finally, they not only cease entirely to give an alarm to 
 the system, but on account of the injury thus done thenr, be- 
 come so dependent on the stimulating* properties of the to- 
 bacco, to raise them from the consequent prostration, that 
 they even demand the continued, use of the destructive poi- 
 son, and with an 'imperativeness and pertinacity equal to the 
 force of antipathies overcome in forming the demand. This 
 constitutes the foundation and the power of the habit. But 
 let it not be supposed that the tobacco is in itself less poison- 
 ous, nor that its effects on the system are really less perni- 
 cious ! True it does not produce so great an excitement of 
 the nerves on ^vhich it immediately acts, nor cause so great . 
 an irritation of the organs generally; but this is owing to 
 that impaired condition of the living tissues, which causes 
 them to suffer equal or even greater injury from the less irri- 
 tation ; and which renders them just so much the less able to 
 resist. the destructive action of other noxious agents, as they 
 have been impaired by the tobacco. And this is true of the 
 effects of all narcotic and alcoholic, and indeed, all other ar- 
 tificial stimulants, on the living tissues of the human body. 
 
 It is an indubitable truth, that the action of all artificial 
 siimulants on the living tissues-, is always, and necessarily, 
 in the nature of things, at the expense of the vital energies 
 of the tissues, and always impairs those natural and peculiar 
 susceptibilities, which constitutionally adapt the tissues to 
 their natural and appropriate stimuli. 
 
 The necessary consequence of all this is, that throughout 
 the human race, the vital power of the body to perform its 
 organic functions, and maintain its victory over the causes 
 which induce death, is reduced very far below the capabili- 
 ties of the original constitution of man; yes, very far below 
 the present capabilities of the human constitution. 
 
 Indeed, almost the entire human family make it a matter 
 of continual practical experiment, to ascertain how near they 
 can run to the line of death, and still maintain life ! Who 
 but the suffering invalid — (and seldom even he) seriously in- 
 quires, " What, and how much shall I eat and drink, and in 
 what manner shall I live in order to sustain my body in its 
 
17 
 
 healthiest and best condition ? " Does not almost every hu- 
 man being, rather, at least in practice, demand— How far 
 can I indulge, and live? Is it surprising then, that we find 
 the human race, from generation to generation, leaning so far 
 towards death, that their vital centre of gravity almost falls 
 without the base of vital control 1 And poising thus, is it a 
 marvel that even the moth and the caterpillar should often 
 throw them from their balance, and send them headlong to 
 destruction ? 
 
 It cannot, therefore, be any cause of wonder, that chronic 
 and acute diseases, in all their dreadful forms and modes of 
 destruction, should.be multiplied throughout the human fam- 
 ily, and sweep away the great majority of the species, even in 
 the dawn of life! Nor is it wonderful that some local, or 
 general cause, not powerful in itself, such as the exhalations 
 of decaying vegetable or animal matter, the character and 
 quality of food, a sudden change in the temperature, or hu- 
 midity, or dryness of the atmosphere— or something else, 
 equally simple and obvious in its nature and existence, should, 
 in consequence of the peculiar condition of the human sys- 
 tem, superinduce an endemic or epidemic disease, whose fa- 
 tality corresponds with the reduced state of the vital power 
 of resistance in man, the influence of moral causes co-ope- 
 rating, and the propriety or impropriety of medical theory 
 and treatment. 
 
 In this manner, bilious intermittent, and remittent fevers, 
 dysentery, typhus fever, yellow fever, scarlet fever, influenza, 
 cholera^ morbus, &>c. &,c, obtain and become more or less 
 general, according to circumstances and the nature of excit- 
 ing causes. 
 
 Cholera morbus has afflicted the human race, ever s'nce 
 the abuses of the vital organs have been such as to induce 
 that disease in the human body. The history of it comes to 
 us from the days of Hippocrates, who flourished about four 
 hundred years before Christ, — if indeed, we do not find a 
 much earlier record of it in the writings of Moses. For 
 there is reason to believe that the terrible disease which 
 broke out so suddenly and raged so fatally among the Jews 
 in the wilderness, at the time they ate so freely of the flesh 
 of quails, was no other than cholera morbus. 
 
 This disease is not in its nature at all times, if indeed it is 
 ever necessarily of an epidemic character. In the time of 
 Hippocrates, it was more commonly peculiar to the young 
 and robust, who, by their occasional excesses, or improper 
 diet, caused such an irritation of the stomach and intestines, 
 2 
 
18 
 
 and sympathetically of the liver, as to induce an increased, 
 or, as it was called, a morbid or diseased flow of the bile into 
 the alimentary canal, which produced violent vomiting and 
 purging, in order to throw off the offending or irritating 
 cause. 
 
 The natural organic susceptibilities of the young and 
 healthy are comparatively little impaired, and consequently 
 they are more readily and powerfully disturbed by the pres- 
 ence of offending causes. When, therefore, any substance, 
 decidedly offensive to the system, either from its nature, 
 quantity, condition, or untimeliness, is received into the ali- 
 mentary canal, the natural susceptibilities of which are 
 healthy and vigorous, an instinctive alarm is given, which 
 soon calls up the appropriate efforts of the system to expel 
 the offending substance. This must be done by vomiting 
 and purging, and to produce these instinctively an increased 
 quantity of bile is introduced into the stomach and intes- 
 tines ; and this is effected by peculiar irritations of the liver, 
 and these irritations depend on certain conditions of the stom- 
 ach and intestines. 
 
 In this view of the subject, which is purely physiological, 
 cholera morbus seems to be the constitutional means, b 
 which the system instinctively expels offensive and disturb- 
 ing substances from the alimentary canal, and under such 
 circumstances, the disorder, though violent, is far from being 
 alarming, unless the disturbing cause is intrinsically and fa- 
 tally poisonous; — for with proper treatment, such as the free 
 administration of warm water, to cleanse and soithe the 
 stomach and intestines, — and often without any thing more 
 than the unassisted efforts of instinct itself, the disturbing 
 cause is soon removed, and the disorder ceases. 
 
 But when a long train of abuses has greatly impaired, and 
 perhaps almost or entirely destroyed the healthful suscepti- 
 bilities of the nervous tissue of the alimentary canal, and ex- 
 ceedingly diminished the vital energies of the system, if an 
 irritation is induced which brings on cholera morbus, almost 
 every thing concurs to increase the danger of a fatal result. 
 For a morbid irritation once fully induced, in such a system, 
 will not subside even when the first exciting cause is removed ; 
 but feeds and increases itself by its own action. The same 
 morbid irritability throughout the whole system causes the 
 functions of all the organs to be more easily disturbed, and 
 even arrested by the irritation of the stomach and intestines; 
 while on the other hand, the system has less power to sustain 
 
19 
 
 itself under these irritations, and to maintain its victory over 
 the causes which induce death. 
 
 From such a condition of the human system it is, that the 
 fatality of cholera morbus generally arises : — and such or 
 nearly such, is the habitual condition of the bodies of a great 
 portion of the human family, in consequence of the almost 
 incessant irritations that are kept up in the alimentary canal, 
 by various causes in civic life, but more especially, by the 
 use of artificial stimulants, and particularly the narcotic and 
 alcoholic of every form. 
 
 As I have already observed, cholera morbus is a disease 
 which has been known for many centuries ; and in certain 
 portions of the earth, it has very extensively and almost un- 
 interruptedly prevailed from the earliest periods of their his- 
 tory : and not unfrequently has it become epidemic and swept 
 off immense numbers of the human family. 
 
 The epidemic disease which is at present the cause of so 
 much alarm throughout the world, and which has extended 
 over so great a portion of the earth, and committed ^uch 
 dreadful ravages in its course, cutting off many millions of 
 the human race, in the short period of a few years, though 
 popularly called Cholera Morbus, Cholera Asphyxia, Spas- 
 modic Cholera, &>c, yet in its present form and character, 
 the term cholera does not seem to be applied to it with strict 
 propriety, as it is more remarkable for the entire absence, 
 than for the presence of bile in the alimentary canal. I am 
 inclined to believe, however, that this disease was originally, 
 a proper cholera morbus; and that from various causes ope- 
 rating through a considerable period of time, it has degene- 
 rated into its present character. And, in fact, it seems now 
 in no important point to differ from that disease, excepting 
 that, instead of a morbid flow of bile into the alimentary ca- 
 nal, there is a morbid flow or secretion of serous fluid, which 
 is even more acrid and irritating to the mucous membrane 
 than the bile itself, and consequently causes more violent 
 symptoms. Hence I suspect that the present popular name 
 of the disease was originally correct. 
 
 The history of this terrible epidemic is too well known to 
 render it necessary or expedient that I should now enter into 
 its details. Its march of desolation is rapid and fearful ! — 
 We already contemplate its advances with dismay, and feel 
 that its terrors are staring us in the face! 
 
 It concerns us now, to ascertain, if possible, its nature, its 
 causes, its remedy and its prevention. 
 
 Iu regard to the nature of this disease there has been 
 
20 
 
 much speculation, and a great diversity of opinion. It is 
 truly astonishing and even humbling to see how much the hu- 
 man mind is prone to throw obscurity and fearful mystery 
 over objects which excite the sympathies and passions, and 
 which are in reality far from being mysterious. It is possible 
 that I am in an error on this subject ; but if I am not, there is 
 much more plainness and simplicity about it, than is gene- 
 rally supposed. 
 
 We have already seen how the organic system, by its vital 
 functions digests its food, and separates out, and more fully 
 • digests the chyle, and conveys it through the heart and pul- 
 monary arteries into the lungs, where the process of diges- 
 tion is completed, and the nutrimental fluid received from 
 the alimentary canal, is converted into living arterial blood. 
 This blood, prepared for all the wants of the body, is return- 
 ed to the heart through the pulmonary veins, and thence 
 through the arterial trunks and branches, and capillary ex- 
 tremities, is diffused over the whole system, and portions of 
 it are detained and converted into bone, cartilage, muscle, 
 nerve, and every other substance belonging to the body, 
 while the remaining portion of it finds its way, through ex- 
 ceedingly minute vessels, into the veins, in which it returns 
 to the heart ; while at the same time, all the different struc- 
 tures of the body, which are constantly receiving nourish- 
 ment from the arterial blood, are also ascontiually giving off 
 their worn-out particles, which, by a process of vital, chemis- 
 try, are resolved into a limpid fluid, and this is taken up by a 
 set of capillary vessels, called the lymphatics, and emptied 
 into the veins and mingled with the returning blood. Thus, 
 both by the absence of properties which are separated from 
 the arterial blood, to supply the various wants of the system, 
 and by the effete and refuse matter returned by the absorb- 
 ents into the veins, the blood is deprived of its stimulating 
 and nourishing qualities, and is brought back to the heart 
 through the large venous trunks, dark, and full of impurities 
 and wholly unfit for the uses of the system. If the blood, 
 in this condition, should be thrown into the arterial circula- 
 tion, it would immediately suspend sensation, voluntary mo- 
 tion and consciousness : and very soon, the nerves of organ- 
 ic life, wanting their natural and appropriate stimulus, would 
 cease to afford their vital energy to the organs,— -all the vital 
 functions would be arrested, and life would be destroyed. . 
 
 To prevent this state of things, and to restore the blood 
 to a condition suited to the wants of the system, the' skin, 
 the lungs, the kidneys, alid perhaps some other organs, aro 
 
21 
 
 continually, and should be vigorously employed in separating 
 out and throwing off the impurities of the blood : and the 
 lungs and skin also digest a portion of the atmosphere and 
 incorporate it with the blood to increase its vital and health- 
 fully stimulating properties. In this work of depuration, the 
 skin ordinarily throws off, in the form of insensible perspi- 
 ration, more of the impurities of the blood than any other or- 
 gan of the system. Indeed it is estimated, that more than half 
 of all that is appropriated as nourishment to the system, ul- 
 timately passes off through the skin : and some eminent 
 physiologists have asserted that more than half of all that is 
 received into the stomach, passes from the body in this way. 
 
 The power of these organs to perform their functions, as 
 we have seen, is purely a vital power, depending on the state 
 of the nerves of organic life: and always corresponding in 
 energy and vigor with the general condition of the digestive 
 apparatus, and especially the stomach. When, therefore, the 
 stomach is disordered and debilitated, and its function is 
 feebly performed, the functions of the skin and lungs are 
 less vigorous and complete, — the blood is not so thoroughly 
 purified, nor is so large a portion of the atmosphere digested 
 and incorporated with it, to increase its living energy and 
 stimulating power. The whole organic system suffers in 
 consequence ; the heart is less vigorous in its action, circula- 
 tion is enfeebled, and the whole capillary system suffers a 
 diminution of its vital power, on which all the processes of 
 vital chemistry depend : and the body is consequently less 
 able to endure cold and heat, and is more liable to be injur- 
 ed by all the sudden changes of temperature, diet, conduct, 
 and condition ; and by the action of noxious and pestilential 
 causes. 
 
 Let me again remind you, however, that I do not intend to 
 teach, that the stomach is the organ which generates and 
 disseminates the vital energy of the nerves of organic life ; 
 nor that it is the centre of action to this system of nerves. 
 
 In a. healthy and normal state of the human system, each 
 organ has, probably, to a certain extent, its own more imme- 
 diate and special centre of action ; and these special cen- 
 tres are associated by a more common centre of perception 
 and action of organic life in the semilunar ganglions and 
 solar plexus : while the top of the medulla oblongata, or 
 head of the spinal marrow, is believed to constitute the gen- 
 eral centre of animal perception and of voluntary motion and 
 action to the whole united system of animal and organic life. 
 
 The proper performance of the functions of life and the 
 2* 
 
22 
 
 welfare of each and every part of the system, depend upon 
 the integrity of the nerves, in supplying the necessary vital 
 energy ; and this again, depends on their healthy state, and 
 the due subordination of every part, to its lawful centre of 
 action. 
 
 By inducing a diseased condition and inflammation of any 
 part, a new and abnormal centre of action may be establish- 
 ed, equal in the power and extent of its influence, to the im- 
 portance of the part, and the degree of its morbid irritation ; 
 which will not only derange the function of the part itself, 
 but also to a greater or less extent, those of the other parts ; 
 and sometimes, of the whole system;- — causing an undue de- 
 termination of the fluids to itself, and resulting in morbid 
 secretion, imperfect assimilation, chronic : inflammation and 
 disorganization or change of structure, by softening or indu- 
 ration, producing schirrhus, ossification, calculi, ulcers^ can- 
 cers and dissolution : — or, mounting into a high state of acute 
 inflammation, and in a more violent and rapid career, bring- 
 ing on gangrene, or general convulsions, collapse and death. 
 
 Some of the functions of the body are, however, to a cer- 
 tain extent reciprocal ; so that the suppression of the one 
 leads to an increase, and often to a morbid excess of the oth- 
 er. Such is the case with the functions of the skin and kid- 
 neys; and also of the skin and lungs; and perhaps some 
 ethers in a small measure. 
 
 Every person of any observation, must have noticed that 
 copious perspiration, is ordinarily followed by diminished 
 function of the kidneys : and that a suppression of insensi- 
 ble perspiration by chilly, damp weather, is generally attend- 
 ed with an increased function of the kidneys: and these ex- 
 cesses always correspond with the debility of the organs. 
 But the welfare of the particular parts, as well as of the 
 whole system, requires that each organ should uniformly and 
 vigorously perform the full measure of its own duty, because 
 frequent excesses arising from an undue determination of 
 fluids to any one part, lead to debility of the part, and often 
 . result in impaired function, imperfect assimilation, local dis- 
 ease, and general injury and death. In this manner, sud- 
 den suppressions of the functions of the skin, often lead to 
 diabetes or pulmonary consumption, by causing undue deter- 
 minations to the kidneys and lungs, and inducing inflamma- 
 tion in one or the other of those organs, according as hered- 
 itary or self-originated predisposition renders the one or the 
 other more liable to become diseased by such irritations. 
 
 Besides these more natural reciprocities of function, it 
 
23 
 
 sometimes happens that a very diseased and violent reciproc- 
 ity is attempted by the system. As for instance ; — when the 
 function of the liver becomes deranged, the system some- 
 times attempts to force out the excess of bilious matter 
 through the excretory organs of the skin ; and hence we have 
 the manifestations of the disease, called jaundice : — and 
 sometimes.the liver.is irritated and inflamed, and the character 
 of the bile greatly affected by the excessive presence of those 
 qualities in the blood, which should have been carried off 
 through other organs. And again; the system is liable to 
 such a determination of the fluids to the mucous surface of 
 the alimentary canal as excessively to irritate and inflame that 
 very important membrane, and thus disturb and derange all 
 the functions of life, and lead to the most painful and often 
 the most fatal consequences. But this last disorder seldom 
 if ever, obtains unless irritation is first induced in the ali- 
 mentary canal by the direct action of moral or physical 
 causes on its nervous tissue. 
 
 Now, with these explanations before us, can the nature of 
 the fearful epidemic which is committing such ravages in the 
 world, be regarded as in any degree a mystery? 
 
 Innumerable as are the irritating and debilitating causes 
 which are continually disturbing and impairing the organic 
 functions, and diminishing the vital power of resistance, can 
 it be a matter either of mystery or surprise that a highly mor- 
 bid irritability of the stomach and intestines, should obtain 
 in a very large portion of the human race ? — All the organs 
 must participate in the affections and conditions of the stom- 
 ach. — The quality and quantity of the secretions are neces- 
 sarily affected ; and every thing in the system is strongly pre- 
 disposed to disease of any and every kind. An adscititious 
 cause, Which would scarcely affect, in any degree, a healthy 
 system, may now be sufficient to induce the most violent and 
 fatal disorder. In such a state of things, sudden atmospheric 
 changes, or the presence of noxious gasses or effluvia — to- 
 gether with exposures, — fatigue, — exhaustion, — improper 
 kinds, quantities or conditions of food, — free use of heating 
 and irritating condiments — fear — anger — venereal excess — 
 and above all, excesses in alcoholic and narcotic substances, 
 acting directly upon a morbidly susceptible and irritable 
 stomach, and through it on the whole system, the utmost dis- 
 order must necessarily ensue. 
 
 If the gastro-intestinal irritation be not of the highest or- 
 der, the system endeavors to relieve itself from the irritating 
 cause, by a mild form of diarrhoea, which, if properly treated, 
 
24 
 
 answers the instinctive purposes, and soon gives place to 
 healthy action, and no further inconvenience follows: — but 
 if the diarrhcea be neglected, and permitted to run on — and 
 if irritating articles of diet be received into the alimentary 
 canal, — and more especially, if heating and irritating astrin- 
 gents, tonics, stimulants, Sec. Sec, such as port wine, braudy, 
 or alcohol in any form, or opium in any form, camphor, pep- 
 permint, ginger, mustard, pepper, &c. &c. ba taken for the 
 purpose of checking the diarrhcea, it is within the range of pos- 
 sibility that the experiment maj succeed, so far, at least, as to 
 arrest, for a while, the discharges, and in some extremely rare 
 instances the system may recover: but almost inevitably the 
 disorder will be aggravated, and a highly morbid, gastric, or 
 gastro-intestinal irritation will.be induced, affecting the whole 
 system of the organic nerves, and causing a powerful determi- 
 nation of the fluids to the centre, and a copious flow- of crude 
 and very exasperating serous fluid into the alimentary canal, 
 for the morbidly instinctive purpose of flooding away, as it 
 were, the irritating cause. Violent vomiting and purging, for 
 the same instinctive purposes, ensue : attended generally, at 
 first, with a high state of irritation and inflammatory action of 
 the vascular system. The determination to the centre is still 
 increased. Insensible perspiration is suppressed, — respira- 
 tion is labored and difficult, — the external capillary organs 
 are prostrated : and the skin becomes cold and death-like ; 
 while the mesenteric, and other central vessels become over- 
 charged and generally highly inflamed. The liver, partak- 
 ing of the distracting irritations, suffers spasmodic strictures 
 of the gall-duct, and thus its important secretions are shut 
 out from the alimentary canal. 
 
 If the vital energies of the nerves of organic life are much 
 impaired, and the whole system of these nerves be in a state 
 of excessive morbid irritability, the gastric or gastro-intesti- 
 nal irritation will soon become overwhelming, and the ali- 
 mentary canal, in some or all its parts, immediately becomes 
 an abnormal centre of action to the whole domain of organic 
 nerves! The nervous energies, which in a normal state ra- 
 diate, as it were, from their natural ceutre or centres, to the 
 heart, arteries, veins, capillaries, and all the other organs of 
 the system, are almost or entirely distracted, — the organs are 
 paralyzed — their functions are scarcely performed at all, or 
 entirely cease. The functions of the skin in particular, are 
 wholly arrested, and the impurities which it should throw off, 
 remain in the blood, to diminish its vitality and oppress the 
 system. The blood vessels approach the same condition ;— - 
 
25 
 
 the heart heats feebly, and perhaps intermits ; — circulation is 
 extremely languid; and the pulse scarcely perceptible; — res- 
 piration is exceedingly labored and difficult : the calorific 
 function necessarily ceases in the external parts, and the ex- 
 tremities and surface generally, become deadly cold; and 
 the skin is often covered with a cold clammy moisture. The 
 blood thickens, grows dark and sizy, and its vitality rapidly 
 declines : while at the same time, all that can flow in the 
 system, rushes, in horrid anarchy, to the centre, producing 
 the most violent congestion in the vessels leading to, and in 
 the vicinity of the alimentary canal, causing an intense heat 
 and high excitability of the parts, and inundating the stom- 
 ach and intestines with a most excruciating serous fluid, 
 which tortures beyond measure, the highly irritated and now 
 keenly sensitive mucous membrane which lines them ; and 
 thus exceedingly augments the suffering and increases the 
 dreadful disorder. 
 
 In such a state of things, can we wonder at the violent 
 vomiting and purging? Can we be surprised at the inter- 
 mission, or entire cessation of the pulse ; — at the complete 
 suspension of the function of animal heat in the superficial 
 organs, and the consequent coldness of the surface and ex- 
 tremities ?'• Or can it be a matter of astonishment, that all 
 the muscles of voluntary and involuntary motion, supplied 
 with nerves from the ganglionic system, brought, as they are, 
 under a distracting and paramount influence, from this new 
 centre of action, should be thrown into the most violent and 
 painful spasms and. convulsions ?■ — Indeed ! can we wonder 
 at any of the horrid manifestations of this terrible disease — • 
 this fearful anarchy of the organic powers— -this tremendous 
 vengeance of the injured, exasperated and frantic instinct? 
 For it is worthy of remark, that this dreadful epidemic ap- 
 pears to be peculiarly a disease of the organic domain. An- 
 imal life is seldom much affected by it, except through the 
 medium of the ganglionic nerves; and the brain, in particu- 
 lar, is seldom so much disturbed as to disorder the mental 
 manifestations. 
 
 A still more extreme case takes place in those who by. ex« 
 cessive sensuality, filthiness and pernicious diet, have reduced 
 the vital powers of their organic nerves almost to the line of 
 death; an overwhelming gastrointestinal irritation arrests, 
 -at jonce,- all their 'feeble functions of life; inducing in a mo* 
 ment, as it were, a universal prostration, and almost instanta- 
 neous death, as with apoplexy or a sun-stroke. Great num- 
 bers of the canal-diggers died in this terrible manner, at 
 
26 
 
 Georgetown, D. C, and elsewhere, in the summer of 1831, 
 and in this same awful manner, the present epidemic has cut 
 off thousands of wretched beings ! 
 
 In regard to the causes of this direful epidemic, I have 
 already entered so fully into the consideration of them, that 
 it is not necessary for me again to be very minute in their 
 general detail. 
 
 It may be said, in general terms, that the primary and 
 paramount cause, is always, the peculiar condition of the 
 human system, resulting from the violation of the laws of 
 organic life. Its more immediately exciting causes, however, 
 are various ; such as atmospheric changes and conditions — 
 quality and quantity of food — excesses of every kind : but 
 more than all, perhaps, the excesses of filthy sensuality, and 
 the use of artificial stimulants, and especially of the narcot- 
 ic and alcoholic kinds; — in short, anything and everything 
 that reduces the vital powers of the nerves of organic life ; 
 and brings the alimentary canal and with it the whole system, 
 into a state of extreme, morbid irritability ; leaving little 
 power in the system to sustain high irritation, and to resist 
 and throw off noxious and disturbing causes. 
 
 It may, however, with confidence be asserted, that all the 
 causes which obtain, beyond the control of man, would sel- 
 dom or never develope this disease without the concurrence 
 of those causes which operate through his voluntary conduct. 
 
 But is there not some subtle agent, some pestilential es- 
 sence, or some living substance, — entirely distinct from, and 
 independent of human agency, and above human control, — 
 which passes from place to place, and by its own independent 
 and absolute and malignant energy, induces this terrible dis- 
 ease wherever it exerts its influence 1 
 
 I reply to this; in the first place, that the philosophy of 
 the case requires no such cause; and in the second place, 
 that an accurate investigation of all the phenomena and facts 
 in the case would never lead inductively to such a conclu- 
 sion ; and therefore, in the third place, that I cannot possi- 
 bly yield my conviction to such an opinion. 
 
 How then shall we account for the fact, that this disease 
 is so extensively epidemic 1 
 
 That disease has swept over a great portion of the earth's 
 surface with terrible devastations, is too fatally true to be de- 
 nied : but what evidence is there of the essential identity, 
 in all cases, as to the cause, of the disease, which under the 
 name of Epidemic Cholera, has committed such fearful rav- 
 ages in Asia and Europe 1 Is it replied that all the manifest- 
 
 
27 
 
 ations and effects have been the same? But is this conclu- 
 sive 1 A fatal dose of arsenic introduced into the human 
 stomach, will produce manifestations and effects, so entirely 
 like those of malignant cholera morbus, that very few, if any, 
 of the most skilful physicians, without some other informa- 
 tion than that which they derive from the manifestations and 
 effects, would, when cholera morbus was prevailing, hesitate 
 a moment, to pronounce it that disease. A thousand other 
 causes may, with the concurrence and co-operation of pecu- 
 liar circumstances, develope the same symptoms, and cause 
 the same results. 
 
 Every pathologist ought to understand the nature of man 
 thoroughly, in ail its powers and properties ; — not only or- 
 ganic and animal, but also mental and moral. He ought to 
 be intimately acquainted with the physical and intellectual 
 reciprocities : the full range and power of sympathies, and 
 all their physiological, and pathological, and psychological 
 effects. In order to this, he ought to observe man in every 
 attitude and condition, and under all circumstances and in- 
 fluences; and avail himself of every advantage and every 
 species of information by which he can ascertain the truth. 
 
 Much light mi^ht be thrown on pathological subjects, by 
 a correct observation and analysis of the phenomena attend- 
 ing, what may, without irreverence, be called the moral and 
 religious epidemics, which often become very extensive in 
 society. I do not name these things with disrespect, but 
 merely for the purpose of exhibiting the effects of mental 
 action on the bodily system. 
 
 Time will not, however, at present, allow me to enter so 
 far as might be interesting, and even instructing, into a mi- 
 nute detail of these effects on the functions and conditions 
 of the stomach, liver, heart, lungs, skin, brain< and other 
 organs, and the pathological results which often obtain. I 
 can only, at present, name some of the prominent results, 
 which will serve to elucidate the subject before us; nor shall 
 I pretend to chronological, nor geographical accuracy in the 
 history of the facts which I mention ; bul 1 will endeavor to 
 be correct in the facts themselves. 
 
 About thirty years since, a powerful religious excitement 
 commenced somewhere, I believe, in the state of Vermont. 
 A fearful solemnity pervaded almost every mind. Deep and 
 continued anxiety, arising from the exhibition and contempla- 
 tion of awful subjects, and the fearful expectation of the 
 presence and action of a mysterious agent, so affected the 
 bodily organs and functions, that, in a moment of overwhelm- 
 
29 
 
 ing excitement, an individual fell prostrate, as though sud- 
 denly struck dead by apoplexy* There was an entire suspen- 
 sion of animal life for some minutes. This necessarily in- 
 creased the awful excitement of those who saw or heard of 
 it. It was fully believed to be the effect of the immediate 
 action of the Spirit of God, in renewing the soul ; and there- 
 fore, every one, with still more fearful anxiety, began to feel 
 himself in the presence of the same mysterious agent, and 
 that he was at every instant liable to become subject to the 
 same action and the same effect. This again necessarily and 
 very powerfully increased the predisposition of the body for 
 such an effect. The result was, that another, and another, 
 and another, fell in the same manner, and fully confirmed 
 the belief, that it was a phenomenon connected with the mys- 
 terious operation of the Spirit of God in converting the soul. 
 This led the subjects themselves to the full conviction that 
 such a phenomenon was a demonstration of their genuine 
 conversion ; and they awoke from their swoon, believing, and 
 often shouting aloud in the rapturr of their belief, that they 
 had become the inalienable heirs of eternal life and happi- 
 ness. Of course, every tongue, with solemn tone, rehearsed 
 the awful story. The excitementjextended and increased, — 
 and the phenomenon of falling down in a swoon, became 
 truly epidemic. Preachers, and others, full of zeal, passed 
 from place to place, and, with all the ardor of enthusiasm, 
 and the untiring earnestness of those who desire to save the 
 souls of their fellow creatures from eternal ruin, repeated 
 and repeated the solemn story, with all the skill of circum- 
 stantial detail, and fervently, and often terrifically importuned 
 their hearers to repent and believe, now, in the day of God's 
 mighty power. 
 
 The consequence was, that sympathies were aroused,-— 
 excitements were produced — and individuals began to fall 
 prostrate, and wake from their swoons rejoicing and shout- 
 ing ! — and in this manner this species of epidemic spread 
 over a considerable portion of New England, and huridreds, 
 if not thousands, were either " struck down " suddenly, or 
 powerfully agitated, and nearly paralyzed in their bodily 
 powers. 
 
 A similar excitement took place, several years since, I be- 
 lieve in Kentucky, in which the subjects were affected with 
 powerful spasms in the muscles of the limbs— or sudden 
 twitching and jerkings in the arms and legs. . This was also 
 fully believed to be the effect of the immediate action of the j 
 Spirit of God in the work of conversion ; ard consequently 
 
29 
 
 was regarded with fearful awe. Large circles were formed 
 for prayer, and the anxious were brought within the circles— 
 and united, and sometimes vehement and even boisterous 
 prayer was offered, that the Holy Spirit would come down 
 and convert them ; and these prayers were believed to be an- 
 swered by the Spirit's operations, when the " jerking" com- 
 menced, which soon took place, and generally extended to 
 most of those within the ring. 
 
 Some daring young men entered these circles, with the 
 spirit of derision, — intending to practise an imposition on 
 the religious; but with horror, they soon found themselves, 
 as they believed, under the irresistible influence of the Holy 
 Spirit, and became powerfully affected with the involuntary 
 spasms, and left the circle with the firm belief that they were 
 converted. Such instances went still farther to confirm the 
 popular belief that these "jerks," as they were called, were 
 the effects of the direct and irresistible, though mysterious 
 agency of the Holy Spirit. The consequence was, that they 
 became extensively epidemic ; and those who were the most 
 powerfully affected in this way, were considered the most 
 signally favored, by the abundance of the power of the Holy 
 Spirit. 
 
 I might adduce several other instances of extensive relig- 
 ious excitements, which have been attended with different 
 bodily phenomena, of as marked and peculiar character as 
 any I have named. But I have already mentioned enough 
 for my present purpose; which is solely to show that certain 
 actions of the mind may produce certain conditions of the 
 nervous system, causing corresponding effects on the organs 
 and functions of the body ; and that when peculiar causes 
 have produced peculiar phenomena, and the causes are fully 
 believed to be general, mysterious and irresistible, and the 
 phenomena the necessary results of the action of those caus- 
 es, the mind of all, coming under the same strong and con- 
 tinued excitement, may so act on the bodily sympathies, and 
 through them, on the organs and tissues, a& absolutely to in- 
 duce the same involuntary phenomena in most or all; and 
 thus render them extensively epidemic; while the very fact 
 that they are extensively epidemic will serve to establish more 
 firmly the popular belief in an identical, mysterious; and 
 irresistible agent. 
 
 Now, if such is the philosophy, so far as bodily phenome- 
 na or symptoms are concerned, of moral and religious epi- 
 demics, why should we utterly disregard these things in pa- 
 thological reasoning, and travel over the whole field of con- 
 3 
 
30 
 
 jecture in order to find an adequate cause, when such a cause 
 presents itself in the power of the sympathies directed by 
 the actions of the mind ? Indeed we have the record ot facts 
 directly in point to illustrate this doctrine in pathology. "It 
 is well authenticated that females in the Royal Infirmary at 
 Edinburgh, who were affected with hysteric fits, occasioned 
 the same infirmity in others. It is well known, too, that in 
 the poor house at Haerlem, in Holland, many years ago, a 
 girl, under some impression of terror, fell into a convulsive 
 disease, which extended on the mere principle of sympathy, 
 to nearly all the boys and girls in the house. The celebrated 
 Doctor Boerhaave put a stop to it, by preparing certain irons, 
 and having them made red hot, in the presence of the chil- 
 dren, and declaring, with great solemnity, that every child 
 which manifested any symptoms of the disease, must be 
 burnt to the bone with one of these hot irons. There was 
 no occasion to use them, and the disease was no more known. 
 In the year 1803, a species of St. Vitus's dance became ep- 
 idemic in one of the United States, on the same principle. 
 Many more well authenticated instances of this kind might 
 be named, extending through parishes, villages, and districts 
 of this country. " 
 
 But do you ask if I believe that such a cause can absolute- 
 ly produce the Asiatic, spasmodic cholera 1 I reply, that I 
 fully believe that, when long continued abuses have reduced 
 the vital energies of the nerves of organic life to a very low 
 level, in a great portion of the human family, extending over 
 the face of the earth ; and the human system is thereby 
 strongly predisposed to take on disease, while it is little able 
 to sustain it, — if certain local causes shall develope a disease 
 pretty extensively, of a fatal and terrific character, the cause 
 which I have named, is alone sufficient to keep up an epidem- 
 ic disease, which shall be attended with most or all the prom- 
 inent symptoms of the first, and become as extensive as the 
 quarry in which it originated. Moreover, such a cause, by 
 long acting on those of better habits, may so irritate and de- 
 bilitate the nerves of organic life, and so disturb the various 
 functions of the system, as to bring on disorders, which will 
 predispose the body to take on disease, and this, being im- 
 properly treated, may terminate either in the prevailing dis- 
 ease itself, or one which shall so assimilate itself, in all its 
 symptoms, to the prevailing disease, that it will be unhesitat- 
 ingly pronounced the same : and thus, epidemic disease may 
 not only range over the level of its origin, but also frequently 
 undermine, and sweep away many in the higher orders of habit 
 and condition. 
 
3i 
 
 In the winter of 1809-10, a disease broke out in New 
 England, (I believe in Hartford, Connecticut,) which was 
 very sudden in its attack, brief and violent in its career, and 
 fatal in its effects. Much alarm was of course produced : 
 every body talked about the new and terrible disease ; and 
 every one was eager to hear the latest accounts of its pro- 
 gress and fatality. All the symptoms of the disease were 
 carefully observed and published in the newspapers, and still 
 more extensively by the ten thousand tongues of busy rumor, 
 and listened to with deepest sensibility by the ten thousand 
 ears of fearful anxiety. The skill of the physicians was baf- 
 fled ; profound and awful mystery enveloped the cause, and 
 covered the mode and means of cure. The "physicians, in 
 the general panic and incertitude, abandoned the philosophy 
 of physiological pathology, and gave themselves up to con- 
 jectural speculation and excited imaginations! — All was 
 dreadful uncertainty, and fearful apprehension, and irresisti- 
 ble fatality. Death, shrouded in the impenetrable darkness 
 of Egyptian midnight, walked forth with terrible omnipo- 
 tence! The dying bowed their heads and expired in unut- 
 terable agony; and the living looked on with trembling con- 
 sternation, and felt that they were contemplating the horrid 
 imagery of their own unavoidable destiny! Universal panic 
 reigned with fearful despotism over the morbid sensibilities 
 of society ; and every sympathetic pain and affection were 
 apprehended with dismay, as an indubitable symptom of the 
 fatal disease ! — Remedial experiments, corresponding in vio- 
 lence with the supposed power and malignity of the cause of 
 the disease, were numerously tried ; and the work of death 
 was more terrifically accelerated. Then, too, as in all other 
 epidemics, ignorant quacks, with the well-meant concurrence 
 of newspaper editors, spawned and promulgated their offi- 
 cious and mercenary prescriptions, to deceive the credulous, 
 and bewilder the doubtful, and increase the excitement, and 
 extend the devastation. — Medical men rashly published their 
 violent specifics, which became, in the hands of the terrified, 
 like the weapons of death in the hands of the insane ! Hun- 
 dreds, and probably thousands, felt the symptoms, and in the 
 delirium of fear, poured down fatal quantities of brandy and 
 laudanum, and plunged drunken and stupified into the forced 
 embrace of death ! And thus the tremendous havoc swept 
 on, spreading consternation before it, and leaving desolation 
 behind ? Legislatures adjourned, and fled in dismay — the 
 affairs of society stagnated — business was neglected, and 
 men sat down in despondency and despair, to brood over 
 
32 
 
 their sympathies; fearfully watching- for symptoms, constant- 
 ly taking preventives, and literally preparing their bodies for 
 death ! 
 
 In such a state of things, — and I have not given an exag- 
 gerated description — is it surprising that the epidemic Spot- 
 ted Fever, or Cold Plague, should extend over a considerable 
 portion of New England, and sweep off hundreds or thou- 
 sands in its career? — And yet I have been assured by a 
 highly respectable physician in Massachusetts, that after 
 losing three patients with this disease, by the established 
 mode of practice of the time, he abandonded that mode, and 
 governed himself entirely by the indications of physiological 
 pathology, and adapted his practice to the symptoms of the 
 case, and never, after that, lost a single patient by that dis- 
 ease, although his practice in it was uncommonly extensive. 
 Indeed, he assured me that the disease when properly treat- 
 ed, was more easily managed, than what is ordinarily called a 
 bad cold. 
 
 An epidemic disease bearing the same name, but less ex- 
 tensive and less fatal, because attended with less panic, and 
 less error of treatment, has, for a considerable time past, 
 prevailed in and about New London, Connecticut. There 
 have been, I believe, several hundred cases; the greater part 
 of which have most unquestionably been purely sympathetic. 
 
 It is more than probable that an epidemic disease of any 
 very great extent and mortality, never prevailed among man- 
 kind, in which morbid sympathy and mental action did not 
 constitute a very considerable portion of the efficiency of the 
 epidemic cause. The history of all past epidemics corrobo- 
 rates this opinion ; and we find that whenever and wherever 
 the plague has prevailed, not a few even of the medical pro- 
 fession have believed that fear was chiefly concerned in prop- 
 agating that terrible disease. Undoubtedly there have been 
 at some periods in the history of the world, causes, connected 
 with the disturbances of the earth, such as earthquakes, vol- 
 canic eruptions, &c &c, and perhaps also with the influ- 
 ence of some of the heavenly bodies, which have produced 
 extensive epidemic diseases that have destroyed great num- 
 bers of the human species, and of the lower orders of ani- 
 mals. But these instances have, I am confident, been very 
 few; while as a general rule, as I have already said, it may 
 with confidence be asserted that a!l the causes which obtain 
 beyond the control of man, would seldom or never develope 
 epidemic disease, without the concurrence of those causes 
 which operate through his voluntary conduct. And I am 
 
33 
 
 entirely confident that every symptom and effect, by which 
 what is called the Epidemic Cholera, is ordinarily attended, 
 may be superinduced, in certain conditions of the human 
 system, by mental action and remedial agents. 
 
 Let me not be misunderstood : I do not say that mental 
 action will absolutely induce spasmodic cholera, in any state 
 of the body ; but, that in certain conditions of the body, men- 
 tal action may so affect the nerves of organic life, as to cause 
 that gastro-intestinal irritation, which is the basis of all the 
 symptoms of spasmodic cholera ; and that continued mental 
 actio* of the same character, may reduce the body, from any 
 state of health, to that condition in which the disease may 
 be superinduced. 
 
 We know that overwhelming fear, by arresting at once 
 all the functions of life, may cause instantaneous death ; and 
 we kiaow that violent and continued fear may so affect the 
 hair of the head, in a few hours, as to destroy its color : and 
 that the same passion will suspend in an instant the func- 
 tions of the skin and superficial capillaries, and impel the 
 fluids from the surface to the centre, leaving the skin cold 
 and corrugated, and cause a spasmodic, and irregular, and 
 interrupted action of the heart and lungs, and induce pain 
 and even severe cramp in the epigastric region ; and great 
 irritation of the liver and kidneys, and sudden and violent 
 evacuations of the bowels and Madder, attended often, with 
 severe and painful spasms of the body and limbs; and some- 
 times ending in sudden death. 
 
 Unfortunately, however, in all times of great epidemical 
 excitements, fear is not left to work single-handed in the 
 mighty mischief, but leads to the use of such medical pre- 
 ventives and remedies, as are even more pernicious in their 
 effects on the vital powers, than the passion itself; and thus 
 the ruinous operation is carried on, while intemperance, and 
 irregularities of every kimd, come in as immediately exciting 
 causes of disease, to consummate the dreadful work of death. 
 
 'To illustrate this doctrine still farther, let us take a single 
 case in detail. Suppose an individual in good health, by 
 continually hearing the accounts of the dreadful mortality, 
 and terrible progress of the Cholera, to be filled with fearful 
 anxiety in view of the probability that it will visit the place 
 where he resides, and the possibility that he may fall a vic- 
 tim to it. He is constantly bearing fresh and shocking ac- 
 counts of its rayages, and learns all its symptoms and hor- 
 rors. The mystery of its cause, and the malignity of its 
 career, increase his dread! His thoughts frequently revert 
 3* 
 
34 
 
 to the painful subject, and the suggestion arises in his mind, 
 <f I may fall by this awful disease ! " — At length his mind 
 comes to brood almost habitually on the alarming subject. 
 His spirits necessarily become more or less depressed, di- 
 gestion is disturbed, his appetite is impaired, the skin be- 
 comes relaxed and debilitated, its functions are less vigorous 
 and complete, the circulation languishes : the lungs, the liv- 
 er, the kidneys, and all the other organs, partake of the dis- 
 turbance, and all their functions are correspondently impair- 
 ed. Assimilation, secretion, and all the other vital proces- 
 ses, are deteriorated. All this reacts upon the stomach, and 
 brain, and nervous system generally, to depress still farther 
 the vital powers, and still more impair the functions : and 
 these disorders of the body react upon the mind, to increase 
 its despondency, and this again depresses still more, the 
 functions of the body. And now the terrible accounts begin 
 to produce great nervous agitation; and this increases ner- 
 vous debility and morbid irritability, which still farther en- 
 feeble the vital powers of reaction against disturbing and 
 noxious causes, and predispose the body to disease, and sub- 
 ject the individual to those frequent nervous and sympathetic 
 pains and affections which the fearful mind readily conceives 
 to be the premonitory symptoms of the disease. 
 
 Now if the unfortunate individual had knowledge and wis- 
 dom enough to regulate his conduct according to his peculiar 
 state, he might, with the utmost probability, still be saved from 
 the evils which he so unhappily dreads. If he would care- 
 fully, in all respects, adopt a regimen suited to his peculiar 
 condition and circumstances, he would be in little real dan- 
 ger of the disease. But alas! how seldom is this course 
 pursued ! With all their fears, and with all the disturbing 
 and debilitating effects of their brooding anxieties and agita- 
 tions, people generally pay little attention to their diet and 
 habits of body, — as if their only danger were from some 
 mysterious agent or principle in the atmosphere, or some- 
 where else, which absolutely and arbitrarily destroys life, 
 without regard to habits or conditions of body. Or, if they 
 do attempt to regulate their diet, the articles to which they 
 will restrict themselves, and their modes of preparing them, 
 are often even more pernicious than the things which they 
 reject ; and thus the debility and irritability of the digestive 
 organs are still more increased . And to relieve themselves 
 from this depression, and languor, and despondency, result- 
 ing from the actions of their mind, and the conditions of their 
 body, they will almost universally have recourse to strong 
 
35 
 
 tea and coffee, or to cordials or tonics, or fermented or dis- 
 tilled alcoholic liquors, or opiates, &c. — always, however, 
 under the name of necessary preventives or medicines! All 
 these things necessarily prepare fur the consummation ! Then 
 comes the alarm-cry that the terrible epidemic has reached 
 or broke out in the place, and begun its ruthless work of 
 death ! The panic rises like a whirlwind ! The morbid 
 sensibilities, excited by the actions of the mind, are full of 
 premonitory symptoms and affections : this causes powerful 
 agitation, which almost necessarily brings on a disordered 
 state of the stomach and bowels — more especially, if there 
 is the least impropriety in diet ; and by this means the panic 
 is tremendously increased. In this state of vital debility, ag- 
 itation and terror, some of the vile proscriptions of the news- 
 papers are adopted, and the most pernicious, and often the 
 most fatal articles, in the form of medicine, are thrown into 
 the disordered and extremely irritable stomach. Perhaps, 
 also, articles of diet of the most improper character are re- 
 ceived into the alimentary canal; or it may he, that in this 
 state of the system, some impure air — some noxious exhala- 
 tion—some infectious effluvium, of a local nature or generation, 
 acts on the highly morbid mucous membrane of the alimen- 
 tary canal, so that by some or all of these causes, a violent 
 irrritation is produced in the alimentary canal, modified in 
 its manifestations by the actions of the mind ; and a power- 
 ful determination of the fluids to the centre, and excessive 
 central congestion, are caused by the gastro-intestinal irrita- 
 tion ; a crude and exacerbating serous fluid is poured into 
 the alimentary canal, increasing exceedingly the irritation ; 
 and then follow violent vomiting and purging, spasms, as- 
 phyxia, and all the other symptoms by which the case is as- 
 certained to be spasmodic cholera ; and these symptoms are 
 generally much aggravated by stimulating substances. 
 
 The case which I have adduced, supposes a tolerably 
 sound state of health in the nerves of organic life previous 
 to the commencement of the panic or fearful anxiety ; but 
 throughout the whole of the human family, and especially in 
 large cities and towns, a very considerable proportion of so- 
 ciety is habitually in that low state of the vital energies, 
 which requires little or none of the preparation for disease, 
 that I have just described : their diet is sometimes — though 
 in this country, unnecessarily, — scanty, seldom of the best 
 kind, often of a very pernicious quality ; and their exposures 
 are frequently great. Still, however, all these causes togeth- 
 er contribute much less to the actual developement of epU 
 
36 
 
 demic disease, than the universal and generally excessive 
 use of artificial stimulants; in which the poorest and most 
 wretched portions of society indulge. 
 
 It is a well known fact, that immense numbers of the in- 
 habitants of Europe and Asia, as well as of our own country, 
 will voluntarily subsist on one or two scanty meals a day, of 
 miserable food, for the sake of procuring their ordinary quan- 
 tity of tea, coffee, tobacco, opium, whiskey, arrack, or some 
 other kind of intoxicating substance. Reckless as these un- 
 fortunate beings generally appear to be, yet they neverthe- 
 less partake of the general panic; which, unhappily, instead 
 of restraining them from their habitual errors, more fre- 
 quently, on the other hand, drives them to greater excess, as 
 a refuge from the very calamity into which they are blindly 
 precipitating themselves ! 
 
 In such a state of things, fatal disease must necessarily be 
 soon induced ;, and in such bodies, it must be malignant, vi- 
 olent, and brief; — and under such circumstances and influ- 
 ences, what would, at another time, have appeared only "sud- 
 den death," from drunkenness or excess, would now, almost 
 necessarily, take on the type, and exhibit the symptoms, of 
 the prevailing epidemic. Every such death will increase the 
 panic, and consequently multiply the deaths, till excesses, 
 and filth, and disease wiW, if other circumstances be favora- 
 ble, generate a malignantly infectious effluvium, which will 
 come in with the other causes, to carry on with tremendous 
 energy, the terrible work of destruction. 
 
 From this combination of causes, a pestilential efficiency 
 is produced which those of healthier condition and better 
 habits, and even the lower order of animals, will often fall 
 before. Thus the moral fens and morasses of society become 
 the sources of pestilence and death to those who have, per- 
 haps culpably, neglected to improve their condition. 
 
 It is upon this principle of mental action, affecting physi- 
 ological conduct, and determining pathological affections and 
 manifestations, that the notorious fact is to be accounted for, 
 that during the prevalence of such an epidemic as the present, 
 almost all other diseases assume the symptoms of, and run 
 into, the prevailing disease: for this is seldom, if ever, the 
 fact to any considerable extent, only during the prevalence 
 of such epidemics as are attended with great panic. 
 
 The epidemic Influenza is caused entirely by certain sud- 
 den changes in the atmosphere, acting on the humap system 
 in certain conditions, which result from the voluntary habits 
 and customs of civic life ; but this is attended with little or 
 
37 
 
 no panic, however extensive and fatal the disease; nor dur- 
 ing its prevalence, do any, except cognate diseases, take on 
 its type. The same is true of all epidemic diseases of this 
 predicament. 
 
 On the whole, therefore, though I do not pretend that pan- 
 ic, or mental action, can absolutely and immediately produce 
 real spasmodic ch'ok'ra, in any and every condition of the 
 human system, yet I do confidently assert that, taking into 
 view the various causes which are continually operating on 
 mankind, to reduce the vital powers of the nerves of organ- 
 ic life, and considering the actual condition of a large por- 
 tion of the human family, as to vital power of organic func- 
 tion, and resistance to noxious and pestilential agents, men- 
 tal action alone, is, through the modus operandi which I have 
 described, an adequate cause for the epidemic character of 
 the present prevailing disease, called spasmodic cholera, 
 throughout the human race ! 
 
 Still, however, let it be remembered, that I do not say that 
 this disease is in every individual case preceded by panic, or 
 induced by mental action. I contend that highly malignant 
 pestilential causes may be locally generated, and acton those 
 who would not otherwise have had the disease, nor even with 
 these causes, without a predisposition resulting generally, if 
 not invariably, from their own voluntary conduct : and I con- 
 tend also, that the pestilential cause or causes may be con- 
 veyed to, and fatally act, to some extent, in places where 
 they would not have originated: and that they may be origi- 
 nated, in the manner I have described, in other places fa- 
 vorable for their generation, without the assistance of any 
 imparted infection or medium of contagion. 
 
 Treatment. 
 
 The next question which comes to us, is — How shall we 
 treat this dreadful disease ?— Here I confess, with a deep 
 sense of the responsibility resting upon my undertaking, and 
 of my want of knowledge of materia medica, that I -feel fully 
 conscious that I am passing from physiological and patholog- 
 ical premises, into the somewhat uncertain field of therapeu- 
 tics. Perhaps it will be thought that I should stop short, nor 
 presume to venture a speculative opinion on so momentous a 
 subject. But since I have taken it upon me to speak, I will 
 proceed : yet I will endeavor to be exceedingly cautious. 
 
 What, then, shall we do with this disease, especially when 
 it assumes its severest and most fearful character ?— When 
 
38 
 
 we find a prostration of all the functions of life ; when the 
 skin is totally paralyzed, the animal heat gone from the sur- 
 face and extremities, the breath cold, the tongue dry, voice 
 lost or very feeble, the heart scarcely heaving a sluggish, in- 
 termittent pulse, while violent vomiting and purging, and 
 dreadful spasms, and burning pains in the epigastric region, 
 and severe cramps in the limbs and extremities, seem terribly- 
 hastening the work of death, what shall be done ? For sure- 
 ly, something must be done, and done quickly, or death will 
 have achieved its victory ! 
 
 I ask again, what is the immediate cause of all this de- 
 rangement and prostration? Is it any external agent acting 
 on the exterior surface, causing a paralysis and collapse of 
 the superficial organs, and driving the fluids to the centre? 
 Certainly not ! — Is it any agent applying itself directly to 
 the nervous system as a whole, and inducing general pros- 
 tration, collapse, and the other symptoms in the case? By 
 no means! — What then shall we call it ? Most evidently 
 and certainly, it is irritation in the alimentary canal, origi- 
 nated as I have described, and excited to madness by the 
 acrid fluids which are pouring in from every quarter, and 
 producing an excitement which distracts the normal distribu- 
 tion of nervous energy, from the natural centres to the seve- 
 ral organs, and exerts a paramount influence over all the or- 
 gans of the body, and blindly drags all the vital energies into 
 the vortex of its own maniac fury ! 
 
 But what shall we do? What does nature indicate by her 
 conduct ? Does she not open the orifices of her alimentary 
 canal, and with the agony of a blind and desperate Samson, 
 heave, with all her remaining energies, to throw ofT the irri- 
 tating and deranging cause from her smarting sensibilities? 
 
 She asks for assistance ! And does not the nature of the 
 case, more than indicate the kind ? 
 
 But it is said that we must rouse the prostrated functions ! 
 We must produce heat, and circulation, and excite the ac- 
 tion of the. skin, and overcome the spasms, and arrest the 
 vomiting and purging: and how can all this be done, without 
 the exhibition of narcotics and stimulants? I say again, 
 that all the prostration and derangement is owing to gastric, 
 or gastro-intestinal irritation, which has become an abnormal 
 and maniac centre of action to the whole system of organic 
 nerves, and all the organs depending on them for functional 
 ppwer? Remove this irritation, and suffer the normal cen- 
 tres qf action to throw their energies upon the organs, and 
 the prostration and derangement are overcome, and the func- 
 
39 
 
 aons restored ! In such a state of things, will you exhibit 
 your exasperating stimulants and deadly narcotics ? 
 
 And for what purpose ? To shut up the flood-gates through 
 which nature is trying to relieve herself; and by your nar- 
 cotics, to kill the excess of vital activity in the irritated or- 
 gans, and by your fiery stimulants, to roll back the tide of 
 ruin to other outlets, and force the heart and other organs to 
 rouse from their prostration and perform their functions, un- 
 der all the embarrassments of distracting irritation in the 
 gastro-intestinal centre? 
 
 But has not such practice been successful ? — Doubtless 
 there have been instances in which such practice has been 
 apparently if not really successful : — or in other words, some 
 patients have recovered either with, or in spite of, this treat- 
 ment. During the prevalence of all epidemics, and espe- 
 cially those which are attended with great- panic, there are 
 always many spurious cases; and in these cases of purely 
 panic, or sympathetic cholera, the exhibition of brandy and 
 laudanum, (or some other powerful stimulants,) may some- 
 times seem to afford immediate relfef; but even in such cases, 
 always at the hazard of life. When these articles are ad- 
 ministered, however, in cases of real spasmodic cholera, if 
 any benefit results, it is only in cases where the patient has 
 previously been addicted to the free use of alcoholic liquors, 
 and in the nervous tissue of whose alimentary canal, there is 
 still remaining vital susceptibility and energy enough to re- 
 ceive and diffuse over the whole nervous domain, a stimula- 
 tion sufficiently powerful to counteract the ruling despotism 
 of the gastro-intestinal irritation, and force the organs into a 
 performance of their functions, in spite of its bewildering 
 and distracting influence. But if this species of forced ac- 
 tion is not kept up by the contiuual administration of the 
 stimulants, the patient must relapse with fearful rapidity, to 
 the inevitably fatal action of the disease : and if it is kept 
 up for any considerable time, the idiopathic character of the 
 disease may indeed be broken up, but it is always at the ut- 
 most risk of so wearing out the susceptibilities and energies 
 of the system, that it will sink down into an equally fatal dis- 
 ease of a different type ; or, if this should not be the case, 
 and the patient should recover from the cholera by such treat- 
 ment, he will continue, for a considerable time, to be subject 
 to a serious derangement of the stomach and bowels, and will 
 be exceedingly liable to another attack of the cholera, from 
 the slightest exposure or error of conduct. The cases, how- 
 ever, must be very few, in which the least apparent benefit is 
 
 
40 
 
 derived from this mode of treatment ; while, on the other 
 hand, the most tremendously ruinous effects are produced by 
 such a practice. 
 
 How, then, you ask again, shall we raise the system from 
 its dreadful prostration, and overcome the spasms, and arrest 
 the violent vomiting and purging? 
 
 Again I say, remove the irritation of the alimentary canal 
 and the spasms and vomiting and purging will cease; and 
 the heart and the other organs will immediately recognize 
 their allegiance to their normal centres of action, and per- 
 form their functions without unnatural force. 
 
 But how shall we remove the gastro-intestinal irritation? 
 This depends much on the peculiar nature of the case. 
 Sometimes, as we have seen, the irritation depends entirely 
 on the presence of an irritating substance in the alimentary 
 canal ; such as improper articles of diet, &x.; and sometimes, 
 from the peculiar condition of the system, and especially, of 
 the nervous tissue of the alimentary canal, the irritation, by 
 whatever immediate cause induced, will propagate itself, and 
 become a pathological affection of the tissue. 
 
 When the irritation is not overwhelming at first, the sys- 
 tem instinctively endeavors to relieve herself, by pouring an 
 increased quantity of mucous secretion into the alimentary 
 canal, and thus relaxing and evacuating the bowels in order 
 to remove the irritating cause; and if the stomach and in- 
 testines are in a healthy and vigorous state, and the patient 
 is careful to abstain from every thing that would increase or 
 keep up the irritation, the system will entirely relieve herself 
 by her own instinctive efforts, and as soon as the irritating 
 cause has been evacuated, the bowels will resume their 
 healthy action. But when, from the previously debilitated 
 and morbidly irritable state of the alimentary canal, the su- 
 perinduced irritation becomes a pathological affection of its 
 nervous tissue, the mucous secretion will run into a serous or 
 watery character, and the relax will be followed by a diarrhoea, 
 of a more or less mild or severe character, corresponding 
 with the previous state of the system and the degree of mor- 
 bid irritation. 
 
 If the diarrhoea be of a mild character, and the previ- 
 ous habits of the patient have not been bad; and if he 
 keep quiet within doors, and totally and scrupulously re 
 frain from every kind of medicine and aliment, solid and 
 fluid, except alittle simple Indian-meal gruel, or rice water, 
 or coarse unbolted wheat meal gruel , or wheat bran tea, 
 without any seasoning taking this at stated period and in 
 
41 
 
 moderate quantities, so as not to interfere with the process of 
 digestion ; and if the patient use a good deai of friction over 
 the whole surface, and especially over the stomach and bow- 
 els, with a flesh-brush, or coarse towel, or flannel; and be 
 careful to keep clean in person, clothing, bed, house, &,c, 
 avoiding confined and impure, and damp, cold air, the mor- 
 bid irritation will be entirely subdued in the course of twen- 
 ty-four hours ; and then, if the patient will subsist the next 
 twenty-four hours on good, sweet, well-baked, coarse, stale 
 bread, taking it at his regular meal times, and masticating it 
 very fully, using no butter nor any thing else with it, and no. 
 other drink but his gruel or good soft water, at the end of the 
 forty-eight hours he will find his bowels in a perfectly healthy 
 state and action. But as surely as he takes any improper ar- 
 ticle of diet into his stomach, whether "Solid or fluid, while 
 the diarrhoea is on him, he will increase the irritation, and 
 aggravate the disease. 
 
 In some instances where the diarrhoea has assumed a 
 chronic character, and does not readily yield to the regimen 
 prescribed, the patient will do well to fast entirely for twenty- 
 four hours, taking nothing into the stomach, except in case of 
 thirst a little pure soft water ; and after such a fast let him 
 take at his regular meal times, a little gruel made of the 
 coarse wheat meal, it he can get it ; if not, of prepared bar- 
 ley or oats, or indian meal, and on the third day use the bread 
 as above directed.. 
 
 Let it always be remembered, that the diarrhoea is not the 
 disease, but the morbid irritation is the disease; and the di- 
 arrhoea is the morbidly instinctive manner in which the sys- 
 tem is endeavoring to remove the irritation; and therefore an 
 attempt to suppress the diarrhoea upon any other principle 
 than by subduing the irritation, will almost inevitably increase 
 the disorder. It is true that the morbid character of the se- 
 rous fluid which is poured into the intestines, is a powerful 
 cause of the irritation, and therefore it is highly desirable 
 that the diarrhoea should be suppressed as soon as may be; 
 but still, I say, it must not be done by any means incompat- 
 ible with the morbid irritation and irritability of the nervous 
 tissue of the alimentary canal. Hence, brandy and lauda- 
 num, brandy and sugar, spirits of any kind, — wine, or fer- 
 mented liquors of any sort, — camphor, peppermint, pepper, 
 mustard, coffee, tea, and all other things of the kind, taken 
 to stop the diarrhoea, are all, in their respective degrees, cal- 
 culated to aggravate the real disease, and bring on vomiting 
 and spasms, and increased determination to the centre, and 
 4 
 
42 
 
 general prostration and collapse, or asphyxia and death ! It 
 is true that most of these things may sometimes arrest the 
 diarrhoea; but it is necessarily upon a principle which ren- 
 ders it almost certain that the disorder will soon return again 
 with increased violence; and more especially if any pesti- 
 lential cause be acting upon the system, It is also true that 
 in some very rare instances, patients may recover with the 
 use of these articles; but the cases are only astonishing ex* 
 ceptions to correct rules ; and the practice is none the less 
 madly erroneous. 
 
 In regard to the use of opium, to arrest the diarrhoea, or 
 in any stage of the disease, I am convinced that it is little, 
 if any less pernicious than alcohol. As a stimulant, it always 
 increases the irritation , and as a narcotic, in all cases, it re- 
 duces the morbid sensibility and irritation only by diminish- 
 ing vitality; and consequently, without removing in any 
 degree the cause of that morbid sensibility and irritation ; 
 and therefore, when its narcotic properties are expended, the 
 system is liable to more morbid excesses of sensibility and ir- 
 ritation, with less vital power to sustain them, and to react 
 against morbific causes, and throw off its own morbid affec- 
 tions ; and if it be repeated so as to keep the system under 
 its narcotic influence, it becomes itself a powerful cause of 
 the rapid and total extinction of vitality ; and is thus very 
 frequently made to supersede all other causes as an agent of 
 destruction to the sick. For be it remembered, that it can- 
 not possibly, in the nature of thingSj do any thing directly, 
 towards restoring healthy action ; and healthy action alone 
 can resist morbific causes, and give general health to the sys- 
 tem. 
 
 When the diarrhoea is of a more severe and violent char- 
 acter, and especially if it be attended with pain, and with 
 spasmodic affections in the hands and feet; and, indeed, it 
 will perhaps be safest to say, in all cases of diarrhoea, during 
 the prevalence of the cholera, the patient should keep quiet 
 within doors — or even take to his bed, maintaining as much 
 composure of mind as possible, carefully abstaining from every 
 stimulating and heating substance, take a gentle dose of castor 
 oil or of rhubarb and calcined magnesia ; or, if his previous 
 habits have been bad, and his stomach, liver, and bowels have 
 been torpid, take a dose of rhubarb and calomel, or a free dose 
 of calomel, and remain quiet upon his bed till the medicine 
 operates, taking nothing into his stomach during the day, ex- 
 cept the gruel, as I have before directed, and the next day 
 the bread, or some other plainly and simply prepared farina- 
 
43 
 
 ceous aliment, in solid form and freely masticated ; and con- 
 tinuing, for a few days at least, to be guarded and plain and 
 simple in his diet, rubbing the skin freely, morning and eve- 
 ning, with a flesh-brush, or coarse cloth, observing personal 
 and domestic cleanliness, and avoiding confined and impure 
 air, &,c., and no further inconvenience will be experienced, 
 and health will be restored, unless there is some great im- 
 prudence. 
 
 In cases where the diarrhoea has been neglected, or badly- 
 treated, till violent vomiting sets in with the purging, attend- 
 ed with spasms in the body and limbs, cold skin, difficulty of 
 breathing, &,c, both cathartics and emetics will be unavail- 
 ing, and they may serve to increase the irritation. In this 
 case, I should suppose that pure soft tepid water, introduced 
 freely into the stomach and intestines by potations and in- 
 jections, would be the best internal application that can be 
 made. By this means the mucous membrane will be cleansed 
 from its acrid and exacerbating humors, — its irritations great- 
 ly if not entirely soothed down, and its morbid secretion and 
 action subdued, and the normal functions of all the parts re- 
 stored. Indeed, there is reason to believe that if nothing but 
 pure soft cold water were used in great freedom, both by po- 
 tation and injection, the vomiting and purging and spasms, 
 and other morbid symptoms would soon begin to subside, 
 and in a short time be wholly arrested. 
 
 If, however, it should be found necessary in any case to 
 use stimulants internally, I should suppose that red pepper 
 would be the safest and best, because it is more permanent 
 in its action than alcoholic stimulants, while perhaps there is 
 no other stimulant which so little impairs the vital properties 
 of the tissues on which it acts; and consequently, so little 
 exposes the system to reaction and relapse. 
 
 But perhaps the safest and most successful practice in the 
 advanced stage of the disease, would be a copious use of the 
 tepid or cold water internally, both by potation and injection, 
 for the reasons I have just given, while red pepper, mustard, 
 and such like stimulants, were applied freely to the outer skin, 
 in a dry form, with brisk, and continued friction ; in order to 
 produce a counter irritation and general stimulation. If this 
 practice should prove successful, the patient will be in com- 
 paratively little danger of consecutive fever, functional de- 
 rangement or relapse. — [See Appendix, note A.] 
 
 I repeat, however, that not being well acquainted with ma- 
 teria medica, I dare not speak with confidence as to the best 
 articles to be exhibited in this stage of the disease. My re*- 
 
44 
 
 marks are founded entirely on what seems to me to be the 
 philosophy of the case, and strictly consistent with the prin- 
 ciples of physiological pathology manifested ; and I feel ex- 
 ceedingly confident that if any pre-eminently successful mode 
 of treating this disease shall be discovered, it will be very 
 simple. But it must be confessed, that there is at present no 
 little responsibility resting oh this point; and every man who 
 possesses any considerable degree of m6ral sensibility, will 
 hesitate and consider carefully and deliberately, before he ut- 
 ters even a conjecture, as such, on so fearfully momentous a 
 subject; knowing we'll, that .if erroneous, it may cause the 
 death of some— -perhaps of hundreds— possibly of thousands 
 of his fellow creatures, who unfortunately confide in his opin- 
 ion. [See Note B.I 
 
 Is the Cholera Contagions ? 
 
 The question whether this disease is contagious, has. been 
 warmly agitated ever since the disease has attracted public 
 attention ; and the feelings which have been excited by the 
 controversy have, there is reason to believe, caused medical 
 gentlemen to shape and color their statements and reports, 
 according to their favorite theories of contagion or non-con- 
 tagion ; though I trust that this has always been done without 
 the consciousness on their part, of any intentional misrepre- 
 sentation. 
 
 In the technical language. of controversy, there is a differ- 
 ence between a contagious and an infectious disease. A con- 
 tagious disease is taken by coming in contact with, or into the 
 presence of, the person diseased ; or, at least, within the 
 sphere of the action of the morbific effluvium from the body 
 of the sick; but an infectious disease has a cause which ex- 
 ists independently of the bodies of the sick, and may be tak- 
 en with equal certainty, without coming in contact with, or 
 even into the presence of any person diseased. 
 
 The main practical difference, and which, if true, is of 
 very great importance, is, that however infectious the disease 
 may be, yet, if it be not contagious, there is no more danger 
 in visiting and nursing the diseased, than there is in avoiding 
 them; and quarantine regulations are entirely useless. 
 
 A majority of the physicians who have turned their atten- 
 tion to the subject, in Asia and Europe, and in our own coun- 
 try, are, I believe, decidedly of the opinion that the Spas- 
 modic Cholera is not contagious; and in their sense of the 
 language, their opinion seems to be confirmed by many strong 
 
45 
 
 facts : — while on the other hand, there are many important 
 facts which seem to prove that, if the disease is not absolute- 
 ly and literally contagious, its infectious character is such as 
 greatly to increase the danger by personal intercourse. 
 
 On the subject of contagion, however, J apprehend there is 
 a universal error. We are told that there are certain diseas- 
 es which are absolutely contagious; such as small-pox, hoop- 
 ing-cough, measels, &,c. ; but I am not prepared to admit the 
 correctness of this opinion. I do not believe that any dis* 
 ease to which the human body has ever been subject is ab~ 
 solutely contagious. I believe that there was a time when 
 the small-pox, for instance, was entirely unknown among 
 mankind ; and that it was originated in the human body by 
 the violation of those laws of life which appertain to the high- 
 est state of human welfare; and being once originated it was 
 contagious to all those who were in the same general prediG-r 
 ament of vital condition and susceptibility, — which had then 
 become the case with almost the entire species; and I am 
 confident that this is all true of every disease which we call 
 absolutely contagious ; and consequently, that the human 
 constitution is still capable of being elevated above the bus? 
 ceptibility to any contagious disease ; and that thus, all con*- 
 tagious diseases may be extirpated from the human family. 
 Why is the small-pox robbed of more than half of its viru- 
 lence by passing through the vital economy of a cow, .or any 
 other strictly herbivorous animal ? Is it believed that it would 
 be equally subdued by passing through the vital economy of 
 a strictly carnivorous animal ? I do not know but the ex- 
 periment has been made; but if it has not, it certainly is 
 worthy of atriaj. 
 
 Some diseases, however, become contagious at a much 
 higher state of the constitution than others ; but this does 
 not prove that a disease which is contagious only at a very 
 low state of the constitution, is not as truly contagious through- 
 out its own level, and all below, as is the disease which be- 
 comes contagious at a much higher state of the constitution. 
 The only difference is, that mankind are more likely to be 
 universally, and at all times, in the predicament of the latter 
 than of the former ; and hence some contagious diseases 
 may prevail at all seasons of the year alike ; others may pre- 
 vail more at particular seasons of the year, and others may 
 prevail only at intervals of many years, and at irregular peri- 
 ods, when the protracted operations of numerous causes have 
 brought a larger or smaller portion of the race generally, \v^ 
 
 4* 
 
46 
 
 to their peculiar predicament. Still, however, as every con- 
 tagious disease may spread over its own level, and all below 
 it, so the disease which may become contagious at a much 
 higher state of the constitution, will, at all time*, be more 
 universally contagious throughout the whole human family, 
 than the disease which becomes contagious at a much lower 
 state of the constitution ; because the former embraces with- 
 in the range of its capabilities, a much larger portion of man- 
 kind, than the latter. Nevertheless, I say, the latter is as 
 truly contagious within the range of its capabilities, as the 
 former. 
 
 From the view which 1 have taken of the nature and of 
 the epidemic cause of the disease under consideration, it ap- 
 pears that it does hot necessarily depend on contagion, nor 
 infection, to propagate it from place to place. Powerful pan- 
 ic, or mental action, with the co-operation of other causes 
 which I have named, may actually originate the disease ; 
 and the disease, thus originated^ may, in certain circumstan- 
 ces, which always exist, to a greater or less extent, in large 
 cities and towns, generate an infection of a most malignant 
 character and extensive influence;" and this infection will 
 lay hold of those who are somewhat above the level of its or- 
 igin ; and may be conveyed to places, and , communicated to 
 persons, who otherwise would have escaped. But the exten- 
 sion and prevalence of the disease, in any place, when com- 
 municated in this manner, by infection, depend entirely on 
 the character of the place, as to airiness and cleanliness, and 
 on the condition and habits of the inhabitants. On the whole, 
 therefore, whatever view be taken of the question, the prop- 
 agation of the disease depends lesson the absolute power of 
 any pestilential oe exciting cause, than on the predisposition 
 of the human system: and, consequently, whether it be re- 
 garded as contagious or infectious, or even both, yet it is by 
 no means absolutely so. But the fact whether it will be tak- 
 en by an individual, depends on the condition of his body ; 
 and that condition depends very much^ if not entirely, on his 
 own voluntary conduct. 
 
 Panic and agitation, it is true, are involuntary, and, in very 
 nervous people, will considerably disturb the functions of the 
 system, in spite of their best resolutions and efforts to the con- 
 trary. Nevertheless, a proper regimen and correct conduct, 
 and an entire abstinence from those pernicious preventives 
 and remedies, which invariably predispose the body to dis- 
 ease, and very frequently become the exeiting causes of the 
 
47 
 
 diseases which they were taken to prevent, will very certain- 
 ly preserve the body from any serious disorder. 
 
 Means of Prevention. 
 
 The topic which comes next under our consideration, isof 
 a less uncertain character. Regarding the cause of the ep- 
 idemic cholera as altogether mysterious, and the nature of 
 the disease as wholly inexplicable, the means of preventing 
 it have been involved in equal uncertainty. Indeed, if I 
 had not the utmost confidence in the honesty and even mag- 
 nanimity of the Medical Faculty as a body, I should some- 
 times be compelled to suspect them of the most heartless and 
 flagitious design and imposture, in order to produce a state 
 of things greatly conducive to their pecuniary interest, if 
 not their popularity. 
 
 The bewildering and terrifying theories which have been 
 promulgated by many in the medical profession, have been 
 highly calculated to produce a state of the most painful un- 
 certainty and distraction of the public mind, in regard to the 
 course proper to be pursued for the prevention of this dread- 
 ful disease. The consequence must necessarily be, that in 
 the general incertitude and trepidation, some will pursue one 
 course, and some another ; some will go to one extreme, «and 
 some to another; while very few, in the Babel-confusion, will 
 be fortunate enough to fall upon the truth. But the view 
 which I have taken of this disease, distinctly indicates the 
 mode of prevention ; — a mode not only consistent in theory, 
 but established by universal fact throughout the whole career 
 of the disease. 
 
 The rules to be observed are plain, simple, and such as 
 enlightened common sense, undisturbed by bewildering in- 
 fluences, would always dictate. In short, they are just such 
 as would be proper to be observed at any other time, in order 
 to preserve the body in the healthiest and best condition ; 
 with this exception, however, that our judicious caution to 
 avoid disease, should always be* equal to our liability to it. 
 For instance — when we are in pleasant circumstances, and 
 enjoying a cheerful state of mind, all the vital functions of 
 the body are performed with increased vigor and elasticity ; 
 but when we are suffering grief, or painful anxiety, the func- 
 tions are all depressed, and more easily disordered and de- 
 ranged ; — hence, substances, which the stomach may receive 
 with impunity, if not benefit, in the former state, may cause 
 
48 
 
 indigestion and disease in the latter :— and therefore, we 
 ought always, when oppressed with grief, or any other painful 
 affection of the mind, to be more careful to keep up the good 
 condition of our digestive organs and skin, by stricter pro- 
 priety of diet, and by washing, friction and exercise, than 
 when we are in a healthy and cheerful state of mind. And 
 this is entirely true in regard to all other causes, circumstan- 
 ces and influences, which depress the vital functions of the 
 body ; — and peculiarly so in relation to the Epidemic Chol- 
 era. 
 
 .Cleanliness of person, at all times highly conducive to 
 health and comfort, is of the utmost importance, as a preven- 
 tive of Cholera. During the prevalence of this disease, ev- 
 ery thing tends to depress the functions of the depurating or- 
 gans, and to render the purification of the blood less com- 
 plete, and consequently, to predispose the system to disease. 
 And when it is considered that the skin, in a healthy state, 
 throws off, in the form of insensible perspiration, a large pro- 
 portion of the impurities and effete matter of the blood, the 
 importance of keeping it clean and invigorating it by friction, 
 cannot be doubted ; and more especially when it is consider- 
 ed that the digestive organs partake of the general condition, 
 and sympathize with the affections of the skin. 
 
 If as I have endeavored to show, and as I fully believe, 
 the Epidemic Cholera may be originated in any place where 
 circumstances are favorable for it ; and if the action of the 
 disease thus originated, may in consequence of filth, and con* 
 fined and impure air, generate an infection which may be- 
 come powerfully and extensively malignant and fatal, — then 
 surely a clean and airy habitation, and street, and city x are 
 also of exceedingly great importance, as preventives of this 
 horrid disease. But this is a point of such obvious moment, 
 that I need only to suggest it to reflecting minds. 
 
 Exercise, of a proper character, and as often as may be 
 prudently, in the open air, is another preventive, which must 
 not be neglected. By it, the circulation, and especially in 
 the capillary vessels, is increased and invigorated ; a greater 
 determination to the surface is caused ; respiration and insen- 
 sible perspiration become more full and free ; the blood is 
 more thoroughly purified and a larger portion of the oxygen 
 of the atmosphere is digested and incorporated with the blood, 
 increasing its vital energy and stimulating power; the or- 
 gans are strengthened, and all their functions are more vigo- 
 rously performed, and the tone of health, throughout the 
 whole system, is improved ; and thus the vital power of the • 
 
49 
 
 body to maintain health and resist the action of noxious and 
 pestilential agents, is greatly increased. 
 
 A free intercourse with pure air, is of indispensable im- 
 portance to health and comfort at all times, and more espe- 
 cially, during the prevalence of epidemic disease. Not only 
 should every individual have access to pure air, if possible ; 
 but every house, and particularly the sleeping. rooms, should 
 be well ventilated daily ; and the beds and bedclothes should 
 be thoroughly aired before the beds are made in the morning, 
 that the. impurities which they have imbibed from the body 
 •during the night, may pass off. 
 
 It is also of the utmost importance that the natural appe- 
 tites should be strictly regulated^ and always kept in subor- 
 dination to enlightened reason and moral propriety. These 
 appetites are wisely and benevolently implanted in our na- 
 tures, for the preservation -of our lives, aud for the continua- 
 tion of our species; and when their exercise and indulgence 
 are kept strictly within the range of- their constitutional de- 
 sign, they contribute to our health, and are the rudimental 
 sources of a very large amount of human enjoyment. 
 
 But when, disregarding the. constitutional laws on which 
 they were established, and the' great ends for which they 
 were instituted, we yield to an excess of their indulgence 
 and make sensual gratifications a principalobject of our pur- 
 suits, and source of our enjoyment, they inevitably become 
 the agents of disease and suffering to us ; and always in pro- 
 portion to. the importance of the end for which they were im- 
 planted, and the extent to which their indulgence* has trans- 
 gressed the constitutional laws of propriety. Accordingly, 
 we find that, in the whole career of the Epidemic Cholera, 
 dietetic intemperance and lewdness have been the grand pur- 
 veyors to its devastating rage. In every country, the drunk- 
 en and the lewd have fallen almost by hundreds and by 
 thousands before this terrible destroyer! — We are informed, 
 that out of fourteen hundred lewd women in one street in 
 Paris, thirteen hundred died of cholera ! In a single house, 
 sixty of these Wretched creatures perished by this disease. 
 
 There is one poinf, however, connected with this general 
 fact, which deserves more particular attention, as it has, I 
 conceive, led to an erroneous, and to some extent, dangerous 
 inference and conclusion. It is well known to those who 
 have attended to the subject, that excessive indulgence in 
 lewdness exceedingly debilitates the organs and general pow- 
 ers of the body, but the principle upon which this debility is 
 induced is not generally so well understood. Simple debility 
 
50 
 
 has therefore been regarded as a predisposing cause of chol- 
 era, in these unhappy creatures ; and hence the general doc- 
 trine has been set up, that debility, by whatever cause, or in 
 whatever manner induced, always predisposes to the Cholera ; 
 and hence, again, the still more pernicious doctrine, that "a 
 generous system of diet," (including a free use of animal 
 food, and of wine, and even of brandy), is the best preven- 
 tive of the cholera. Thus one error springs from another, 
 until there is a result of the most disastrous consequences to 
 society, and then we begin to open our eyes to investigate the 
 cause; but unhappily, we are too generally satisfied with rid- 
 ding ourselves of the immediate iticonvenience, without ever 
 pushing our inquiries to the generating principle; and con- 
 sequently, we continue on with no. other real relief from the 
 evil, than that which is found in a change of its mode or type. 
 
 In regard to the case of lewd women, two important facts 
 are to be noticed. In the first place, ninety-nine hundredths 
 of those unfortunate creatures, are excessive in their use of 
 intoxicating substances; and such is the inactivity and indo- 
 lence and irregularity of their habits, that these substances 
 are exceedingly efficacious in destroying their constitutions. 
 In the second place, the debility induced by excessive lewd- 
 ness, is always far more the result of excessive excitement 
 and irritation than of any other cause ; and the alimentary 
 canal is almost invariably the very first to suffer from these 
 irritations, and to be brought into a state of debility, morbid 
 irritability, and even inflammation ; and not unfrequently, 
 the very worst forms of gastritis and enteritis are induced by 
 excesses of this kind. This species of debility, though differ- 
 ently induced, constitutes the obnoxious predicament of that 
 class of sufferers, concerning whom so much is said about 
 their "meagre diet.* 3 It ought to be known that muscular 
 debility of the voluntary organs, and functional debility in 
 the organs concerned in the general office of nutrition, are by 
 no means identical. It is often the case, that the very means 
 by which we diminish the muscular power of the voluntary 
 organs, increases the vital powers in the nerves of organic 
 life, on which the body depends for its ability to resist the ac- 
 tion of noxious agents. It is therefore true that the vital 
 power of the body to resist the action of noxious agents, may 
 be much greater in a delicate female of little muscular pow- 
 er, than it is in a man of much greater muscular power. 
 
 It may therefore be laid down as a safe doctrine, that that 
 debility which results from excitement and irritation, whether 
 caused by lewdness, artificial stimuli, or any other means ? ex«» 
 
51 
 
 poses the system to the attacks of cholera and other diseases] 
 while, on the other hand, simple debility, not resulting from 
 any of those causes which also induce a morbid excitability 
 and irritability, — but constitutional, or caused by judicious 
 bleeding, (if any thing might render it necessary), or by a reg- 
 ular course of abstemiousness, is almost infinitely more safe 
 than that condition of the body which is produced by what is 
 called " a generous system of diet." 
 
 But it is not only the openly intemperate and the illicit, 
 that injure themselves by their improper indulgences. No 
 forms of civil law, or institutions of society, can save us from 
 the evils which result from transgressing the constitutional 
 laws of our nature. All excesses, therefore, beyond the real 
 wants of our system, and purposes of our organization, — and 
 equally when committed within or without the pale of civil 
 institutions — are dangerous to our bodily health and exist- 
 ence. Even things which in themselves are good and law- 
 ful when properly used, are, in their excesses, dangerous. 
 The healthiest food which man can eat, may, by excess, be- 
 come the cause of disease and death. 
 
 Every appetite and every passion should therefore be held 
 in strict subjection to enlightened reason and moral proprie- 
 ty, if we would not increase our liability to be attacked by 
 this terrible disease. A single paroxysm of anger has. been 
 known to cause the most violent and even fatal bilious colic, 
 and to bring on suddenly a severe attack of spasmodic chol- 
 era ; and however modified in its degree, this passion never 
 fails to disturb the digestive organs, and always tends to pro- 
 duce a morbid irritability of the nerves of organic life, and 
 derangement of the stomach and liver; and when frequent 
 and violent, it often brings on inflammation of these organs. 
 
 Of the effects of fear in predisposing the body to attacks 
 of cholera, I have already spoken at large. This is the more 
 dangerous, from its being, more than any other, an involunta- 
 ry passion. Still, however, though we may not be able to 
 suppress it entirely, we can do much to modify its action and 
 to counteract its effects. We cannot, therefore, be too deep- 
 ly impressed with the importance of being on our guard in 
 this respect ; for there is not a single premonitory symptom, 
 if indeed there is a single symptom or effect, in the whole 
 range of this disease, from its commencement to its termina- 
 tion in death, which may not be produced by fear; and espe- 
 cially if, as is almost universally the case at such times, fear 
 leads to the free use of the violent preventives and remedies 
 prdinarily prescribed. 
 
52 
 
 During the prevalence of the epidemic spotted fever in New 
 England, as I have before remarked, hundreds perished in 
 this way ; and instances were known in which, not only del- 
 icate and excitable females, hut the' most robust men, and 
 evep physicians, fell prostrate and almost lifeless, with all the 
 apparent symptoms of a violent attack of. that disease; but 
 which, according to their own subsequent confession, was 
 entirely the effect of fear; and had brandy and laudanum, 
 in the enormous quantities then usually administered in such 
 cases, been poured down their throats, they would inevitably 
 have perished, as hundreds of others did, not with the spot- 
 ted -fever, but from overwhelming fear, and destructive quan- 
 tities of brandy and laudanum. In this manner, beyond a 
 question, thousands, if not millions of human beings have 
 perished, during the prevalence of the present epidemic. 
 
 Indeed, were I disposed to try the horrid experiment, I am 
 confident that with the entire command of the press, and ac- 
 quiescence of the physicians, druggists, Stc.&c, I could pro- 
 duce five thousand cases of cholera, in the city of New York, 
 in one week, — one half, at least, of which, would prove fatal; 
 and as little do. I doubt, that if the cholera appears and pre- 
 vails in this city, these agencies will, in no small degree, con- 
 tribute, to the calamitous result, even with the best intentions. 
 
 It has been well said, that evils irremediable are best un- 
 known ; and were the doctrine of fear inevitable in its con- 
 sequences, the public announcement of it would be worse 
 than cruel ; for it would be only aggravating, in the highest 
 degree, the very evil which is deprecated. And from the 
 manner in. which some physicians have treated the subject, 
 in regard to the epidemic cause, and the effects of fear, the 
 most painful consequences have resulted. It is, indeed, like 
 taking children into a dark room, where nothing can be seen, 
 and where the excited imagination is left to shadow forth the 
 most horrid images, and solemnly telling them, that a hideous 
 monster is in the room which has destroyed thousands of 
 children, and will very probably attack them ; and few at- 
 tacked by him -ever -escaped ;— how this monster moves — in 
 what direction and manner he will come, and at what mo- 
 ment he will attack them, no one can tell ; nor can any one 
 tell how they can avoid him :■ — but they must not be afraid of 
 him in the least ; for if they are afraid of him, he will surely 
 destroy them;* nor must they hope to run away from him, 
 for by such an attempt they might run directly into his open 
 throat! or when they least expected it„he might suddenly 
 pounce down upon them from above. They must therefore 
 
53 
 
 stand still in thick darkness, and listen to all the terrible ao 
 counts of his havoc, and with perfect calmness await his mys- 
 terious approach* 
 
 The view which I have taken of the general subject before 
 us, presents this matter in a very different light, and renders 
 it exceedingly important that it should be universally under* 
 stood. For, while we are taught that fear increases our 
 danger, we are also taught how it increases it, and therefore, 
 how we can, to a great extent, if not entirely, counteract its 
 effects. We see that fear seldom causes death directly, by 
 its own overwhelming and exclusive power, excepting in 
 those whose vital energies have previously been reduced very 
 low by ruinous excesses or disease. We learn how it dis- 
 turbs and depresses the functions of life, and are taught how 
 to counteract these effects by diet, exercise, cleanliness, em- 
 ployment, &c. And we learn, also, that fear may excite in 
 our morbid' sensibilities, and sympathies, most, if not all of 
 what are called the premonitory symptoms, and therefore, we 
 are warned against flying to the use of medicine for every 
 pain or spasm we may feel, and taught that we must not pre- 
 scribe for ourselves, except the simple regimen which I have 
 pointed out, unless there is the most decided evidence of dis- 
 ease : nor even then, if we can obtain the timely advice of a 
 judicious and skilful physician, or some other intelligent per- 
 son, whose judgment is undisturbed by our fears. 
 
 Writers in Paris inform us, that almost every body in that 
 city, has more or less of the premonitory symptoms of chol- 
 era, and therefore it is inferred that the epidemic cause is at- 
 mospheric : but it ought to be known that such a state of 
 things may be produced by panic alone, without the action 
 of any other cause ; and, therefore, men "ought not rashly to 
 increase the horrors of this disease, by throwing the awful- 
 ness of mystery over the public mind. 
 
 Finally, in regard to the mind and passions, we ought to 
 endeavor to maintain the utmost composure and serenity : and 
 happy is that man who has that peace with God, which will 
 enable him at all times, even in the hour of imminent peril, 
 to cast himself upon the protection of his heavenly Father, 
 with sustaining confidence. 
 
 Did. 
 
 On the subject of diet, in relation to cholera, 1 have already 
 said much ; but a correct system of diet is of so much import- 
 5 
 
54 
 
 ance as a preventive, that I consider it necessary to enter still 
 Farther into its details. ' 
 
 One great truth in regard to this subject should be con- 
 stantly held in view. If the alimentary-canal, with its func- 
 tions, be not, by natural and proper means, kept in- a healthy 
 and vigorous state, the health of the body cannot long be pre- 
 served. — As I have already remarked; almost all the habits 
 and customs of civic life tend to debilitate the stomach and 
 intestines, and to impair their functions. The artificial modes 
 of preparing food, and especially the pernicious compounds 
 atid concentrations, are among the powerful means by which 
 debility, indigestion, and habitual costiveness and diarrhoea 
 are induced. 
 
 It ought ever to be remembered, that the human stomach 
 and intestines are so constructed and adapted to their con- 
 stitutional purposes^ that there is between them and the food 
 intended for them, fixed laws of relation, and these laws ex- 
 tend to the quality, quantity, and condition of the -food ; and 
 all violations of them must inevitably result in injury to the 
 organs, and through them to the whole system which depends 
 upon them for nourishment. Accordingly it has been fully 
 demonstrated by the practical experience of all the genera- 
 tions of mankind, and by the most extensive and accurate ex- 
 periments of science, that, when by artificial means, the sim- 
 ple, nutritious properties are separated from any article of 
 food, and habitually used for any considerable time in the 
 concentrated form, the stomach and intestines are debilitated, 
 and their functions are impaired, and finally destroyed, un- 
 less the full effect is in some degree prevented by the use of 
 some counteracting article of food at the same time. The 
 potato, for instance, contains a certain proportion of nutri- 
 tious matter : If the potato be well-grown, and properly pre- 
 pared, it is a very healthy article of diet, and constitutes the 
 principal subsistence of thousands of healthy and robust hu- 
 man beings : but if the nutritious matter should be artificial- 
 ly separated out, and given, however abundantly, to these 
 same people, instead of the whole substance of the potato, 
 their digestive organs would soon become debilitated, and 
 lose their functional power; and their bodies would become 
 weak and emaciated, and die. 
 
 The same is true of wheat, and all other kinds of proper 
 food. Put any number of the healthiest and rftost athletic 
 men on a diet of the very best superfine flour bread and wa- 
 ter, and they could not very long survive. Debilityof the 
 alimentary canal, indigestion, costiveness, or alternate costive- 
 
55 
 
 ness and diarrhoea, would ensue ; resulting in enunciation, 
 general debility, and death. But if an equal number of men, 
 of like character and circumstances, be at the same time put 
 upon a diet of water and good bread, made of good unbolt- 
 ed wheat meal, coarsely ground, their digestive organs will 
 continue in the most healthy and vigorous condition, and the 
 functions of the stomach and intestines will be regularly and 
 healthfully performed, unless some other distinct and inde- 
 pendent cause induces disorder. For a short time at first, 
 these men may feel a sense of debility and lassitude from the 
 absence of a more stimulating diet, to which they have been 
 accustomed ; but this will soon pass away, and then they will 
 begin to feel strong, and sprightly, and cheerful. 
 
 This- has been repeatedly demonstrated on the most exten- 
 sive scale of experiment. The British army of more than 
 eighty thousand men, according to the united testimony of 
 all its officers and physicians, was relieved from almost every 
 species of disease, and brought into a state of unusual 
 health, by using bread made of coarse, unbolted wheat meal, 
 for two years, near the close of the last century. 
 
 A gentleman from St. Croix informs me that the soldiers 
 upon that island are usually furnished with bread made of un- 
 bolted meal, and that they are, ordinarily very healthy;, but 
 that, a few years since, their usual supplies failing, and super- 
 fine flour, from the United States, being very cheap, the sol- 
 diers were furnished with fine bread, instead of the coarse. 
 They did very well on this for a short time, but soon began 
 to be less healthy, and after a while many of them began to 
 sicken and die. This excited much surprise on the part of 
 the government, and led to the frequent inquiry, — How can 
 this be ? — The soldiers are now better fed — furnished with 
 better bread than ever before, and yet they were never so 
 sickly as now. This state of things continued until the sol- 
 diers, were again regularly supplied with the coarse bread, 
 when they soon began to improve in health, and in 'a few 
 months became as healthy as", they were before the fine bread 
 was introduced ; and this result dispelled the mystery of their 
 ■ sickness. 
 
 A very intelligent sea. captain of thirty years' experience in 
 marine life, assured me he had always found that his men 
 were much healthier and more active and vigorous, when they 
 were fed on sea bread made of -coarse meal, than when they 
 used that which was made of fine flour. Old whalemen de- 
 clare that they always feel better and more vigorous and 
 cheerful when they eat coarse bread than when they eat fin e. 
 
56 
 
 I might go on and Adduce facts by the hour to corroborate 
 this doctrine : but it is not necessary ; it is so evidently and 
 incontestably true, that none but the culpably ignorant and 
 wickedly perverse will contradict it. 
 
 Bread is decidedly the most important article of artificially 
 prepared food used by civilized man ; and so intimately is it 
 connected with the corporeal and moral and intellectual in- 
 terest of the human species, that it is scarcely possible to 
 give too much attention to its kind and quality. The per- 
 nicious effects of superfine flour bread, in society, are con- 
 siderably modified, and in some degree counteracted by oth- 
 er articles of food used with it ; but still the evils resulting 
 from the use of such bread, and especially when eaten fresh 
 and warm, are vastly greater and more numerous than is gen- 
 erally supposed. 
 
 If you would have bread which will in the highest degree 
 contribute to your health and comfort, and prevent disease, 
 you must take particular pains to procure the best of wheat, 
 ' and have it thoroughly cleansed, and ground coarse, without 
 bolting ; and then have your meal, with sweet, lively yeast, 
 made into light, sweet, well baked bread, which should be 
 kept till it is at least twelve hours old, before it is eaten ; and 
 a greater age would be better. 
 
 If you will trust the public bakers to do all this for you,- 
 you may, and you may not be well served. I do not suppose 
 they are worse than other men, but they make bread and sell 
 it for the profits of the business, and not for the sake of pro- 
 moting your health ; and if they can increase their profits by 
 using an inferior kind of meal, they will be very unlike most 
 other men, if they do not do so. Your only security, there- 
 fore, is in making your own bread; for however honest and 
 faithful the public bakers may be, their best bread is far in- 
 ferior to the best domestic bread, and decidedly less whole- 
 some. But whether you use the baker's bread or that which 
 is made in your own house, you cannot be too careful to 
 have it sweet, light, and well baked ; and of sufficient age 
 before it is eaten. Heavy, sour, or musty bread, should by 
 no means be eaten. 
 
 There is no article of artificially prepared food known in 
 civic life, the use of which more invigorates the alimentary 
 canal, and restores and keeps up the regular and healthful 
 functions of the stomach and intestines, than the bread 
 which I now recommend. Unless counteracted by the con- 
 comitant use of the most pernicious articles, or by indul- 
 gence in the worst of habits, it will relieve Jn a natural, and 
 
57 
 
 therefore, the only proper manner, the most inveterate cos- 
 tivene,ss, and habitual diarrhoea. In short, nothing is in it- 
 self more easy to digest, nor more healthfully and powerfully 
 assists the stomach to digest other articles of food : while at 
 the same time, it is one of the most nutritious and salutary 
 articles received into the human stomach. 
 
 I have frequently heard individuals complain of this bread, 
 but I have, in every instance, been able, on examination, to 
 trace the evils complained of to other causes entirely distinct 
 from the bread. We are .told, however, that it is too relax- 
 ing to be safely used during the prevalence of the cholera. 
 But the objection is founded in utter ignorance of the true 
 principles concerned in the case.. It will never relax the 
 bowels, unless they are in a state in which such a relaxation 
 is more healthful for them than otherwise, and then it never 
 does it upon a principle which irritates or debilitates them, 
 but the contrary ; and the laxness which it produces, is, dur- 
 ing the prevalence of the cholera, almost infinitely more safe 
 than the constipation which would obtain without it.' In such . 
 a time, costiveness must be guarded against with as much 
 care as diarrhoea ; but it cannot be habitually relieved by ca- 
 thartic medicine without irritating and debilitating the ali- 
 mentarv canal, and thus increasing the liability to the dis- 
 ease. A single dose of salts, or any other improper or un- 
 timely cathartic medicine, may induce an attack. 
 
 From the nature of things, therefore, as well as from the 
 most extensive experience and observation, I am fully con- 
 vinced that no article of diet can be more safe and salutary, 
 under all circumstances in which it is propertouse solid ali- 
 ment of any kind, and that none is more conducive to the 
 vigor, health, and good order of the alimentary canal; and 
 therefore, that none is better calculated to prevent the chol- 
 era, than the bread which I now recommend, when of such 
 a character and used in such a manner as I have described. 
 
 Objections which evince the most egregious ignorance, or 
 stupid imbecility, or base dishonesty, have been raised against 
 this bread by some who have happened to be permitted to be 
 a discredit to the medical profession ; but happily their influ- 
 ence has been too limited to effect any considerable injury. 
 
 Plain, boiled rice, coarse Indian meal hominy, Sec, eaten 
 cold, with a very little good molasses or sugar, or with a small 
 quantity of good milk, are also excellent articles of diet. 
 There are several other farinaceous substances, which, in 
 proper conditions and quantities, and at proper times, are 
 safe and salutary articles of food : remembering alwavs to 
 5* 
 
58 
 
 avoid the concentrated forms, and unwholesome conditions 
 of all articles. If butter is used at all, it should be only the 
 very best, and then very sparingly, on cold bread, &-c ; but 
 no other grease should by any means be eaten in any form, 
 and it is decidedly better to abstain from even this. Pastry 
 of every kind should be carefully avoided. The mild fruits 
 of the season, such as strawberries, peaches, pears, &c. when 
 perfectly ripe, fresh, and sweet, may be eaten as a portion of 
 the breakfast and dinner, by those who in all other respects 
 conform to the rules which I have laid down : but they must 
 not be eaten if they have been prematurely gathered, or have 
 become in any degree acid by fermentation. All crude and 
 unripe fruits and vegetables, should be avoided during the 
 prevalence of the cholera, particularly by citizens who de- 
 pend on the markets and the confectionaries for their sup- 
 plies, and whose digestive organs are accustomed to flesh, 
 and stimulating condiments and drinks. No salt nor shell- 
 fish, of any kind, should be eaten : and in this city even 
 fresh scale-fish had better be avoided. Lobsters, in particu- 
 lar, are among the very worst and most dangerous articles of 
 food ; and clams are but little better. 
 
 They who have sanctified themselves from the use of ani- 
 mal food of every kind, had by all means better continue to 
 do without it. But they who have always accustomed them- 
 selves to a free use of flesh, and shall continue to do so up to 
 the time of the commencement of the cholera in this city — 
 (if such a fearful time shall come !) — if they cannot leave it 
 off entirely at once, without feeling the want of it exceeding- 
 ly, may eat a little boiled or roasted beef or mutton once a 
 day, without any made gravy, and without any seasoning but 
 a little salt : and no second course or dessert of puddings, 
 pies, fruits, &c. should be taken after it. Soups of every 
 kind, and especially flesh soups, should be strictly avoided. 
 Flesh soup, at all times bad, is peculiarly pernicious at such 
 a time. It is only the concentrated form of some of the nu- 
 tritious properties of the flesh, held in solution by the water; 
 and when it is introduced into the stomach, the water is 
 taken up by the absorbents, and the concentrated properties 
 of the flesh, together with the viscious seasonings, are left 
 to tantalize, and irritate and debilitate the alimentary canal, 
 and thus always predispose to the epidemic cholera. 
 
 All stimulating, heating, and irritating condiments of the 
 table, such as the various spices, pepper, mustard, &c. &c. 
 &/C. should be carefully avoided. Tea and coffee are de- 
 cidedly pernicious to health, and predispose the body to dis- 
 
59 
 
 ease: they debilitate the alimentary canal, and the nerves of 
 organic life generally, and impair digestion and peristaltic 
 action ; — -in short, they always diminish the healthy vital 
 properties of the tissues on which they act, and become the 
 auxiliary and sometimes the principal causes of some of the 
 worst and most distressing forms of chronic and acute dis- 
 ease ! — If indulged in excessively, they will become power- 
 fully predisposing causes of the epidemic disease which is at 
 present so much dreaded.* They who can cleanse themselves 
 entirely from their use, and recover from the effects of the 
 change before the cholera breaks out here, will be far better 
 without them : and those who continue to drink them/should 
 use them very sparingly. All other narcotic and all alcohol* 
 ic substances, such as tobacco, opium, distilled spirits, wine, 
 malt liquors, and every other kind and sort, in every form and 
 of every quality, should be entirely avoided, with the most 
 rigid and inflexible scrupulosity. In short, every thing should 
 be carefully avoided which is calculated to irritate, and de- 
 bilitate, and inflame the alimentary canal, and through it the 
 whole system, and thus certainly predispose the body to the 
 cholera, and every other disease ; and sooner or later, if per-» 
 severed in, will inevitably develope disease in the system. 
 
 A plain, simple, nourishing vegetable diet is decidedly 
 most conducive to permanent health and longevity. It is 
 less stimulating, and therefore, does not wear out the suscep- 
 tibilities and energies of the living tissues so rapidly, nor does 
 it tend so powerfully to produce chronic and acute disease of 
 any kind, as a free use of animal food. Hence it is in all 
 respects a safer diet, during the prevalence of malignant and 
 epidemic diseases, — and especially such as have their seat in 
 the alimentary canal. 
 
 Pure water is the only natural and fitting drink for man, 
 
 and perfectly soft water is altogether the best. But in the 
 
 city of New York, where the water is generally exceed- 
 
 i ngly bad, and where pure water cannot always be ob- 
 
 *"I am generally told, that although the first victims of the cholera 
 ;c are the dissipated, it is not, so much as last year, confined to this class ; 
 that the strictly temperate fall before it. I have remarked, however, that 
 those considered such are very great consumers of coffee : and whether 
 this, with the constant use of tobacco, may not equally dispose the sys- 
 tem to its attacks, I am not prepared to say ; but certain I am, that great 
 caution is demanded in food and drink, and in every thing that affects 
 the condition of the system." — [Letter from Cincinnati, dated June 12, 
 1833.] 
 
 Another writer at the same place, and about the same time, says, — 
 " The only employment going on here at present, seems to be coffin- 
 making, grave-digging, and opium-eating.' ' 
 
60 
 
 tained, more care should be exercised in regard to the quan- 
 tity used ; and during hot weather, and more especially 
 during the prevalence of epidemic disease, like the dysen- 
 tery, cholera, &>c the utmost caution should be exercised on 
 this point. At such times, with a very little trouble'and ex- 
 pense, an apparatus might be -fixed in every kitchen, by 
 which a sufficient quantity of water can be distilled for the 
 drink of the family in a few hours* and this would be the best 
 drink they can possibly have ; but if this be deemed imprac- . 
 ticable, well filtered rain water from the cistern, if k has not 
 stood too long, should be used. At any rate, if it be found 
 cessary to use the impure hard water of the city let it be first 
 boiled and then suffered to cool, 
 
 But. you reply, that here you are bewildered by contradic- 
 tory counsels: — that it has been asserted, that "it is notori- 
 ous that the cholera originated, and raged with a mortality 
 far exceeding any example in its subsequent progress through 
 other climes and- nations, in the centre of India among the 
 Hindoos, who live in a great measure upon rice, eat no flesh, 
 and are the most temperate people in the world. That the 
 moderate enjoyment of all the comforts of life, such as the 
 constitution has become accustomed to, so far from predis- 
 posing people to the disease, is one of the best preservatives ; 
 that the ordinary use of animal food is far better than con- 
 fining ourselves entirely to vegetables, with a view of escap- 
 ing the disease, or rendering it less malignant. V — Neio York 
 Courier $f Enquirer. 
 
 " That the greatest mortality occurred among those whose 
 mode of living was particularly meagre and abstemious; that 
 cholera made its first appearance at Smyrna among the Jews, 
 during one of their fasts, and committed great ravages; and 
 that the occasional use of stimuli, in the shape of generous 
 wine, brandy, or gin and water, was found highly serviceable 
 during the prevalence of the cholera at Constantinople."-— 
 Dr. De'Kay's letter to the Evening Post. 
 
 It is a matter of painful regret, that those whose total ig- 
 norance of the subject utterly disqualifies them to give an 
 opinion where such momentous interests are concerned, 
 should have either the officiousness or the means to publish, 
 with an imposing air of authority, their gratuitous and erro- 
 neous assertions. And it is still more to be regretted that 
 those whose professional calling and character ought to enti- 
 tle their statements and opinions to respect, should be so in- 
 cautious and inaccurate in their publications ; and most es- 
 pecially, on occasions like the present, when such publica- 
 
. 
 
 61 
 
 tions may jeopard, if not destroy, the lives of thousands of 
 human beings. 
 
 By carefully examining these assertions which have been 
 made concerning the diet of the Hindoos, and others in Asia 
 and Europe amongst whom the cholera has committed its 
 ravages, we shall find that many of the statements are false 
 — that many of the conclusions are erroneous, — and that the 
 whole has a very limited bearing on the condition of things 
 in the United States. 
 
 That the Hindoos subsist on vegetable food, and eat little 
 or no flesh, — and that the cholera commenced, and commit- 
 ted great ravages among them, is freely acknowledged. But 
 are they " the most temperate people in the world?" The* 
 best and most unquestionable authorities on the subject give 
 us very different accounts from this. The testimony of med- 
 ical and military gentlemen and others, who have travelled 
 extensively in India, and resided for years among the people, 
 and become well acquainted with their character, habits and 
 condition, inform us, that the people of India generally are 
 exceedingly indolent, sensual, and licentious. " They eat 
 rice" and millet, mixed with sweet-meats, curdled milk, beans, 
 and young leaves." But this food they almost universally, 
 from ihe oldest to the youngest, and in all conditions of life, 
 season very highly with their favorite curry powder; a com- 
 position made of cayenne pepper, black pepper, ginger, mus- 
 tard, and several other ingredients of a very heating and ir- 
 ritating character, calculated to produce the worst disorders 
 of the alimentary canal, and consequently, to reduce the vi- 
 tal energies of the nerves of organic life, and impair all the 
 functions of the system. Beside these stimulants with their 
 food, almost every man, woman and child, habitually, and 
 often to very great excess, chew a cud composed of opium 
 cheenam, or lime and beetle-nut, wrapped up in a sera-leaf 
 of very acrid and pungent qualities. Tobacco, one of the 
 worst of narcotics, whose effects are exceedingly pernicious 
 on the powers and functions of organic life, is in almost uni- 
 versal, and generally, excessive use among them ; and a great 
 portion of the natives make a free use of arrack ; a very in- 
 toxicating, fiery and destructive alcoholic liquor. And yet 
 we are told by officious ignorance, that M these are the most 
 temperate people in the world." 
 
 Lieut. Colonel James Todd, — than whom no better author- 
 ity can be given, in his Annals and Antiquities of Rajast'han, 
 or the central and western Rajpoot States of India, says, that 
 " to Baber, the founder of the Mogul Empire, India is in- 
 
62 
 
 debted for the introduction of its melons and grapes; and to 
 his grandson, for tobacco ; but for the introduction of opium, 
 we have no date, and it is not even mentioned in the poems 
 of Chund. This pernicious drug has robbed the Rajpoot of 
 half his virtues, and while it obscures these, it heightens his 
 vices, giving to his natural bravery a character of insane fe- 
 rocity, and to the countenance, which otherwise beamed with 
 intelligence, an air of imbecility. Like all other stimulants, 
 its effects are magical for a time, but the re-action is hot less 
 certain : and the faded form or amorphous bulk too often at- 
 test the debilitating influence of a drug which alike debases 
 mind and body. In the more ancient Epics we find no men- 
 tion of the poppy juice, as now used, though the Rajpoot has 
 at all times. been accustomed to this intoxicating cup. The 
 essence called arrack, whether of grain, of roots, or of flow- 
 ers, still welcomes the guest, but is secondary to the opiate. 
 To eat opium together, is the most inviolable pledge ; tmd an 
 agreement ratified by this ceremony is stronger than any ad- 
 juration. If a Rajpoot pays a visit, the first question is, 
 - — have you had your opiate.?" • . . 
 
 The Calcutta (India) Gazette, describing the recent cele- 
 bration of one of the Hindoo religious festivals, says, — the 
 conception of the horrors with which-these ceremonies strike 
 every refined heart, is strong in our mind. We see the .ef-. 
 feminate lust that inspires the Baboo to bring the first beau- 
 ties into his house; we see spirits- and liquors of all sorts 
 freely indulged in, and terrible tumults excited b.y their heat ; 
 we see excesses of every kind committed without hesitation, 
 and boys of very tender age freely allowed to ramble over 
 nights and nights, and spend hours and hours in immoral pur 
 suits :> — we witness youth .of fourteen or fifteen years old, in- 
 dulging to excess in the stupifying and mischievous fumes of 
 tobacco and other drugs; we see goats, rams and buffaloes, 
 savagely butchered, and men rolling on the ground, be- 
 smeared with blood and dirt; and at. the time when the idols 
 are thrown into the water, young men-go upon the river with 
 their Jewd companions, and revel in- all sorts of licentious- 
 ness. In short, if there be any action which is, to the ut- 
 most degree, degrading to the dignity of man, and demoral- 
 izing to his* mind, it is perpetrated at these holidays. 3 
 
 Mr. Jameson's Bengal Report of the Cholera, stales that 
 " two millions' of persons had assembled to celebrate one of 
 these religious festivals on the shores of the Ganges ; arrd the 
 cholera broke out suddenly amongst them, while at their de- 
 votions*, and in eightdays destroyed twenty thousand persons. 
 
63 
 
 But the pestilence was staid as. soon as the multitude was 
 dispersed." 
 
 Besides all these life-destroying causes, "the poor people 
 of India, which constitute a large proportion of the popula- 
 tion, s-leep in herds upon the ground — on damp mats, and 
 under old. sheds, exposed to every wind.'' With such insa- 
 tiable desires for stimulation, and such habitual excesses of 
 sensuality,, indolence, exposure and filthiness, is it surprising, 
 .that the people of India pay Jittle attention to the quality of 
 their food ; that they discover great lassitude and imbecility ; 
 that they become prematurely old-— or that they generate the 
 mogt malignant and fatal diseases ? And yet, it is a most in- 
 teresting and. incontrovertible fact, that those natives of this 
 same country, who subsist entirely, on a vegetable diet of 
 rice and other, nutricious and healthy articles, with water on- 
 ly for their .drink, and avoid all artificial stimulants, and all 
 sensual excesses, are remarkable for their bodily strength 
 and agility, and for their intellectual vigor and vivacity, and. 
 for the placidness of their tempers, and purity of their mor- 
 als. They live -exempt from disease, and attain to very great 
 age. ... 
 
 • The assertion that the a greatest mortality occurred in 
 Europe and Asia among those whose mode of living was par- 
 ticularly meagre and abstemious : and that cholera made its 
 •first appearance among the Jews at Smyrna, during one of 
 their fasts, and committed great ravages/' will, however true 
 in fact, prove, on examination, to be wholly destitute of truth 
 in its bearing on things in this country. 
 
 In the first place, there .is no evidence whatever, that a 
 meagre and abstemious diet, separate from filthiness and sen- 
 suality, and the use of artificial stimuli, which is habitual, 
 and almost universally excessive among the class of people 
 alluded to, is in any peculiar degree favorable to the ravages 
 of cholera. It is very certain- that a good diet is more salu- 
 tary at all times and in all circumstances, than a poor one. 
 Nevertheless, the evils to be apprehended from an abstemi- 
 ous, and even a meagre diet, with total abstinence from arti- 
 ficial stimuli, and with good habits in other respects, are al- 
 most infinitely less than would be supposed from the vague 
 speculations of superficial observers. A system* which has 
 not been debilitated in its functional powers, nor had its 
 healthful susceptibilities impaired, by the continued irritations 
 of artificial stimuli, and sensual excesses, is in vastly less 
 danger from the presence of crude and offensive articles of 
 food, in the alimentary canal, than is a system of contrary 
 
04 
 
 habits and condition. It is therefore yet to be ascertained 
 whether the paramount cause of the greater ravages of the 
 cholera, '* among those whose mode of living was particu- 
 larly meagre and abstemious, " was not their free, if not ex- 
 cessive use of artificial stimuli, and their degrading sen- 
 suality. 
 
 The interesting and important communication of Doctor 
 J. P. Kay, concerning the operatives of Manchester, exhibits 
 in a striking manner how all-pervading and all-prevailing 
 this diseased love of stimulation is, among the lowest classes 
 of human beings, as well as among the higher orders of their 
 fellow creatures. And it is admitted that this excessive stim- 
 ulation takes hold of these unfortunate creatures with more 
 destructive power than it does those whose habits and cir- 
 cumstances are, in other respects, much more favorable to 
 health. 
 
 In the second place, admitting all these assertions and 
 conclusions to be correct, I ask what bearing the reasoning 
 has on things in this country ? Is there any portion of our 
 whole population in a parallel condition ; except, indeed, that 
 miserable class of beings in our large cities and towns whose 
 worse than brutal sensuality and vice have sunk them to the 
 lowest degree of human degradation; and whose food is mea- 
 gre and abstemious only (if so in fact) because their exces- 
 sive use of artificial and intoxicating stimuli has destroyed 
 both their ability and their desire to procure any thing bet- 
 ter ? 
 
 If the statements which I am combating, had been pub- 
 lished expressly to bear upon the condition of this wretched 
 portion of our population, and to call the attention of the 
 public to the importance of endeavoring to remove this state 
 of things, the publication would have merited the approba- 
 tion of every philanthropist. But when it is considered (as 
 beyond a question it is true) that they were published for the 
 special purpose of destroying the confidence of the public in 
 that system of diet which I have recommended and of en- 
 couraging what is called "generous living" which practi- 
 cally means, excess of food and stimulation, — the publica- 
 tion cannot be too heartily deprecated, nor too severely rep- 
 rehended by every one who has a regard for the cause of hu- 
 manity and the welfare of society. 
 
 In regard to the Jews of Smyrna, the truth should be ful- 
 ly ascertained on several points, before any inference from 
 their case is erected into a doctrine. It should be known 
 whether they did not habitually and freely use tea, coffee, 
 
65 
 
 wine, spirits, tobacco, opium, &c. &c. besides the ordinary 
 stimulating condiments of the table ; and whether they did 
 not, as is known to be the case with others in those parts, on 
 such occasions, continue the use, and even in increased 
 quantities, of some or all of these stimulants during their 
 fast : and whether they did not, at the same time, crowd to- 
 gether in large assemblies ; and expose themselves to impure 
 air ; and neglect personal cleanliness, and propriety of hab- 
 its?* 
 
 But supposing the contrary of all this ; and admitting the 
 fact in its full force as stated, what conclusion can be legiti- 
 mately drawn from it, except the single one, that abstinence 
 from food, for too great a length of time, renders the human 
 body more liable to the attack, and less able to endure the 
 violence, of the cholera. Now I ask in the name of com- 
 mon sense, what analogy of condition there is, between the 
 degraded, filthy, grossly sensual and miserably fed popula- 
 tion of Asia and Europe, and the inhabitants of this city and 
 this country, who are surrounded by abundance — who use 
 animal food to excess — and more than nine-tenths of whom 
 suffer from over-eating? Or what in the nature of things is 
 there to justify the promulgation of the doctrine, that the 
 people of the United States — the inhabitants of the city of 
 New York — will find greater security from the attacks and 
 ravages of the cholera by increasing the proportion of ani- 
 mal food in their system of diet, and by " the occasional use 
 of stimuli in the shape of generous wine, brandy, or gin and 
 water, than they can by a Well-chosen vegetable diet, and a 
 total abstinence from all narcotic, alcoholic, and other artifi- 
 cial stimulants, and every other pernicious thing which is 
 calculated to irritate and inflame the alimentary canal ? 
 
 But it is said that the medical gentleman who advances 
 this doctrine has had experience, which is better than the- 
 ory, in these matters. And pray what has been his experi- 
 ence? — Why, forsooth, he was at Constantinople during the 
 prevajence of the cholera in that city, where he followed his 
 own system of diet, and took the disease, — and did not die ! 
 ergo; "wine, brandy, and gin, were highly serviceable" to 
 him ! 
 
 But it happens that other medical gentlemen have had 
 some experience in this matter also. Doctor George Betnor 
 of our city, was several months in Batavia, in the Island of 
 
 * All that is here suggested as matter of inquiry is now known to be 
 actually true. 
 
 6 
 
66 
 
 Java, when the cholera was committing its terrible ravages 
 in that place. He was continually exposed to all the atmos- 
 pheric, or whatever external, pestilential causes existed, — 
 was out at all hours of day and night — drenched with rain 
 and dews, and endured much fatigue and anxiety, yet he took 
 neither brandy nor wine, nor animal food to secure him from 
 an attack of that fearful disease which he could not help but 
 dread. He subsisted entirely on a plain, simple, vegetable 
 diet of rice, bananas, and other fruits of the climate, which 
 were soft and pulpy, and carefully abstained from all artificial 
 stimulants, and he not only had not the slightest symptom of 
 cholera, but a*s he assures me, never enjoyed better health 
 than he did during his stay on that island. 
 
 The truth is, that mankind generally entertain the most 
 egregiously erroneous notions in regard to the comparative 
 excellence of animal and vegetable food in sustaining the 
 human body in the various circumstances and conditions of 
 life. Animal food, I repeat, is more stimulating, and conse- 
 quently imparts, for a time, a sense of greater strength, accel- 
 erates the functional action, more rapidly exhausts and wears 
 out the energies and susceptibilities of the system, tends 
 more strongly to chronic and acute disease, — as a general 
 rule, abbreviates life — and its absence, in those accustomed 
 to the use of it, causes a greater sense of lassitude and de- 
 bility. A well-regulated vegetable diet is less stimulating, 
 better adapted to the constitution and powers of the human 
 organs, and is in every respect more conducive to the health, 
 permanent strength, comfort and longevity of the body. 
 
 The celebrated Dr. Jackson, of the British army, declared 
 that he had been exposed to all climates, and all vicissitudes 
 of weather, and endured all hardships of fatigue and expo- 
 sure ; and, that, without the use of any animal food or in- 
 toxicating drink, he had worn out two armies in two wars, 
 and believed he had stamina of constitution and vigor of 
 body enough left, to wear out another army before he was 
 old. With the same system of diet, he was enabled, with- 
 out the least injury to his health, to endure fatigue and ex- 
 posure in the West Indies, which he had before, in common 
 with others, believed would prove fatal to any European; and 
 he finally came to the confident conclusion, that an army of 
 British soldiers, by adopting a similar diet, would be capable 
 of going through the severest military duties in the hottest 
 islands in the West Indies, with entire safety. 
 
 Howard, the celebrated philanthropist, " in the period of 
 sixteen or sev mteen years, travelled between fifty and sixty 
 
67 
 
 thousand miles, for the sole purpose of relieving the distress- 
 es of the most wretched of the human race. The fatigues, 
 the dangers, the privations, he underwent or encountered for 
 the good of others, were such as no one else was ever exposed 
 to, in such a cause, and such as few could have endured. He 
 often travelled several nights and days in succession, with- 
 out stopping, over roads almost impassable, in weather the 
 most inclement, with accommodations the meanest and most 
 wretched. Summer and winter, heat and cold, rain and 
 snow, in all their extremes, failed alike, to stay him for a 
 moment in his course; whilst plague, and pestilence, and 
 famine, instead of being evils that he shunned, were those 
 with which he was most familiar; and to many of whose hor- 
 rors he voluntarily exposed himself: visiting the foulest dun- 
 geons, filled with malignant infection, — spending forty days 
 in a filthy and infected lazaretto, — plunging into military en- 
 campments where the plague was committing its most horrid 
 ravages, and visiting where none of his conductors dared to 
 accompany him ; " and through all this, he subsisted entirely 
 on a most rigidly abstemious, vegetable diet ; carefully avoid- 
 ing the use of wine, and all other alcoholic drinks, and ad- 
 vising others who were exposed to the plague, to abstain en- 
 tirely from the use of animal food. " The abstemious diet, 
 which, at an early period of his life, he adopted from a regard 
 to his health, he afterwards continued and increased in its rig- 
 or, from principle, and from choice, as well as from a convic- 
 tion of the great advantages which he derived from it :" and, 
 after all his experience, near the close of his life, he made the 
 following record in his diary : " I am firmly persuaded, as to 
 the health of our bodies, that herbs and fruits will sustain 
 nature in every respect, far beyond the best flesh. " Yet after 
 all, there is every reason to believe that this good man fell a 
 victim to his free use of tea. Substituting its deleterious 
 stimulation for the sustaining nourishment of food, he rushed, 
 with the utmost temerity, into the presence of the greatest 
 danger, when his body, by fatigue, cold, wet and exhaustion, 
 was wholly unprepared to resist the virulent action of ma- 
 lignantly noxious agents, and then neglected the early symp- 
 toms of disease in his system, and perseveringly refrained 
 from any efficient means of restoration. 
 
 To one who has any just knowledge of the nature of things 
 in regard to himself, it would hardly seem necessary to of- 
 fer a single argument to prove that a well-chosen vegetable 
 diet is, at all times, and under all circumstances, best adapted 
 to the nature and wants of the human body, and that in times 
 
of prevailing and malignant epidemics especially, no other 
 diet can be so well calculated to preserve the health of the 
 body, and enable it to resist the causes of disease. 
 
 But why, then, I am frequently asked, did Paris suffer so 
 much more by the cholera than London ? — Permit me to re- 
 mark, that although the evidences in relation to a doctrine 
 of truth may not always be obvious, yet it is not prudent to 
 come to the hasty conclusion, that, therefore, the doctrine is 
 not true. On subjects which are connected with so much 
 excitement and dubiousness as that which is now under con- 
 sideration, a thousand circumstances and apparent facts con-* 
 cur to mislead the reasoner, who considers himself purely 
 inductive. — At such a distance as we are from London and 
 Paris, and depending as we do for information on such vague 
 conjectures, such exaggerations of excitement, such distor- 
 tions of prejudice, and such ex parte views and testimonies, 
 it is impossible for us to investigate the subject with that sat- 
 isfaction to ourselves, and with that accuracy of conclusion, 
 which we should be capable of, wtre we fully and intimately 
 acquainted with the real nature, condition, and circumstan- 
 ces, of things in the two cities. Nevertheless, there are some 
 well-known facts in the case, which will greatly assist us in 
 the solution of the interesting question. 
 
 Whatever may be the difference between the English and 
 French in the kinds of their diet, it is pretty certain that the 
 English people generally, have greatly the advantage of the 
 French, in regard to the condition of their food. That is, 
 the English, I believe, are far more simple and natural in the 
 culinary preparations of their food. Their beef, and other 
 flesh — their potatoes and other vegetables, with whatever else 
 constitutes their fare, are cooked and served up in a more 
 simple and natural state, as separate dishes : — while the 
 French delight in mixtures, and compounds, and concentra- 
 tions, with abundance of condiments. To roast a piece of 
 beef, and boil a potato, turnip, &c. whple, and sit down and 
 masticate them well before they are swallowed into the stom- 
 ach, is incomparably more healthy and invigorating to the 
 alimentary canal, than to take all of these articles and mix 
 them together, and stew them down into a thick soup, and 
 eat them with little, or no mastication :— In fact it may be 
 laid down as an axiom in the science of human life, that all 
 proper solid food which is received into the mouth in a con- 
 dition that requires and receives the most perfect mastica-* 
 tion, is most conducive to the health and vigor of the ali- 
 mentary canal, and the integrity of its function^ AU soups. 
 
as I have before remarked, and more especially those which 
 contain only the concentrated properties of nourishment, are 
 calculated to debilitate and disorder the digestive organs. 
 
 The comparative degree of excess, in the use of artificial 
 stimuli, by the citizens of London and of Paris, it would be 
 very difficult for us to ascertain. It has been a favorite doc- 
 trine with some of our wine-loving countrymen, and one 
 which they have zealously endeavored to promulgate, that in 
 wine countries there is little, or no intemperance, in the use 
 of intoxicating liquors. But this is altogether erroneous. 
 The excesses in Paris, according to the number of the popu- 
 lation, are at least equal and probably much greater than in 
 London. An American gentleman in Paris, writing to this 
 country on the subject of the cholera, says, " Narrow damp 
 streets, houses that are dripping half the time in wet weath- 
 er, cold floors, excessive dirt, and drunkenness, of which 
 you have no conception in America, are the causes why the 
 disease has been so bad here. There are perhaps one hun- 
 dred thousand souls in Paris that are intoxicated more or less, 
 once or twice a week, and in this class the mortality has been 
 fearful."* 
 
 For excessive lewdness, which is another most powerful, 
 predisposing cause of cholera, Paris has long been exceed- 
 ingly notorious; and we learn that it is among the unfortu- 
 nate citizens of that character, that the disease has commit- 
 ted its most terrible ravages. The French ministerial pa- 
 pers inform us that, " in the year 1831, no less than 10,000 
 children were born out of wedlock, in the city of Paris; and 
 that 7,749 of these were abandoned by their wicked and un- 
 natural parents, to the horrors of destitution, or the chance 
 of compassion by the passers by." It is also a matter of 
 
 ♦ "The Police reports reveal the fact that 25,702 drunkards were, 
 committed to prison in Paris, in the course of the year. Heaven only 
 knows how many walk free. Of this number, 10,290 were women! 
 Now all this has nothing to do with the soldiers or the invalids who are 
 under military law. It is probable that ten thousand drunkards died here 
 with the cholera last year. I rarely go into the streets without seeing 
 more or less drunkards, 1 have no doubt there are quite as many gen- 
 teel young men addicted to drunkenness in Paris, as in New York, 
 though they are less seen in public. The police here is far from being 
 rigid with drunkards, for I see them staggering about the streets every 
 day unmolested. The drunkards committed at Paris, (for their drunk- 
 enness), are at the rate of seventy a day. Add to this, the soldiers of 
 the garrison, the invalids, &c. and you will probably get double the num- 
 ber. J. FENIMORE COOPER."^ 
 
 Paris, April 20, 1833. 
 
 6* 
 
- 70 
 
 common observation, that the lower and middling classes in 
 Paris are by no means remarkable for their personal and do- 
 mestic cleanliness ; and we are told that no small portion of 
 the lower class are exceedingly filthy. 
 
 But there are other facts of equal, if not more importance 
 in their bearing on this subject. For a considerable time be- 
 fore the cholera appeared in London, great and somewhat 
 extensive efforts had been made, in the Temperance cause, 
 against the use of all intoxicating liquors : and when the ter- 
 rible disease was believed to be approaching that city, every 
 laudable measure was taken to spread over the whole pop- 
 ulation a solemn impression that every drinker of strong 
 drink and every one given to excess must expect to fall a 
 sure victim to the cholera. Handbills advertising this were 
 posted up in every part of the city, and newspapers reiterat- 
 ed the warning in every quarter; and no medical gentleman 
 came out with his professional advice, against the warning; 
 no physician renowned for his experience and knowledge of 
 the disease, publicly recommended the use of " generous 
 wine, and brandy, and gin." The happy consequence was, 
 that there was, as with one consent, a simultaneous pause of 
 indulgence in all classes of society. The rich and the no- 
 ble cut short their excesses of the table ; the wine and strong- 
 drink bibber listened to the solemn remonstrance, and set 
 down his intoxicating cup untasted, or, at least, undrained, 
 and folded his arms in the coolness of rational reflection. 
 Finding the city in this condition and attitude of resistance, 
 the Destroyer sprinkled his wrath on a few unguarded wretch- 
 es, and turned away to gather his energies into a fiercer 
 shower of death over a more devoted metropolis. 
 
 But Paris had known no efforts in the Temperance cause ! 
 No warning voice of humanity had advertised the heedless 
 multitude that there was death in their indulgence. And, 
 worse than all, the Prefect of the Police caused to be posted 
 up and widely circulated, instructions to the people, among 
 which were, " Let your food be principally flesh and flesh 
 soups. Instead of drinking pure water, it will be better to 
 mix in it two tea-spoonfuls of brandy to a pint. Water light- 
 ly mixed with wine is equally good." This was truly unfor- 
 tunate advice ; to say nothing of the flesh, which was decid- 
 edly and extremely bad, the flesh soup was one of the worst 
 articles of diet that could have been prescribed. The rea- 
 sons I have already stated. * 
 
 *Dr. D. F. Condie, who was principal physician to one of the Chole- 
 ra Hospitals in Philadelphia, informed me in May last, that " It was 
 
71 
 
 But what shall we say of the brandy and wine prescrip- 
 tions? I know that the same set of instructions told the 
 people that " the excessive use of strong liquors ivas very per- 
 nicious;" and that " taking unmixed brandy when fasting, 
 was equally so ; and therefore, if persons were in the habit of 
 taking unmixed brandy, they must at least eat apiece of 
 bread" But there is a fatal recognition of the doctrine, 
 that a little alcohol is better than none, as a preventive ! And 
 who, under the bewildering hallucinations of panic, and es- 
 pecially if incited by the power of appetite, will be careful 
 to take his tea-spoon, and measure with precision his pre- 
 scribed allowance of brandy 1 Will it not rather be said, 
 " if two tea-spoonfuls will be good surely four will be bet- 
 ter 1 " Will not the people go on in this way, from four tea- 
 spoonfuls to a wine-glass ; and from that to a gill ; and from 
 that to a half pint ; according as their systems shall suffer 
 from the reaction of their stimulation, and feel the want of 
 the stimulus to bring up the tone? 
 
 This was, in fact, precisely the case in Paris. " A gener- 
 ous diet of flesh, and wine, and brandy, " became the popu- 
 lar doctrine of conservation, and for awhile was believed to 
 constitute an insuperable barrier, over which the " vulgar 
 disease" could not lift its destroying energies; and behind 
 which, he that was able to erect it, might stand in safety, and 
 laugh at the storm that was raging below him ; or, for his 
 
 now satisfactorily ascertained, that one of the principal predisposing and 
 exciting causes of cholera in the Arch street prison of Philadelphia, last 
 season, where, for a short time, it committed such shocking ravages, 
 was the precautionary measure of the Inspectors, in raising the diet of the 
 prisoners, by an increase of flesh, flesh soup, and porter." 
 
 Dr. D. M. Rees, of Xew York, whose practice and success in the Chol- 
 era last summer, were at least equal to any other physician's in that 
 city, informed me last November, that when the Cholera broke out 
 there, and he was called to practise among it, he found that the disease 
 was making its greatest ravages among the excessive flesh-eaters, and 
 that he consequently went home and requested his family to abstain en- 
 tirely from the use of flesh during the continuance of the epidemic in 
 the city ; and that he and his family subsisted wholly on a milk and veg- 
 etable diet, while the cholera prevailed, without having any thing of the 
 disease, — excepting in one instance, near the close of the sickness, when 
 Mrs. R. without his knowledge partook of flesh, and in a few hours af- 
 ter was taken with diarrhoea, and other " premonitory symptoms." 
 He also stated to me, that so far as he had an opportunity among the 
 families in which he usually practised, he advised them to be very spar- 
 ing in the use of flesh, or abstain entirely from it, while the cholera pre- 
 vailed ; and that so far as they conformed to his advice, they wholly es- 
 caped the disease. 
 
 August, 1833. 
 
72 
 
 amusement, ludicrously masquerade the dismay, and ago- 
 nies, and convulsive sufferings of the " vulgar herd." 
 
 But the respectable citizens of Paris little thought that 
 their "generous diet" whieh they deemed their bulwark of 
 security, would prove the very means by which the " ignoble 
 disease" would be enabled to elevate his enginery of death 
 to a level with their own breasts ! — Nevertheless, the conse- 
 quences were inevitable 1 Excessess in eating and drinking, 
 were as universal in Paris, as the means of indulgence; and 
 thus, the higher classes of society brought themselves, in li- 
 ability to the disease, on to the level with " the herd" whose 
 sufferings they had treated with sneering commisseration, and 
 compassionate ridicule. And the gay and reckless Parisians 
 were the first to learn, and to demonstrate to the terrified 
 world, that the cholera was not confined, in its w r ork of death, 
 to the destitute, the miserable, and the abandoned : — but it 
 had the audacity to fold, in its unclean embrace, even per- 
 sons of titled rank and distinction, and to breathe its pesti- 
 lential breath into the very atmosphere that surrounded the 
 throne ! 
 
 While the higher classes of society were thus working out 
 their destruction with eagerness and sensuality, the lower 
 orders were crowding together in immense mobs, and giving 
 themselves up to passion, and riot, and outrage, and every 
 species of excess; and, at the same time, propriety of food, 
 and cleanliness, and purity of air, and timely rest, and all 
 salutary rules of prudence, were utterly neglected. Is it 
 surprising, that in such a state of things, the cholera should 
 slay its thousands in Paris? — But if the view which I have 
 taken of this question is correct, then London owes her im- 
 munity to causes depending on the voluntary conduct of her 
 citizens ; and therefore should be exceedingly cautious how 
 she trusts to any local or external causes for exemption, — lest, 
 in the moment of supposed security, she yields to excesses 
 of indulgence, and brings back the destroyer upon her, in a 
 hurricane of wrath and vengeance. 
 
 The absurdities into which mankind are ever precipitating 
 themselves, would justify the conclusion, that there is not, in 
 human nature, any inherent appetite nor aptitude for truth. 
 Let sufficient obscurity shroud the objects of our contempla- 
 tion, to render it possible for the imagination to predominate 
 over perception, and be assured, our mystery and marvel lov- 
 ing propensity will lead us to body forth the most absurd, if 
 not the most ridiculous forms of conjecture. We find this 
 principle strikingly illustrated in the vague and whimsical 
 
73 
 
 speculations of the Spanish physicians, on the question un- 
 der consideration. They are asked why the cholera prevails 
 so much more extensively and fatally in Paris than in London. 
 They gravely set themselves about the solution of the ques- 
 tion, and finally come to the sapient conclusion, that " the 
 general and constant use of tea, by the English, saved them 
 from the severity with which the disease attacked the 
 French ; and therefore they recommend the use of tea as a 
 specific against the violence of the cholera." 
 
 So far as tea prevents the use of alcohol, whether in the 
 form of brandy, or the wines of France and Spain, it un- 
 questionably prevents the violence of the cholera : or, at 
 least, by so much as it is less pernicious than brandy, wine, 
 &>c. But to suppose that the constant use of a stimulating 
 narcotic like tea, which invariably diminishes the vital prop- 
 erties of the living tissues on which it acts, always debilitat- 
 ing the stomach, impairing its digestive powers, and causing 
 an increased irritability in the nerves of organic life, through- 
 out the whole system, — to suppose that this is absolutely, in 
 any degree a specific against the violence of the cholera, is 
 an absurdity which would be disreputable to the empirics of 
 the nursery. 
 
 It is very certain that the sour wines which are so habitu- 
 ally — so universally, and so abundantly used in Paris as a 
 common beverage, predispose the body to the cholera far 
 more than the weak tea generally used in England. But pure 
 water, in reasonable quantities, is an infinitely better substi- 
 tute for such wines than tea, or any other alcoholic or nar- 
 cotic drink. 
 
 From the view which I have taken of the whole subject 
 before us, we see that the hue and cry which has been raised 
 about a " meagre diet/' has no bearing whatever, on that 
 system of diet which,! have recommended in my public lec- 
 tures. 
 
 The inhabitants of this land of abundance— excepting the 
 miserable and degraded votaries of base sensuality and vice, 
 which constitute the dregs of our cities — are at all times in 
 incomparably greater danger, from an excessive, than from a 
 meagre diet. And I repeat the assertion with confidence, — 
 that, however meagre the diet, so that the articles of food 
 are not intrinsically deleterious, and actual inanition and 
 starvation are not caused, — if the habits and circumstances, 
 in all other respects, correspond strictly with the laws of or-* 
 ganic life, — comparatively little is to be feared from disease, 
 and especially from the cholera. The advice to the people 
 qf this country, and particularly to the citizens of New Yorkj 
 
74 
 
 to increase the proportion of flesh and flesh-soup in their di- 
 et, as a means of preventing the attacks of the cholera, is 
 therefore decidedly uncalled for, — unjustifiable and improper. 
 
 But the most rash and fatally erroneous advice which has 
 been published in this city, is that which prescribes "gener- 
 ous wine, brandy and gin/ as preventives of the cholera. 
 Depend upon it, the worst of consequences will ensue ! — It 
 is in vain that the author has subjoined his caution against 
 intemperance. Every man will judge for himself, of the sig- 
 nification of the term, in relation to his own quantity and 
 circumstances and wants! And who does not know, that 
 even he who drinks his quart of brandy a day, never be- 
 lieves himself to be intemperate ] The most shocking ex- 
 cesses will result from this advice ! Thousands who, for a 
 few years past at least, have mostly, or entirely abstained from 
 the use of these poisonous drinks, will now with avidity have 
 recourse to the prescribed preventives. The already intem- 
 perate, in the higher classes of society, will add a glass or 
 two more to their usual quantity, to keep off the cholera ; 
 and that miserable portion of society, who feel themselves 
 allotted by the universal voice of mankind, and the necessi- 
 ty of their condition, as the certain victims of the disease, 
 will plunge with the reckless desperation of insanity, into 
 the maddest exccesses of indulgence, to find, in the oblivion 
 of drunkenness, if not security from the ravages of the chol- 
 era, at least an unconsciousness of its horrors ! So far will 
 such a state of things be from preventing the cholera, that it 
 will tremendously tend to bring it en. 
 
 All quantities of alcohol in every form of distilled and fer- 
 mented liquors — whether used as articles of diet or preven- 
 tives, necessarily tend to produce that very state of the body 
 which is so much dreaded, and to bring on disease of a more 
 or less malignant character. 
 
 Our distinguished countryman, the late Dr. Benjamin 
 Rush, of Philadelphia, long since declared, in his lectures to 
 his students, that he had for many years observed, that there 
 was regularly a very great increase of cases of acute dis- 
 ease on the fifth and sixth days of July, which he said were 
 undoubtedly induced by the excesses of the fourth. A yery 
 intelligent medical gentleman, who was several years a sur- 
 geon in our Navy, informed me that at a time when the yellow 
 fever was raging in the West Indies, one of our national ves- 
 sels lying there on duty, was almost entirely unmanned by 
 |hat malignant disease; and the frigate in which he was acU 
 log as surgeon, was ordered out to take her place. Before 
 
75 
 
 they arrived at their station, the surgeon assured the offi- 
 cers and men, that if they indulged in the use of spirits, 
 while in the West Indies, they would most certainly be cut 
 off by the yellow fever. His warning was listened to, and 
 the crew was saved. " But," said he, "in every instance, 
 when any of the officers went on shore to dine, and drank 
 wine, they were, the next day, on the sick list with a bilious 
 attack. " 
 
 " It is worthy of remark/ 'says one of our city papers which 
 is the most zealous advocate for " a generous diet," — " it is 
 worthy of remark that the Carricks, the vessel which it was 
 supposed brought the cholera to Quebec, although she had 
 thirty-nine deaths in the first part of her voyage, had none 
 for a month previous to her arrival, and then the health of- 
 ficer at Quebec reported there was no disease on board." 
 Yet the belief in Quebec is, and undoubtedly the truth is, 
 that the disease broke out among the Irish emigrant passen- 
 gers of this same vessel again, soon after they landed. What 
 other reasonable explanation is there for these facts, than the 
 plain, common-sense one, that the passengers indulged in the 
 use of spirits before they left their native homes, — that they 
 brought a quantity of whiskey with them on board the Car- 
 ricks, and while this lasted, their indulgence, and irregular- 
 ities, and confinement, in spite of the purity of the sea air, 
 developed the cholera : — that when their whiskey was all 
 gone, and their habits became regular, the cholera disappear- 
 ed, and health reigned for a month,* — and that when they 
 landed in Quebec and began (as they unquestionably did) to 
 drink whiskey again, the cholera returned among them. And 
 yet our citizens are advised to drink (( generous wine, bran- 
 dy, and gin," to keep off the cholera! — 1 would not be the 
 author of this advice for the wealth of New York ! 
 
 Scarcely less erroneous in its nature, and pernicious in its 
 tendency, than the alcoholic prescription, is the public re- 
 commendation to the citizens, to provide themselves with med- 
 icine for the cholera, that they may be prepared to adminis- 
 ter according to prescription, at the very first indication of 
 an attack. 
 
 For six months past, our newspapers have teemed with ac- 
 counts of the cholera, with all the horrific details that can 
 possibly be given. Every symptom of the disease has been 
 described and republished, times without number; and those 
 symptoms have been made to cover almost the whole field of 
 our sympathies ; so that it is hardly possible to feel a pain or 
 an affection, which does not come within some of the classi- 
 fications of premonitory symptoms. 
 
76 
 
 The people of this country, have been contemplating the 
 ravages and advancements of this disease, and expecting its 
 appearance among themselves, with a fearful anxiety, whose 
 influence on their bodies has been like that which impels the 
 charmed* victim of the serpent, to fly with horror into the open 
 jaws of destruction ! — Thousands have deeply shuddered at 
 the suggestion of their own fears, " I shall surely die with 
 this awful disease ! " 
 
 It is impossible that such a state of things should long con- 
 tinue, without producing in every individual, a greater or less 
 degree of morbid sensibility, and sympathy. And the mind, 
 with unusual vigilance, will instinctively notice every pain 
 and affection of the body. Nothing more is wanting than 
 the panic which will be produced by the announcement of 
 the fatal presence of the terrible destroyer, to induce in thou- 
 sands, and hundreds of thousands, sympathetically, most or 
 all of the premonitory symptoms ! 
 
 Are such people in a proper state of mind or body, to pre- 
 scribe or administer to themselves ? But suppose a real at- 
 tack, what shall the sufferer take. Have the medical frater- 
 nity prescribed to us a specific for this disease, in all its forms 
 and stages; and in all persons, habits, and conditions? 
 Through the whole fifteen years' career of this devastating 
 disease, in Asia and Europe, and now in Canada, the most 
 extreme differences of opinions, and modes of practice, and 
 kinds of remedies, have been adopted by medical gentlemen 
 of equal professional experience and reputation. Hundreds 
 of experiments have been made, and scores of remedies 
 have been publicly recommended by physicians. All this 
 has found its way, of course, into the columns of our news- 
 papers : and the number of preventives and remedies, has 
 been greatly augmented by the gratuitous prescriptions of 
 every meddling empiric and every officious editor in the com- 
 munity : — and to fill up, even to overflowing, another Pando- 
 ra's box, without hope at the bottom, — that execrable por- 
 tion of society — those wholesale venders of death — those 
 tolerated butchers of thousands, the specific mongers, are 
 advertising in our respectable papers, and in glaring hand- 
 bills, posted up in every part of the city, their panaceas, and 
 catholicons, and hygean pills, &,c, as sure preventives and 
 certain cures for the cholera ! 
 
 In such a time of excitement and awful uncertainty, how 
 shall the people ascertain which prescription is the best ? 
 Alas! they have erroneously concluded that the safest way is 
 to procure all the different preventives and remedies and spe- 
 
77 
 
 cifics, recommended by any and every body ! More than a 
 million of dollars have been worse than thrown away by the 
 citizens of New York, within a few days past, for medicines 
 which are more to be dreaded than any pestilential cause of 
 cholera. Thus supplied, as almost every citizen is, with an 
 arsenal of self-destruction, — while drug and grog shops are 
 yawning at ever corner of our streets like so many craters of 
 hell, to vomit out the lava of death on all who come within 
 their range, — what more, I ask, is wanting than a powerful 
 panic, to set this vast and complicated machinery of destruc- 
 tion into violent motion, to produce the most horribly calam- 
 itous results in this city ? 
 
 I tell you, my hearers, if there is not an interference of 
 proper medical and civil authority, to arrest the course which 
 these things are now taking and will take in this city, the 
 mischief which will ensue, should the cholera appear amongst 
 us, cannot be calculated nor imagined ! 
 
 But you ask again, — What shall we do? we cannot avoid 
 excitement, and we may not be able to keep free from pan- 
 ic in such a time of terror ! Follow the advice I have already 
 given you. Carefully adapt your food, in quality and quan- 
 tity, to the condition of your body and digestive organs and 
 powers, partaking only of that which is plain, simple, nutritious 
 and easily digested ; — avoiding all concentrated forms and 
 artificial mixtures — all crude, heating, and irritating articles; 
 in short, carefully avoid in food and drink; every thing that is 
 calculated, by any means, to produce an unhealthy irritation 
 or irritability in the alimentary canal; remembering always 
 that the greater your panic, the more peculiarly liable are you 
 to such an irritation, and therefore, that many things which 
 you have at other times indulged in with apparent impunity, 
 may now prove fatal to you — and make it a regular duty to 
 take your proper exercise, and to sponge or bathe your body, 
 and rub your skin freely all over with a coarse towel, or good 
 flesh brush, and endeavor to apply your mind to proper sub- 
 jects, and avoid all improper exposures, and you will with 
 great certainty be able to counteract all the causes of dis- 
 ease, both internal and external. 
 
 " But shall we not be prepared for sudden attacks V Yes, 
 so far as a proper government and conduct of body and 
 mind can prepare you ; and then you have nothing to fear 
 from an attack which will not allow you ample time either to 
 take such restorative measures as I have suggested, or to call 
 in some experienced, temperate physician in whom you have 
 confidence. 
 
 7 
 
78 
 
 But suppose you should be suddenly attacked, what would 
 you take, among the numerous prescriptions that are given to 
 the public ? Not knowing the peculiar state of your system, 
 nor the precise nature of your disorder, the medicine which 
 you would take might be more dangerous than the disease ! 
 An ordinary diarrhoea or cholera morbus, which, by proper 
 treatment, would be easily managed, might, by a powerful 
 dose of brandy and laudanum, be exasperated into the most 
 malignant form of spasmodic cholera. Again I say, therefore, 
 live properly — let preventives and remedies alone, and mind 
 your own business ; and when the disease comes, it is time 
 enough for you to call in a temperate and judicious physician. 
 This advice, however, applies to citizens whose physicians are 
 at hand, and who have apothecary shops within a few rods of 
 them. People living in the country, and at a distance from 
 a physician, may with propriety keep a few drugs on hand, 
 but the emergency should be great, to justify their adminis- 
 tering medicine without the special advice of a physician, 
 unless it be something comparatively harmless, such as a 
 dose of rhubarb and magnesia, or of castor oil, in case of di- 
 arrhoea. 
 
 The Gentlemen of the Corporation of this City, will par- 
 don me if I now take the liberty of pointing out to them, 
 some of the important bearings of the general argument be- 
 fore us, on their public functions for the preservation of the 
 health of the citizens. 
 
 If I am correct in the view which I have taken of the sub- 
 ject, the cholera may, in certain circumstances and condi- 
 tions, be communicated either by contagion, or infection, or 
 both. The distinction, however, between contagion and in- 
 fection, is of little importance in relation to the public duties 
 of the Guardians of the City, in establishing precautionary 
 regulations and restrictions. Notwithstanding, therefore, all 
 that has been said by medical gentlemen against quarantine 
 regulations, there are many weighty reasons in favor of their 
 proper enforcement. It is true that this disease may break 
 out and prevail in a place which is guarded by the most vig- 
 ilant and rigorous quarantine and sanatary regulations; but 
 this is far from proving that such regulations are useless. It 
 only proves that while so much care has been given to the 
 protecting of the place from imported disease, there has been 
 too little care to prevent the causes which may originate the 
 disease within the place. For, as I believe I have clearly 
 shown, the disease may be both imported and originated in 
 certain conditions and circumstances. A place, therefore, in 
 
79 
 
 which it would not be originated, may be saved from the dis- 
 ease by proper sanatary regulations ; and a place in which it 
 would be originated might be saved by a timely prevention 
 and removal of the originating causes, and by proper quar- 
 antine and other sanatary regulations. 
 
 But as the cholera can neither be originated nor communi- 
 cated absolutely, by any causes independent of the voluntary 
 conduct of man, the more important duties of public func- 
 tionaries appertain to the internal condition and conduct of 
 society. 
 
 Unfortunately, however, in this land of glorious democracy 
 and individual sovereignty, the civil power is much more com- 
 petent to enlarge the privileges than to restrain the pernicious 
 indulgences of the governed. It may, therefore, be useless 
 for me to designate those duties of the corporation which are 
 of paramount importance, if they would effectually preserve 
 the city from the ravages of the cholera. Nevertheless, I 
 am inclined " to speak boldly as I ought to speak." 
 
 In the work of purification, it is well enough to strew lime 
 abundantly along the gutters, and in every unclean place 
 throughout the city, in order to neutralize those principles 
 which cause offensive odors ; but if the filth be suffered to 
 remain, or if it is only gathered into heaps in the middle of 
 the streets, for the carts to run over and disperse again, in 
 clouds of dust, which settle upon the side walks, roll into 
 every open door and window, and almost suffocate the citi- 
 zens even at their tables, very little good will be effected by 
 the use of disinfecting powders. But this, though of much 
 importance in itself, is of very small consideration when com- 
 pared with other evils existing in this city. It is in vain that 
 you ransack every street, and lane, and alley, and yard, and 
 private place, and cellar, and house, and strew your disinfect- 
 ing powders like a snow-storm ; and scrape and sweep and 
 wash, till every thing is clean enough to eat from, if still, 
 those abominable seminaries of disease and death — the grog- 
 shops, whether under the name of Groceries, or Taverns, or 
 Coffee-houses, or Hotels, are permitted to deal out doses of 
 destruction to the deceived and infatuated people. Unless the 
 civil authorities of this city can shut up these places, or at 
 least, stop the sale of intoxicating liquors, whatever else they 
 may do to prevent the ravages of the cholera here, will be in 
 effect, but little more than a public farce. But this is not all! 
 Our Augean stable is by no means cleansed, even when in- 
 toxicating liquors are removed. The drug-shops, if not en- 
 tirely closed, should be open only to those who come with a 
 
80 
 
 recipe from a regular physician, and a rigorous injunction 
 snould be laid upon all apothecaries, druggists, and empirics, 
 forbidding them to advertise or sell, any specifics, preventives, 
 remedies, or medicines for the cholera, without permission 
 from the Board of Health or from a properly constituted med- 
 ical authority. 
 
 The Press also should be silent on the subject of the chol- 
 era, excepting in the publication of those statements, accounts 
 or reports, which are made out by the Board of Health or by 
 responsible physicians. All private communications, recom- 
 mendations and prescriptions in the newspapers; and all ed- 
 itorial articles or comments, excepting such as seek to allay 
 the excitement, and encourage the people in a strictly tem- 
 perate and virtuous course, should be entirely withheld. I 
 am fully aware of the sensibility of the editorial corps, in re- 
 gard to their rights and liberties in " this land of freedom " 
 but I have also too good an opinion of most of them, not to 
 believe that if they had a just apprehension of the mischief 
 which flows from improper publications, and well-meant edi- 
 torial officiousness, on such occasions, they w T ould acknowl- 
 edge the propriety of my remarks, and receive them, as they 
 are expressed, in the spirit of benevolence and philanthropy. 
 
 But furthermore ; the Corporation should strictly forbid the 
 sale and exposure for sale within the limits of the city, of all 
 unripe, crude, and improper fruits and vegetables. In short, 
 if the Corporation would be effectual in their efforts to pre- 
 serve the city from the cholera, they should, if possible, pre- 
 vent the use of every improper article of diet, both solid and 
 liquid: — keep the city clean — introduce good water — facili- 
 tate the means of bathing — promote personal and domestic 
 cleanliness and comfort— get the poor out of damp cellars^ 
 and other unhealthy places — not suffering them to crowd too 
 many into a house, nor be exposed to confined and impure 
 air, — see that they have enough of plain simple food — keep 
 everything calm — and rigidly enforce proper quarantine and 
 other sanatary regulations. 
 
 Before I close my lecture, I must caution my audience not 
 to misunderstand me in regard to my dietetic recommenda* 
 tions. Let it be remembered that my advice is adapted to 
 the present state of things. As yet the cholera is at a dis- 
 tance from us ; whether it will appear in this city, or how 
 soon, it is impossible for us to tell. I have supposed that you 
 might have time enough to adopt my advice, and recover 
 from whatever temporary depression might result from any 
 change in so doing, before the disease appeared among you. 
 
81 
 
 Were the cholera already here, and even now committing 
 its ravages in the city, my advice would be, in some respects, 
 different. I should say to you, beware of great and sudden 
 changes under the influence of panic ; beware of extremes ! 
 If you have eaten flesh freely up to this hour, I would not say, 
 abandon it totally at once ! but diminish its quantity ; let its 
 quality be good, and let it be plainly and simply prepared, 
 and eaten without made gravies, or much seasoning, and not 
 more than once a day. If you have used tobacco freely up 
 to this hour, and cannot forsake it at once, without suffering 
 greatly from its absence, diminish your quantity as fast as 
 you can, prudently, and get clear of it entirely. Tobacco 
 has been said to be a good preventive, but such a notion is 
 destitute of all truth. Cleanse yourselves, therefore, from this 
 abominable and deleterious narcotic ! — In like manner, also, 
 get rid of your tea and coffee ; in moderate quantities they 
 are decidedly pernicious — in excesses they will powerfully 
 predispose to cholera, and every other disease. If you have 
 drank distilled or fermented liquors freely up to this hour, 
 and cannot abandon them totally at once, without prostrat- 
 ing the organic functions of your system, your condition is an 
 unhappy one. If you go on and do not perish, your escape 
 will be almost a miracle. It cannot be more dangerous to 
 stop short, than it is to go on in such a habit, especially if 
 your regimen in other respects be wise and well ordered, be- 
 ing regular in your meals — temperate in your quantities, and 
 gradually diminishing your proportion of animal food and 
 other objectionable articles; and getting down to a vegetable 
 and water level as soon as you prudently can, and then pur- 
 suing the system I have recommended in my present lecture. 
 Finally, those who can adopt the system I have recommend- 
 ed, without a change which would seriously let down, for a 
 time, the functional action of their body, should enter into 
 it at once ; but those who cannot, should get into it as soon 
 as they prudently can. — Such, I say, would be my advice if 
 the cholera were now raging around you and among you ; 
 but as it is not, my earnest entreaty now is, — remain not an 
 hour in the Sodom of your pernicious habits and indulgences ! 
 11 Escape for your lives ! — Look not behind you ; neither stay 
 ye in all the plain ! — escape to the mountain, lest ye be con- 
 sumed ! " 
 
 7* 
 
82 
 NOTE A.— PAGE 43. 
 
 Several months after the first edition of the foregoing lec- 
 ture was published, the following interesting corroboration of 
 the views presented in the text, appeared in the London Med- 
 ical Gazette. 
 
 11 While on the subject of Cholera, we should state that the 
 speedy use of tepid water, in cases of sudden bowel attacks, 
 is strongly recommended, — half a pint to be taken every two 
 minutes during pain, and to be still continued even should 
 vomiting eusue. A physician at Gloucester last year, cured 
 eighteen or twenty cholera cases in this manner." 
 
 NOTE B.— PAGE 44. 
 
 In regard to remedial agents to be employed in extreme 
 cases of cholera, I spoke with great diffidence when I first 
 delivered my lecture in New York, in March, 1832, and when 
 1 repeated it in June following, about two weeks before the 
 epidemic made its appearance in that city. Having had no 
 experience in this disease, I was then, of course, obliged to 
 found all my opinions, as to the treatment of it, on what I 
 conceived to be its evident principles of physiological pa- 
 thology. Since then, as you all well know, the most terrible 
 experiment has been made in our midst, and by it the gen- 
 eral doctrines, which I taught some months before the dis- 
 ease appeared in this country, have been fully and most sig- 
 nally demonstrated to be correct. 
 
 The most simple mode of treating the disease has, beyond 
 all question, been far the most successful; and probably 
 throughout the whole range of this terrible epidemic thus 
 far, no mode of treatment has been attended with so great 
 and invariable success as that which is presented in the fol- 
 lowing communication from Mr. George Bond of Orchard 
 street, New York, and which, it will readily be perceived, 
 differs but very little from the one suggested in the text. 
 
 Letter from Mr. George Bond. 
 
 Mr. Graham. Sir, — About eighteen years ago, I had a 
 very severe turn of bloody flux, which proved exceedingly 
 obstinate and unmanageable. The skill of my physician 
 was completely baffled, and his medicine seemed wholly in- 
 effectual. Clear blood ran from my bowels in alarming pro- 
 fusion, and nothing seemed to have any effect to stop it. My 
 physician finally declared that he could do nothing more for 
 ma; and to all human appearance I must die with the com* 
 
83 
 
 plaint. At this crisis some one recommended the internal 
 use of salt and vinegar and hot water. I know not why it 
 was, but I was very favorably impressed by the suggestion, 
 and had a great desire to try the prescription. My physician 
 said it could do me no hurt, if it did me no good. I there- 
 fore had some immediately prepared, in the proportion of a 
 tea-spoonful of salt, a table-spoonful of good cider vine- 
 gar, and a tea-cupful of boiling water, and I took about a 
 half a table-spoonful of this mixture every five minutes. I 
 was immediately benefited by it, — the flux ceased, and I was 
 soon restored to health. 
 
 As soon as I heard the cholera was in this country, I be- 
 gan to read the accounts of it, and it struck me that the salt 
 and vinegar and hot water would be the best possible reme- 
 dy for it. With this impression, I called on Dr. L , (at 
 
 the corner of Sheriff and Delancy streets) and asked him if 
 there was no cure for this disease. He said there were vari- 
 ous modes of treating it, but no specific remedy had yet been 
 found out. I told him, I believed I could cure it. He ask- 
 ed me how. With salt and vinegar and hot water, said I. 
 
 Dr. B , who had come in while we were talking, replied 
 
 that vinegar would not answer at all in the cholera. I told 
 him that I wished to Heaven that some of my own family 
 might have the cholera that night, so that I could try my rem- 
 edy ; for I was very confident it would cure the disease. This 
 was sometime in the latter part of June, near the last of the 
 month. My wife had been about nine years afflicted with poor 
 health and a partial alienation of mind ; and had been subject 
 to frequent turns of diarrhoea. About the fourth of July, a di- 
 arrhoea came upon her, which we thought one of her ordinary 
 turns, and paid no particular attention to it. On the night of 
 the seventh, at about one o'clock, she woke me, and with a 
 perfectly rational mind, said to me, " I am dying." I laid my 
 hand on her, and found she was cold as death, and covered 
 with a cold clammy sweat, and soon ascertained she was vio- 
 lently vomiting and purging, and dreadfully cramped and 
 convulsed. I sprang from my bed and as quick as possible, 
 kindled a fire and put over a kettle of water ; and then called 
 
 up my little son and sent him for doctor L . In the mean 
 
 time my wife was so terribly handled with the disease, that I 
 could not mistake its character. I was sure it was the chol- 
 era, and I was exceedingly alarmed at its awful violence ; for 
 I feared that nothing on earth could control it. As soon as 
 the water boiled, however, I prepared a dose of salt and vin- 
 egar and hot water, and gave it to her; and with equal aston^ 
 ishment and delight found that it arrested at once the vomiting 
 
84 
 
 and purging ; I then dipped some flannel in a mixture of the 
 same kind and put it hot over her stomach and bowels, and 
 in less than fifteen minutes her cramps and spasms were all 
 removed, and she was in a very profuse perspiration, and 
 quite at ease. I repeated the dose of salt and vinegar and hot 
 water once or twice afterwards to keep up the perspiration. 
 My son returned and said that the doctor told him that he 
 knew nothing what to do if he came, and therefore it would 
 be of no use for him to come. 
 
 By morning, my wife was able to sit up, and after the ope- 
 ration of a dose of castor oil, was soon restored to her ordi- 
 nary health ; with much less alienation of mind, however, than 
 before. I was now fully confirmed in my confidence in the 
 efficacy of the salt and vinegar remedy for the cholera ; and 
 
 called again on Dr. L , to state to him the results of my 
 
 experiment. He was much surprised to hear that my wife 
 was still living and doing well, and that I had treated her 
 only as I had, The cholera now began to prevail pretty ex- 
 tensively in the city, and I devoted the greater part of my 
 time through the whole season of sickness, in visiting the 
 sick, and administering my simple remedy to them : and in- 
 variably with entire success, in every stage of the disease ; 
 and many who were cured in this manner went out also, and 
 administered the same remedy to the sick with the same suc- 
 cess; so that I may safely say that hundreds were the sub- 
 jects of this treatment. No less than fourteen, of my own 
 and my brother's families, were severely attacked with the 
 cholera, and all were cured by this simple remedy. My son, 
 
 12 years old, and the son of our neighbor, Mrs. D , a 
 
 widow lady, about 14 years old, were together, and ate green 
 apples one afternoon, and at about four o'clock, the next 
 morning, both of them were violently attacked with cholera. 
 I gave my son the hot salt water and vinegar, which soon re- 
 lieved him, and in two days he was able to be about his busi- 
 ness again. Mrs. D sent for a physician for her son, 
 
 and he was put under medical treatment, and very soon went 
 into a collapsed state. I called the next morning to see him, 
 and found him in a most awful condition. His symptoms 
 were extremely violent; death-like coldness, violent vomiting 
 and purging — powerful spasms all over; and the doctor told 
 me that the pulse had been entirely gone for five hours. I 
 ordered some boiling water, and put in my salt and vinegar 
 in due proportions, and administered it in the form of a po- 
 tation and injection, and dipped flannels in it, and applied 
 them to his body, and rubbed his limbs with hot flannels ; 
 
85 
 
 and the violent vomiting and purging and cramps were soon 
 . arrested, and the patient began to perspire very profusely, and 
 J in forty-five minutes, his pulse beat sixty times in a minute 
 j with a full, fair stroke ; and the patient was doing as well as 
 could be wished. Some slight spasms remained in the ex- 
 I tremities, but they were fast yielding to the influence of my 
 
 4 treatment." At this juncture Dr. C came in, and order- 
 
 I ed the boy, profusely sweating as he was, to be stripped and 
 rubbed all over with mercurial ointment. He also ordered 
 i large doses of mercury. I told him the boy was doing well, 
 and as sure as his directions were followed the boy would 
 i not live an hour. But he disregarded my remonstrance and 
 persisted in his course. The unhappy boy entreated his 
 mother not to follow the doctor's prescription, and said it 
 would kill him; but she, full of anxiety and alarm, yielded 
 to the doctor's authority. The poor boy begged me to come 
 to him, which I did, and he threw his arms around my neck 
 and kissed me, and said-— " you have done all you could for 
 me and I thank you for it" In a short time after he took 
 the powder which Dr. C — =-r ordered, his vomiting, purging, 
 and cramps, returned upon him and soon became as violent 
 
 as ever, and his pulse again ceased. Dr. W now came 
 
 in, and seeing the state of things and learning what had 
 
 been done, he turned to Dr. C • and said to him, " you 
 
 have killed that child ! " Then turning to me he asked if I 
 could not raise him again. — I told him it was too late. In 
 forty-five minutes after the patient was put under the treat- 
 ment of Dr C , he died. 
 
 Soon after this Dr. R. came for me about midnight and 
 wished me to go with him and see a patient (in Suffolk St.) 
 which he said was very bad, and he could do nothing With 
 her. He said he had had a number of patients in the same 
 neighborhood, and they had all died in spite of every thing 
 he could do. I went with him and found a woman in the 
 most terrible agonies I ever witnessed. She was vomiting 
 and purging with shocking violence, and her body and limbs 
 were horridly drawn up and distorted with cramps. Several 
 persons were trying to relieve her by rubbing her, but she 
 seemed as though she was possessed by an infuriated fiend 
 which was endeavoring to torment her to the utmost. I treat- 
 ed her in the same manner I had Mrs. D— — J s son, and in 
 less than twenty minutes she was quietly perspiring in her 
 bed, and the next day she was able to be about house : and 
 in two or three days more, was well. On the same night, a 
 woman died in the room above her, of whose case I did not 
 know till after her death. 
 
86 
 
 A. P., in Grand Street, had the cholera with great viru- 
 lence ; several physicians visited him, but Dr. R. had the 
 principal care of him : but none of them were able to arrest 
 the disease in the least degree, and the patient sunk into an 
 extreme state of collapse; and Dr. R. said he must die in 
 spite of all earthly means to save him. In this state of things 
 I was sent for, and administered my simple remedy, and the 
 patient was almost instantly relieved; and in a few days was 
 about his business. His wife also had the cholera, and was 
 cured in the same way. Soon after this I was in at Dr. L.'s 
 office, and a Mrs. D. of Willet street, came in for some med- 
 icine, and said that her husband had the cholera very bad in- 
 deed. She said he had been out on watch the night before, 
 and as he did not come home at his usual time in the morn- 
 ing, she felt uneasy about him, and went down town after 
 him, and found him in a back yard in a dreadful state of the 
 cholera : he was unable to stand, and she got a hack and 
 brought him home, and called in a physician as soon as pos- 
 sible ; but the doctor had not yet been able to check the dis- 
 ease, and she feared he would die. Dr. L. told her she had 
 better ask me to go and see him. She was afraid of offending 
 her physician — Dr. D., and did not then request me to go, 
 but soon sent after me. I found Mr. D. in a truly shocking 
 state : his skin was a dark violet-blue, — his vomiting, purging, 
 spasms, and other symptoms, were awful beyond description. 
 Dr. D. was giving him powerful doses of medicine, but with- 
 out the least favorable effect. Soon after I came in, he gave 
 orders how to give the medicine, and said he must go and 
 see some other patients, and would be back as soon as he 
 coujci, The Dr. h^d scarce left the door before I ordered 
 some boiling water, and without loss of time administered my 
 simple remedy to the sufferer. When the doctor returned he 
 found his patient lying quietly in his bed, perspiring profuse- 
 ly, — no vomiting, no purging — no spasms, skin natural, and 
 scarce a symptom of cholera about him. 
 
 The doctor was surprised and delighted at the happy effect 
 of his medicine, and said it had done wonders, and the pa- 
 tient was doing finely, and would get well. He then told us 
 how to proceed, and again went to visit other patients. But 
 his second orders shared the fate of his first — not a particle 
 of his medicine was given during his absence, nor any thing 
 else but the salt, and vinegar, and hot water. Mrs. D,, how* 
 ever, thought it not best to let him know any thing about it j 
 and when he came again, he pronounced the patient safe, and 
 congratulated himself very much on his success in such a 
 very violent case. I now left the house in company with the, 
 
87 
 
 doctor, and began to talk to him concerning the treatment of 
 the cholera, and told him I believed I could cure every case, 
 if I could have a fair and timely opportunity. The doctor 
 turned and looked at me with an air of great contempt, and 
 exclaimed, in a sneering and emphatic manner, "How, in 
 the name of God, can it be that you, an unlearned man, 
 should know how to cure the cholera, when our most learn- 
 ed and eminent physicians cannot do it 1 9i Having said 
 this he left me abruptly, and there our acquaintance ended. 
 William A. D. however, soon recovered his health, and is 
 now living and well. 
 
 J. V., who had always habitually made a free use of ar- 
 dent spirits, had the cholera very severely. The cramp in 
 his limbs was so excessively violent that it drew his flesh all 
 up into knots, some of which remained for six weeks. He 
 took various medicines without the least effect, and when it 
 was supposed that he was past all possibility of relief, he 
 took the hot salt water and vinegar, and was almost instantly 
 relieved, and soon got well. 
 
 I could detail a great number of similar cases, but suffice 
 it to say that in more than a hundred instances where I ad- 
 ministered this remedy, I never knew it to fail of complete 
 success in one case. I went one day with Dr. R. into Slam's 
 buildings in Delancy and Suffolk streets, and there I saw the 
 most horrid secnes I ever witnessed on earth. All kinds and 
 colors were crowded together, — the sick, the dying, and the 
 dead. In one vacated room, the dead body of a negro lay 
 rotting on the floor ; — Mr. S. of Second Avenue, went and 
 covered it over. — Another man came and looked in at the 
 door, and the next day he died. Mr. S. was continually in 
 the midst of the cholera, and in the filthiest places where 
 sickness and suffering were to be found. He used the pre- 
 cautionary measure of washing his body frequently in vine- 
 gar, and, I believe, wholly escaped an attack. But I have 
 dwelt long enough on these scenes of suffering and horror. 
 Yours respectfully, GEORGE BOND. 
 
 New York, April 7, 1833. 
 
 P. S. I ought to have stated, that after having extensive- 
 ly proved the success of the salt and vinegar remedy for the 
 cholera, I went to a number of our city editors, and tried to 
 get them to publish it, but they all refused to do so, except v 
 Mr. Webb, of the Courier and Enquirer. He published it, 
 and not long afterwards received a letter from Norfolk, Va., 
 stating that the salt and vinegar remedy had proved the most 
 successful in that place, of any thing which had been tried. 
 
 G. B. 
 
88 
 
 On my return to New York I took much pains to ransack 
 the city and investigate the cases presented by Mr Bond, and 
 I was not able to hear of a single case of death from chole- 
 ra where this mode of treatment was fairly tried. Dr. 
 L , of Delancy street, assured me, that after having fail- 
 ed entirely in every other mode of treatment, and lost every 
 patient he was called to, he adopted the mode of treatment, 
 recommend by Mr. Bond, and did not lose another patient, 
 during the season. I have called on a number of persons in 
 the upper part of the city, who informed me that they had 
 the " collapsed stage" of the cholera to such a degree that 
 all medicine was ineffectual, and the attending physicians 
 pronounced them past remedy : and then, as a last experi- 
 ment, they took the hot salt water and vinegar, and were 
 almost immediately relieved ; and soon recovered health. 
 
 According to Mr. Bond then, when any one suffers a vio- 
 lent attack, and is taken with the worst form of the disease 
 at first, or has neglected or maltreated the diarrhoea till vio- 
 lent vomiting, and convulsive spasms and cramps in the body 
 and limbs, and burning sensations in the epigastric regions, 
 &c. &c. supervene, let the patient take to his bed, and let a 
 kettle of water be boiled as quickly as possible, and then put 
 into an ordinary sized tea-cup, or some other vessel of the 
 same capacity, one tea-spoonful of good, common table salt, 
 and one table-spoonful of good cider vinegar, (remember it 
 must be good cider vinegar,) and fill the cup with boiling wa- 
 ter, and let the patient swallow this dose as hot as he can 
 wihout scalding himself, and without sipping. If he sips it 
 down, it will be more likely to come up again : but if he 
 swallows the whole dose, as it were, at a single draught, it 
 will almost certainly remain on the stomach, and at once ar- 
 rest the vomiting and purging, and violent spasms, and in a 
 few minutes bring on a profuse perspiration. 
 
 If, however, the first dose should be thrown up, give the 
 second dose of the same kind, and even the third, and more 
 if necessary ; — but when it is properly prepared and taken, 
 the first dose is very rarely thrown up, and the second never. 
 Albeit if the spasms in some measure continue, it is well, at 
 intervals, to repeat small doses, though the first dose should 
 entirely arrest the vomiting and purging. 
 
 If the case should be still worse, and the patient should be 
 in what is called the collapsed state, in which, besides the 
 symptoms already mentioned, there is no perceptible pulse, the 
 voice very feeble or entirely lost, and the skin cold and clam- 
 my, and of a dark purple color, &c., let the hot water, salt 
 
and vinegar, be given in the same manner as above directed, 
 and let a like preparation be injected freely into the intestines, 
 as hot as the patient can safely endure it ; and let flannels 
 be dipped into some of the same, and laid hot upon the stom- 
 ach and bowels, and let the limbs be briskly chafed with hot 
 flannels, till the patient becomes quiet, which will soon be 
 the case, and then let him be well covered, so as to promote 
 the perspiration, which in a few minutes will be seen gush- 
 ing copiously from all the pores of the skin. If any spas- 
 modic affections or pains remain, let the patient, at intervals 
 of from fifteen to thirty minutes, as the symptoms may be, 
 swallow small doses of the hot salt water and vinegar ; which, 
 in such cases, should be prepared in considerable quantities, 
 in the proportions of one measure of salt to four of vinegar, 
 and sixteen of boiling water. 
 
 By this mode of treatment, the vomiting and purging will 
 be arrested almost instantaneously ; the spasms will be sub- 
 dued ; a profuse perspiration will follow in a very few min- 
 utes ; the pulse will soon be perceptible, and in a short time 
 be restored to a regular action ; the skin will gradually re- 
 sume its natural color and warmth ; and in a few hours the 
 patient will feel entirely free from the disease. Now the ju- 
 dicious physician, or nurse, may find it proper to administer 
 a gentle cathartic, adapted in its kind, to the peculiar habits 
 and condition of the patient: either a dose of rhubarb and 
 calcined magnesia, or castor oil, and then always strictly ob- 
 serving the same regimen that I have already prescribed for 
 the diarrhoea, and follow on with a judicious diet, and all will 
 go well. 
 
 Since the first edition of this work was published I have 
 found that in cases of great morbid irritability of the stomach, 
 attended with constant vomiting, and throwing up of every 
 thing swallowed, if the hot salt water and vinegar be adminis- 
 tered in small quantities — say a tea-spoonful at a time, at 
 short intervals, it will almost invariably allay the irritation in 
 a very short time and enable the patient to retain medicinal 
 or alimentary substances on the stomach. Indeed there are 
 many cases in which it may be used with great advantage as 
 a medicine, in allaying the morbid irritations and actions of 
 the stomach and bowels, and it is, perhaps, one of the most 
 powerful agents which can be employed in bringing on a sud- 
 den and profuse perspiration. 
 8 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 The common opinion which prevailed in New York, for 
 a considerable time preceding and succeeding the appearance 
 of the Cholera in that city, was, that a generous diet of flesh 
 and flesh soups, with brandy, port wine, and porter, was the 
 best preventive measure that the citizens could adopt to save 
 themselves from the awful ravages of the disease ; and while 
 some of the physicians took a manly and noble stand against 
 this ruinous error, too many of them on the othei hand, gave 
 decided countenance to it. Dr. Rheinlander, one of the 
 physicians sent by the city to Canada to ascertain how to 
 treat the disease, published his advice, cautioning the people 
 against the use of distilled spirits but recommending the use 
 of port wine, and thus caused thousand of gallons, of a vile 
 mixture of whiskey, logwood, and other abominable things, 
 to be sold and drank under the name of port wine ; which 
 was incomparably worse than the clear whiskey itself. This 
 was soon followed by the appearance of an article in the 
 Courier and Enquirer from Dr. Felix Pascalis, in which he 
 says that " the ravages of the Cholera will probably increase 
 in the city, until it has decimated, or even extirpated the 
 whole class that subsist with little or no animal food." And 
 again ; — " as for preventive remedies, the reader will remem- 
 ber that the Delta of the Ganges is called the cradle of the 
 Cholera, and that there the inhabitants do not live upon ani- 
 mal food ; that in China, where animal food is scarce, the pes- 
 tilence was most unsparing, and that at Hurdwar in 1783, 
 20,000 of the fasting pilgrims were cut off in less than a week, 
 &c." The reasoning and deductions of the whole article 
 were extremely loose and inconclusive and erroneous, — but 
 they were ad captandum vulgus, and together with Dr. De 
 Kay's and Dr. Rheinlander's prescriptions of brandy and wine 
 soon became the voxpopuli of the city ; while the columns of 
 the newspapers daily contained advertisements recommending 
 Swaime's Panacea, Hygean pills, and other wholesale instru- 
 ments of death, as sure preventives and remedies for the 
 cholera. 
 
 In such a state of delusion, and depravity, and panic, it 
 was very natural that the most clamorous out-cry should be 
 raised against the dietetic doctrines which I had taught in 
 my lectures. Every dealer in intoxicating liquors, including 
 Hotels and Coffee Houses, — every druggist, and almost every 
 
91 
 
 butcher, and baker, and tobacconist, and grocer, and flour 
 dealer, and " free liver " in the city, felt deeply interested to 
 save the people from the ravages of cholera by virtue of a 
 "generous diet " of flesh, flesh soups, brandy, wine, porter, 
 tobacco, coffee, tea, fine bread, &c. therefore all were gener- 
 ously willing to lend their voices in the cry, that all the " Gra- 
 hamites " were dead and dying with the cholera. The most 
 egregious misrepresentations and unblushing falsehoods, were 
 daily fabricated and busily circulated throughout the city, 
 and even physicians who hold a respectable standing in soci- 
 ety, boldly asserted, as a matter of their knowledge, that the 
 " Grahamites" were dying by hundreds with cholera. At 
 the same time the bakers who had undertaken to furnish the 
 citizens with the kind of bread which I had recommended, 
 — in some instances, there is reason to believe, from the bas- 
 est of purposes, and in others, from culpable negligence, 
 suffered their bread to degenerate into the vilest stuff imagi- 
 nable, and thus brought it into very great disrepute, and un- 
 doubtedly, in many instances, caused it to become seriously 
 injurious to them that ate it. 
 
 Such a mighty conspiracy against the cause of truth was 
 surely enough to try the courage and firmness of its friends in 
 such a time of terror and death. Nevertheless there were 
 some hundreds in the city whose steadfastness neither public 
 clamour, and misrepresentation, and falsehood, nor profes- 
 sional assertions, nor any other cause could shake. They 
 strictly pursued the course which I had pointed out, and 
 calmly kept about their business, or humanely devoted them- 
 selves to the alleviation of the sufferings of the sick. Nor 
 did they idly listen to the misrepresentations and falsehoods 
 which were daily kept on the wing. Whenever these things 
 received a definite form and locality, they were promptly in- 
 vestigated, and ascertained to be destitute of truth, and gen- 
 erally destitute of honesty. Mr. Goodell, the editor of the 
 Genius of Temperance, ferreted them out, and exposed 
 them, with a diligence and boldness which were worthy of 
 the cause of truth and humanity. 
 
 On my return to the city, I made it my first business to as- 
 certain, as far as possible, what had been the real effect of my 
 dietetic system, in relation to the cholera. I immediately 
 called at all those places where it had been said that " Gra- 
 hamites " had died of that disease ; and also called upon all 
 those physicians who, I was informed, had asserted that the 
 " Grahamites/' were all dying with cholera. The result of 
 my inquiries was as follows ;— *■ 
 
92 
 
 The family of Mr. B — , in Madison street, had attended 
 my lectures daring the preceding winter, and partially adopt- 
 ed the dietetic system which I taught ; but they continued in 
 it only a short time ; and, some months before the cholera ap- 
 peared in the city, the whole family, except the oldest daugh- 
 ter, returned entirely to their former habits of living, and 
 were most or all of them, cut off by cholera, except the old- 
 est daughter, who continued pretty strictly on my system, and 
 wholly escaped. 
 
 The family of Mr. A , in James Street, had attend- 
 ed my lectures during the preceding winter, and left off cof- 
 fee and tea, and did not use so much flesh as before ; yet not- 
 withstanding, he was, and long had been, habitually costive, 
 he and his family continued to eat the fine, bakers' bread. 
 After the cholera commenced, he continued to eat his beef 
 steak, roast beef, puddings, &c. and to eat only the fine flour 
 bread, though very costive. He was a dyer, and dyed some 
 clothes of those who had perished of cholera. He took a 
 dose of medicine as a preventive — became worse — sent for a 
 physician — took his medicine, and was soon in a collapsed 
 state, and died. Two of his children and an intemperate 
 apprentice died also ; but whether of the cholera or the med- 
 icine, or both, is uncertain. 
 
 The family of A. C ~, in Pearl Street, had attended 
 
 my lectures during the preceding winter and spring; — they 
 adopted my system, to a considerable extent, and Mr. C. and 
 his wife found their health much improved by it. When the 
 cholera broke out, however, they all, but one son, so far yield- 
 ed to what seemed to be medical authority, as to return to 
 what was called a more M generous diet/' and took their flesh 
 dinners, with desserts, &c. The whole family, except the 
 son, who strictly followed my rules, were taken with diar- 
 rhoea, which, however, by being attended to, was soon 
 checked, in all but the worthy old gentleman, who neglected 
 his disorder, and suffered it to run on, occasionally taking 
 some astringent or cathartic medicine, and continuing about 
 his business, and eating as usual, and regularly taking two or 
 three cups of strong coffee every morning before he rose. 
 About the ninth day he took his regular dinner of flesh, &c. 
 and after it ate freely of a flour pudding, with wine sauce, 
 and to prevent any bad effects, took three glasses of port 
 wine, according to the public advice of Dr. Rheinlander. 
 The next morning he was very sick, and took his coffee as 
 usual — grew worse through the day — fell under medical 
 treatment, and died in a few hours. The death of this ex* 
 
93 
 
 cellent man, caused more consternation than any other death 
 which took place in the city during the sickness ; because 
 he was supposed to be a " strict Grahamite." There were a 
 few other cases which were about as near to my regimen as 
 those I have detailed : and these were the " hundreds of Gra- 
 hamites who had died of cholera." 
 
 I then called on the physician who had asserted that hun- 
 dreds of Grahamites had died of the cholera, and asked him 
 if he knew of a single case of a person's dying of cholera, 
 who had strictly followed my system. He replied that he did 
 not, and then gratuitously added, " and I never said that I 
 did.' 5 Every other physician on whom I called, gave me the 
 same negative answer, excepting one, who very confidently 
 assured me that he had lost one such patient. I asked the 
 name and number, and, on investigating the matter, found 
 that the said patient had never attended my lectures, and in 
 no respect any farther adopted my system, than to abstain 
 from the use of ardent spirits : but the brother of the de- 
 ceased, who took care of him through his sickness, without 
 any touch of the disease himself, had heard some of my lec- 
 tures, and to a considerable extent adopted my system of 
 diet. 
 
 The result of my inquiries was, that I could not ascertain 
 that a single individual had died of cholera during the sick- 
 ness in the city, who had, with any tolerable degree of strict- 
 ness and propriety, followed the regimen which I had pre* 
 scribed in my lecture on the cholera. Nor was I able to as- 
 certain that more than two or three such persons had even 
 had the slightest symptoms, while, on the other hand, there 
 were hundreds who strictly followed my rules, many of whom 
 were exposed in the utmost degree, and yet not one of them 
 had a symptom of the disease. 
 
 I then advertised in most of the papers of the city, that a 
 public meeting would be held at the Chatham Street Chapel, 
 on which occasion I would expose and repel the various mis- 
 representations and calumnies which had been raised against 
 my system, in relation to the cholera. The meeting was very 
 large, and I met the objections which had been raised ; and 
 challenged any one to prove a single instance of an individ- 
 ual's having died of the cholera, during the prevalence of 
 that disease, who had strictly and properly followed the regi- 
 men prescribed in my lecture on the cholera. This silenced 
 the public clamor : but ever and anon the smothered mutter- 
 ings of 'particular ones were indistinctly heard. I then ad- 
 dressed two letters to Philip Hone, Esq. through the Corn- 
 s' 
 
94 
 
 mercial Advertiser, in one of which 1 held the following lan- 
 guage : " I have called, and still call, for the statement and 
 substantiation of facts against my system ; but I shall not be 
 satisfied with popular and vulgar clamor, nor with indefinite 
 and anonymous publications. I ask credible persons, under 
 their own true signatures, to come out and specify cases, if 
 they know of any ; and give names, streets and numbers: — 
 and I will honestly examine them, and if I find them true, I 
 will publicly acknowledge them." 
 
 Yet no one met this call, and with all this public and pri- 
 vate inquiry, I have not been able to ascertain a single in- 
 stance in which any individual has suffered either from chol- 
 era or any other disease, who has strictly and properly pur- 
 sued the regimen prescribed in my lectures. The following 
 testimonies, on the other hand, are mostly extracts from much 
 longer statements which I have received from the individuals 
 whose names are given. 
 
 Mr. Graham. Sir, — In stating my views of simple diet, 
 as a means of preserving health and preventing disease, I 
 must necessarily be brief for want of time. I think I have 
 the most ample evidence of its salutary and conservative ef- 
 fects in my own person, of which, for the sake of the testi- 
 mony — though I would not appear obtrusive — I will give 
 some account. I had been afflicted, both before and during 
 my medical studies, with that worst of diseases, chronic dys- 
 pepsia, from which I never obtained any permanent relief, 
 until about eighteen months since, when I put myself on the 
 simple mode of living recommended in your Lectures. For 
 nearly a year, I subsisted principally upon coarse wheat-meal 
 bread and milk, with great advantage to my health; when 
 happening to get some milk which tasted and smelled of gar- 
 lick, I became so disgusted with it, that, in May last, I ex- 
 changed my milk for spring water, which, with the coarse 
 bread, has constituted my diet since. During the past sum- 
 mer, and especially the cholera season, my professional du- 
 ties were exceedingly arduous, and I often felt myself nearly 
 worn out for want of rest and sleep. Yet through the whole 
 sickness, I subsisted on one pound per day of coarse unleav- 
 ened crackers, with some fruit and spring water, and expe- 
 rienced no disorder of the stomach or bowels, but enjoyed, 
 and still continue to enjoy, better health than I have experi- 
 enced before for the last fifteen years. 
 
 On looking over my Notes of cholera cases, taken at the 
 bedside of the patients, I find that the occasion of the dis- 
 ease could be traced, in a very large majority of cases, either 
 
95 
 
 to confirmed habits of intemperance, or to some prominent 
 act of imprudence. I speak here of patients in both Hos- 
 pitals and private practice. And furthermore, — in treating 
 the disease, my experience is in favor of the most simple 
 practice, and altogether unfavorable to the opium treatment. 
 Many people — and among them, some of my own profession, 
 have asserted that simple vegetable diet was conducive to, 
 and in many cases, had actually produced cholera. I have 
 taken considerable pains to investigate these matters, and in 
 not a single instance have I been able to verify their asser- 
 tions : — but on the contrary, I have uniformly found that ev- 
 ery person who has strictly and judiciously followed the sys- 
 tem of diet and regimen recommended by yourself, has not 
 only escaped the cholera, but enjoved verv general good 
 health. Yours truly, AMOS POLLARD, M. D. 
 
 New York, Nov, 30, 1832. 
 
 Sir, — Having attended your lectures in New York, last 
 winter, and to a considerable extent adopted your system of 
 living, I went to Montreal, and was there from the time the 
 cholera broke out, until it had nearly ceased ; and although I 
 did not in all respects live so simple as I ought to have done, 
 and as I wished to do, yet such was my confidence in the 
 regimen I observed, that notwithstanding the very great num- 
 bers of dead and dying which I daily saw around me, I felt 
 not the slightest alarm, till the destroyer entered our board- 
 ing house, suddenly snatched away two of its inmates, and 
 so terrified the rest, that they all left, except myself and my 
 cousin, who was also partially a disciple of yours. Even 
 then my confidence was not diminished. Two letters which 
 I wrote on the prevention and treatment of cholera were 
 published in the Montreal Gazette; for their contents I was 
 chiefly indebted to you. Your Ob't Serv't, 
 
 52 Monroe St. N Y Jan., 1833. JAMES DRYDEN. 
 
 Mr. Graham. Sir, — After having been grievously afflict- 
 ed several years with dyspepsy, I attended your Lectures, 
 adopted your system, and entirely recovered my health. 
 Through the cholera season, I subsisted almost entirely on 
 Graham bread and water, and enjoyed the most perfect and 
 uninterrupted health, and gained several pounds of flesh. Our 
 family, consisting of ten members, who lived on what the 
 doctors call a more " generous diet " of flesh, coffee, tea, fine 
 bread, &,c. all had pretty severe attacks of cholera, and some 
 of them two and three attacks. My brother David, who 
 lived as the rest of the family did, but used no spirits, went 
 
with me three several times through the cholera hospitals, to 
 see the sick, and during the night following each time, he 
 had a severe attack of cholera, while I had not even a pre- 
 monitory symptom of the disease through the season. 
 
 Yours truly, ALBERT WOODMAN. 
 New York, May 16, 1833. 
 
 Sir, — Myself, wife and sister, had all been afflicted with 
 poor health, and particularly my wife and sister, for ma- 
 ny years before we heard your Lectures, and adopted your 
 system of living. Neither of us has eaten any flesh-meat since : 
 which is now more than a year. We spent the past summer 
 in the city, and never enjoyed better health than we did 
 through the whole cholera season. That dreadful disease 
 raged all around us, and cut off many of our neighbors, and 
 even came into our own house and attacked our mother, who 
 did not live on your system, but ate flesh, &,c. and I was 
 much amongst the dying and the dead, and assisted in lay- 
 ing out and putting into their coffins at least a dozen bodies 
 of those who had died of cholera, yet neither myself, wife, 
 nor sister, had the least premonitory symptom of cholera, nor 
 any other illness during the whole season. 
 
 Respectfully yours, EVANDER D. FISHER. 
 
 No. 19, Essex Street, New York, Jan. 7, 1833. 
 
 Dear Sir, — Beside the many other and great advantages 
 which myself and family have derived from your valuable lec- 
 tures, I will add, that we remained in the city during the 
 cholera season last summer, and living near one of the chol- 
 era hospitals, we daily saw the dying and the dead carried by 
 our door ; yet having attended your lecture on cholera, and 
 living strictly on your plan, we felt so much confidence in 
 your views that we had no dread of the disease : and we did 
 not spend one cent at the drug-shops for preventives : and 
 what is still more remarkable, — the report was that the Gra- 
 hamites were dying like rotten sheep, and that in our fami- 
 ly there was only one Grahamite, and she had the cholera 
 very bad ; and the rest of the family, who were not Graham- 
 ites, escaped : whereas, the truth is, that we were all living 
 on your plan most strictly, except my mother, who thought 
 she required the "more generous diet" to which she had al- 
 ways been accustomed, and she had a very severe attack of 
 the cholera, while the rest of us had not a symptom, but en- 
 joyed the best of health. Your sincere friend, 
 
 WILLIAM MITCHELL. 
 
 No. 437, Broadway, New York, March 20, 1833. 
 
97 
 
 Sir, — Four members of our large family lived strictly on 
 your system during the cholera season, last summer, eating 
 no flesh, and subsisting principally on Graham bread; they 
 enjoyed excellent health, and none of them had the slightest 
 symptom of cholera during the season ; while every other 
 member of the family had more or less of that disease. 
 
 Yours, &,c. P . 
 
 No. 13, Northmore St. New York, March 22, 1833. 
 
 Sir, — During the prevalence of the cholera last summer, 
 all our family had more or less of that dreadful disease, ex- 
 cept myself: they ate flesh, &,c. and I ate none ; but lived 
 strictly on your system. And what, in all probability, would 
 have been my case, if that awful epidemic had found me in 
 that condition of body in which I was, before I adopted your 
 system of living ? — I verily believe, that, but for you, I 
 should not now be among the living on earth. But, blessed 
 be God ! I am not only living, but well. I have scarcely 
 known an hour's indisposition during the past twelve months. 
 And what a change is this, after having been afflicted as I 
 have been for more than twenty years. 
 
 Yours respectfully, H. WHEELER. 
 
 Bowery, near North St. N. Y. Feb. 19, 1833. 
 
 Sir, — Since about the year 1818, I have been afflicted 
 with very feeble health. In the autumn of 1831, I com- 
 menced attending your lectures, and soon began to adopt 
 your system of diet, and lived very strictly on it during the 
 cholera season; eating no flesh, and using the Graham bread. 
 My health improved very much, and continued good through 
 the summer. I saw many cases of cholera, and stood over 
 several patients, and administered to them, and rubbed them, 
 but had not a symptom of the disease myself. 
 
 Yours, with sincere respect, 
 
 F. L. WILSEY. 
 
 New York, Jan. 17, 1833. 
 
 Sir, — Myself and wife had long been in very feeble health, 
 and laboring under many serious symptoms of pulmonary 
 consumption, when we adopted the system of living recom- 
 mended in your Lectures; since which time, our health has 
 improved exceedingly. We, and our children, and other 
 members of our family, spent the cholera season in the city; 
 all living strictly on your system. Our immediate neighbor- 
 hood was very sickly. The cholera was all around us, and 
 
98 
 
 the people died on every side of us. One man died next 
 door, so near to us, that I could reach my hand out of my 
 window into his room ; and the offensive smell of his body, 
 after death, came in and scented our house ; and yet none of 
 us had any thing of the disease. I have two apprentices 
 both of which lived strictly on the Graham system through 
 the worst of the cholera season, without the least indisposi- 
 tion. The older one then went into the country, where he 
 spent two weeks, and lived quite generously on animal food, 
 Stc. and then returned to the city, and took the cholera im- 
 mediately ; and had three doctors to keep him alive. The 
 younger one continued in the city, living strictly on the Gra- 
 ham system. His heath improved very much indeed during 
 the summer, and he had not the least symptom of cholera, 
 nor any other disease. Very respectfully yours, 
 
 EDMUND VAN YORX. 
 93, Clinton St., New York, Jan. 26, 1833. 
 
 Sir, — Having been relieved, by your system of diet, from 
 a miserable state of health with which I had been afflicted 
 for years, I continued to live strictly on your system through 
 the cholera season, making Graham bread the principal arti- 
 cle of my food : and through the whole sickness eating fruit 
 freely ; taking care, however, to get good fruit. I enjoyed 
 excellent health through the season, without having a single 
 premonitory symptom of cholera, or an unwell hour : nor 
 have I had an hour's indisposition since : and at present, I 
 enjoy the most perfect health. 
 
 Yours with respect, 
 
 S. VAN YORX. 
 
 No 268, William St. New York, June 17, 1833. 
 
 Sir, — After having been afflicted with miserable health for 
 many years, I was induced to adopt your system of diet ; and 
 by degrees became more and more strict in my regimen, till 
 I got on to a diet of Graham bread and rain water, exclusive- 
 ly. This regimen I observed rigorously through the whole 
 cholera season, and not only became wholly relieved from all 
 my pains and ailments, but recovered, and enjoyed the most 
 entire and perfect health ; feeling strong, and active, and 
 cheerful. My sleep was as sweet as a babe's ; and when I 
 rose in the morning, I always felt fresh, and clear, and vigo- 
 rous, and sprightly, as ever I did in my boyhood. During the 
 cholera season, I was very much among the sick of that ter- 
 rible disease. Several times a day, I visited a family who oc ? 
 
99 
 
 cupied a house belonging to me, (No. 02, James St.,) and of 
 which five members died. I stood over the beds of the sick, 
 handled their bodies, assisted in taking care of them, &c. 
 and after the house was deserted, and others were afraid to 
 enter it, I went into the house, took up the beds, clothes, 
 and other things appertaining to the rooms, from which the 
 dead bodies had been removed, and carried them out of the 
 house ; and was there three or four times a day, handling 
 the things, &c. After this I visited several other families 
 who were sick of the same disease, — -sat beside the sick by 
 the hour, watched with them, rubbed them, lifted them, foe.; 
 yet through the whole cholera season, I had not the least 
 touch of the complaint, nor the slightest indisposition of any 
 kind. Yours, &c. DAVID I. BURGER, 
 
 New York, Jan. 2, 1833. Corner of Mott and Pell St. 
 
 Sir, — Having been relieved from chronic disease of long 
 standing, and restored to good health by adopting, pretty rig- 
 idly, your system of plain and simple diet ; myself and wife 
 continued on the same regimen through the cholera season, 
 and enjoyed the best of health, without a symptom of that or 
 any other disease, until the cholera season was nearly over, 
 when we were induced to dine on fresh lamb. This brought 
 upon me a diarrhoea and severe pain in the breast ; my wife 
 was more severely handled than I was ; but by timely atten- 
 tion to our disorder, we were soon restored to health. A sin- 
 gle dose of castor oil was all we required ; and that is all the 
 disease I have had, and all the medicine I have taken since 
 I adopted your system, which is now two years ; during 
 which time I have enjoyed most excellent health. 
 Respectfully yours, 
 
 HENRY R. PIERCY, 
 Office of the Genius of Temperance. 
 
 New York, June 15, 1833. 
 
 ShY,— Benjamin Tytler, who is, and has been for a con- 
 siderable time, in my employ, has lived many years according 
 to your strictest principles, and enjoyed remarkably fine health 
 and spirits. He is now in his sixtieth year, and is still quite 
 active and elastic About five years ago he went to England, 
 where he staid five or six weeks. While there, he used ani- 
 mal food, which, he says, brought on a severe disorder of the 
 bowels, and caused him considerable sickness. He has used 
 no animal food since, but lived entirely on vegetable food in 
 its simplest forms. During the cholera last summer, he en- 
 
100 
 
 joyed perfect health : and hearing it often asserted that the ' 
 " Graham system " would not answer in cholera times, he ; L 
 used almost daily to walk through and about the Five Points, I 
 where the disease was raging in its most malignant and de- | 
 structive character. He was often asked why he thus unne- i 
 cessarily exposed himself His reply was, u I wish to try j 
 the Graham system fairly : they say it will not answer iri 
 cholera times, and I wish to see whether it will or not." The 
 old gentleman, however, had not the least symptom of the 
 disease during the season. Yours, Etc. 
 
 DANIEL FANSHAW. 
 New York, Jan. 19, 1833. 
 
 Sir — In the autumn of 1818 I spent three months at Ba* 
 tavia, in the island of Java in the East Indies, where, by the 
 use of bad water or some other means, my bowels became 
 much disordered, and soon after I left there, a very trouble- 
 some diarrhoea set in, and, in spite of every thing I could do, 
 it became an established chronic disorder, which has afflicted 
 me with more or less severity and constancy ever since, till I 
 strictly adopted the system of diet which you teach in your 
 lectures; since which time — now about one year — I have 
 not been troubled with that unpleasant complaint. Conscious, 
 however, of this predisposition of my body to bowel com- 
 plaints, I was fully apprehensive of my liability to suffer an 
 attack of cholera, while that disease was prevailing among 
 us, and therefore, while I carefully aimed to take all proper 
 measures to preserve my life and health, I at the same time 
 endeavored to hold myself in readiness for any event. I lived 
 strictly on what is called the " Graham System, 55 and, 
 through the goodness of Divine Providence, I went through 
 the sickly season, amidst uncommon cares and anxieties of 
 business, without being at all disturbed in my own body by 
 the cholera. Yours truly, 
 
 WILLIAM GOODELL, 
 Office of the Genius of Temperance, 
 
 New York, June 17, 1833. 
 
 Esteemed Friend, — After having been sorely afflicted, for 
 nearly thirty years, with a chronic diarrhoea, which was at 
 times so severe, that it often confined me to my bed, and 
 sometimes brought me extremely low, I have been so much 
 benefited by thy system of diet and regimen, that I was 
 enabled to remain in the city through the cholera season, and 
 not only to enjoy an entire immunity from that disease, but 
 
101 
 
 also, by virtue of ray simple and salutary diet, to enjoy bet- 
 ter health through the summer and autumn, than I had done 
 before for more than twenty years. P. CORL1ES, 
 
 New York, June 17, 1833. No. 86, Madison Street. 
 
 Sir, — I arrived in this country from Scotland, in Novem- 
 ber, 1831, in a very impaired state of health. I was torment- 
 ed with continual head-ache, and was extremely weak ; and 
 was so costive that I was obliged to take cathartic medicine 
 every day. As often as once a month, or six weeks, I was 
 severely afflicted with diarrhoea, which hung on a week or 
 ten days, and was exceedingly debilitating. My spirits were 
 dreadfully depressed, and my miseries were very great. These 
 difficulties, which had troubled me for some time in my own 
 country, increased upon me here, and my wretchedness was 
 intolerable, when I commenced attending your lectures, in 
 April, 1832, and soon after began to live according to your 
 dietetic rules for invalids. In a very short time after the 
 adoption of this regimen, my complaints were all removed, 
 and my health restored. During the cholera season I board- 
 ed in a section of the city where the cholera prevailed to a 
 considerable extent ; and there was much of that terrible dis- 
 ease, also, where I was employed as an engineer; and most 
 of the company employed with me were more or less troubled 
 with it. The people in the house where I boarded were con- 
 stantly complaining and sick, but through the whole season I 
 remained perfectly well, and had not the least indisposition, 
 nor need of a particle of medicine. During the sickness I 
 lived entirely on Graham bread and water, and occasionally 
 fruit. I increased much in strength, and became quite vigor- 
 ous, and able to perform much labor without fatigue. 
 Yours, with sincere respect, 
 
 N. York, Feb. 16, 1833. JAMES WHITELAW. 
 
 I could multiply these testimonials to a hundred, from the 
 statements which I have now on hand, received from persons 
 of the most unquestionable veracity; but I have already giv- 
 en enough to satisfy every candid reader that the hue and cry 
 about the " Grahamites 5 all dying with the cholera, " was not 
 only without any foundation in truth, but was directly con- 
 trary to the truth. 
 
 In selecting the testimonials that I have given, from the 
 large number of statements which I have on hand, it will be 
 observed that I have in many instances presented the cases 
 of those whose previous health and state of body rendered 
 them peculiarly liable to the action of any morbific causes 
 which might induce cholera. 
 9 
 
REVIEW OF BEAUMONT'S EXPERIMENTS. 
 
 [Originally published in the Graham Journal.] 
 
 Experiments and Observations on the Gastric Juice and the 
 Physiology of Digestion . By William Beaumont, M. D. 
 Surgeon of the United States Army. 
 
 •a 
 
 [If the reader will study Dr. Beaumont's book carefully, he 
 will find that every important physiological principle estab- 
 lished by " Beaumont's Experiments and Observations," was 
 taught by Mr. Graham in his public lectures for more than 
 three years before this book appeared, and was published in 
 his lecture on " Epidemic Diseases" several months before 
 the work of Dr. Beaumont was issued from the press. Be- 
 fore this latter work made its appearance, Mr. Graham was 
 ridiculed for teaching these very principles, and advancing 
 things contrary to the established doctrines of the schools. 
 —Editor.] 
 
 Of all the complicated and wonderful operations of the hu- 
 man system, there is, probably, no one function which has 
 been the subject of so many speculations, theories, and ex- 
 periments, and of so great diversity of opinions, as that of 
 Gastric Digestion. Hippocrates and others of the ancients 
 supposed that the digestion of food in the stomach is a kind 
 of putrefaction. — Galen, and others of his school, regarded 
 the process as a species of concoction, like the ripening and 
 softening of fruit under the summer's sun ; and far more 
 recently, Pringle and others have supposed it is a process of 
 fermentation, uniting heat and putrefaction ; — while Borelli 
 and others have asserted that digestion is effected solely by 
 the mechanical action or triturating power of the stomach ; 
 and for this purpose they estimated the muscular power of the 
 human stomach as equal at least to 117,080 pounds. Boer- 
 haave combined the theory of mechanical pressure with the 
 chemical one of concoction. Cheselden was one of the first 
 who started the idea of a solvent fluid or Gastric Juice, and 
 after him, Haller, Reaumur, and Spallanzani followed out 
 and finally established the doctrine, at least so far as to render 
 it the generally received opinion of the schools. 
 
 Spallanzani, in order to guard against the supposed triturat- 
 
103 
 
 ing effects of the stomach, filled small perforated tubes with 
 meat previously boiled and masticated, and forced animals to 
 swallow these tubes; and on examining them after they had 
 remained for some time in the stomach, he found the meat 
 considerably softened, — always more or less, according to 
 the length of time and the size of the holes ill the tubes. 
 He also tried various experiments, by introducing into the 
 stomach cloth bags containing food, which was also softened 
 and sometimes pressed through the cloth and the bags left 
 empty. He then tried a series of experiments wit lithe gas- 
 tric| juice out of the stomach, and asserted that, by mixing 
 food with a quantity of this fluid in a phial, and keeping it 
 for several hours at a temperature of 100 deg. Fahrenheit, 
 the food was digested. 
 
 By these various experiments, the doctrine of digestion by 
 a solvent fluid of the stomach was considered fully establish- 
 ed. Other experiments, however, were thought to afford 
 sufficient grounds for skepticism in regard to the truth of the 
 Spallanzanian theory. 
 
 Carminati asserted that he digested veal with a little salt 
 and pure water at a temperature of 100 deg. Fahrenheit : — 
 That the veal was partly dissolved, and he employed the de- 
 canted liquor in similar experiments, until, at length, he pro- 
 cured a fluid possessing solvent qualities, as active as those 
 of the gastric juice. Sturve and Maquart declared that they 
 made an artificial solvent of a weak solution of ammonia, 
 which had the properties attributed to the gastric juice. 
 Montegre said that saliva with a drop of vinegar dissolved 
 the food immersed in it. John Hunter declared that he pro- 
 duced the same effect by immersing meat in the pus of an 
 abscess. Calves-foot jelly, at the temperature of the living 
 stomach, was also affirmed to have the same effect on animal 
 matter. Tiedeman and Gmelin said that they found dilute 
 acetic acid — dilute hydro-chloric acid — a weak solution of 
 acetate of ammonia severally dissolved more or less of most 
 animal substances used as food. 
 
 Sir George Fordyce, after a careful review of the experi- 
 ments of Spallanzani, Reaumur and others, confidently as- 
 serted that chyme could not be produced out of the living 
 stomach. In this opinion Chaussier and Magendie agreed 
 with him. Montegre, after extensive and varied experiments, 
 asserted that the only fluid of the stomach concerned in di- 
 gestion, was saliva swallowed from the mouth, and slightly 
 acidulated in the stomach. Wilson Philip, after a great va- 
 riety of experiments, declared that the contents of the stom- 
 &ah are never permeated throughout by the gastric juice, and 
 
104 
 
 that the surface of the mass only, which comes in contact 
 with the inner surface of the stomach, is digested ; while the 
 more central portion remains entirely unchanged ; and that, 
 if the chy milled portion of the food which lies next to the 
 inner surface of the stomach, is not removed, so as to let 
 another portion come in contact with the coat of the stomach, 
 digestion cannot go on ; and also, that if new portions of food 
 are received into the stomach, before that organ has wholly 
 disposed of its previously received contents, the new portion 
 becomes enveloped in the centre of the old, and remains un- 
 changed till the old is digested and removed. 
 
 Philip, Brodie, Broughton, JBreschet, Edwards and seve- 
 ral others, asserted that digestion is completely suspended in 
 the living stomach in perfect health, by a division of the 
 pneumo-gastric nerves, while others contended that the divis- 
 ion of these nerves only suspends for a time but does not de- 
 stroy the digestive powers of the stomach. 
 
 Some of the ablest physiologists of our own country era- 
 v braced the views of Montegre in regard to the fluid of the 
 stomach, and denied the gastric secretion of a solvent fluid 
 such as was asserted by Spallanzani and his followers, and to 
 establish themselves in their position, they arrayed a host of 
 facts admitted by their antagonists. 
 
 Whole grains of barley in perforated tubes, remained two 
 days in the stomach of a turkey, unaffected, except that they 
 were slightly swollen ; whole grains of corn, in linen bags, 
 remained three days in the stomach of a frog unchanged, 
 but when beans, peas, and bread, well mashed or masticated, 
 were introduced, in two days the bags were found empty; — 
 the cohesion between the particles of the enclosed food be- 
 ing destroyed, they passed through the linen. When a piece 
 of flesh or more coherent articles were employed, the tubes 
 or bags did not become empty; their contents being merely 
 reduced to a pulp ; and in all cases where tubes were used, 
 the softening was in proportion to the size of the holes which 
 suffered the energies of the stomach to act on the contents of 
 the tubes. It was observed also, that, in Spallanzani's ex- 
 periments with gastric juice out of the stomach ; First — In 
 most, if not all cases, in which a decided change took place, 
 it was either bread or a portion of flesh which was subjected 
 to the action of the gastric juice. Secondly — The flesh was, 
 in general, previously boiled and afterwards well mashed or 
 chewed. Thirdly — No change was produced unless the gas- 
 tric fluid was heated to one hundred or one hundred and two 
 degrees Fahrenheit ; — the softening which the bread or flesh 
 underwent being always in proportion to the degree of heat 
 
105 
 
 beyond this point. Cold gastric juice being perfectly inert. 
 Fourthly — In general, it required from ten to fifteen, and in 
 some cases forty-three hours, before any considerable change 
 in the food was produced by the gasrtic juice out of the stom- 
 ach. Fifthly — There is no evidence that the softened food 
 approached in its chemical character to chyme. 
 
 It was admitted that when bread and boiled flesh and a 
 few other substances were chewed or triturated or mashed, 
 and immersed in the fluids taken from the stomach of living 
 animals, and raised to a temperature of one hundred degrees 
 and over of Fahrenheit, and soaked in that fluid at that tem- 
 perature for hours, they did undergo a softening or disinte- 
 gration, but not from any peculiar solvent properties in the 
 fluids employed. A variety of artificial solvent fluids, it was 
 contended, would produce the same effect, as had beeo 
 abundantly proved by experiments. 
 
 It was asserted that many physiologists had been led into 
 a great mistake by not discriminating between the reduction 
 of the food to a pulpy state, and that entire and perfect 
 change which takes place in natural digestion ; — that they 
 seemed to treat the matter as if they supposed no other change 
 takes place than a change of consistency, from solid to fluid; 
 whereas, there is an entire change in its chemical qualities, 
 All alimentary substances, except liquid albumen, it was af- 
 firmed, undergo, in the stomach, a complete transformation, 
 approaching the nature of albumen. Whatever the kind of 
 food, albumen predominates in the chyme. 
 
 In order tp produce the change of the food into chyme, it 
 must come in contact with the mucous membrane of the stom- 
 ach. 
 
 The change is always from the circumference to the cen- 
 tre of the mass. A thin layer is first digested and carried 
 forward by the muscular action, along the greater curvature 
 from the cordiac portion of the stomach towards the pylorus, 
 and when this is not removed digestion ceases. Therefore, 
 whatever suspends or disturbs the muscular action by which 
 the already digested food is carried forward into the intestines, 
 or prevents the successive contact of the aliment with the in* 
 ner coat of the stomach, stops digestion. 
 
 In confirmation of this, Broussais states the case of a man 
 who could no longer digest his food, yet rejected nothing by 
 the mouth, although his stomach was always full. Dissection 
 after death showed that his stomach had no longer a muscu- 
 lar coat. Its muscular tissue had undergone completely the 
 fatty degeneration. 
 
 Chynviflcstion is so intimately dependent on the health an<£ 
 
106 
 
 integrity of the stomach, that the most trifling circumstances 
 capable of impairing the energies of that organ, either di- 
 rectly or indirectly, disturb the process, or totally suspend it, 
 even after it has fully commenced. 
 
 The division of the pneumo-gastric nerves will completely 
 suspend digestion. Care, anxiety, grief, joy, anger, close 
 mental application, violent exercise of the body after a meal, 
 eating too fast or too much — concentrated food — nausea, even 
 when excited by imagination — and merely leaning the epigas- 
 trium against the edge of a table or any other hard surface, 
 will impair and even suspend digestion .And yet it is assert- 
 ed that a vital process so easily disturbed, can be accomplished 
 under the most disadvantageous circumstances, out of the liv- 
 ing stomach, in inorganic vases. The truth is, that food 
 placed in all the chemical circumstances which can be con- 
 ceived similar to those in which it is placed in the living 
 stomach, w r ill never be converted into chyme. This has been 
 long maintained, and never disproved.* 
 
 With this array of facts before them many eminent physi- 
 ologists, with confidence advanced the opinion that the Spal- 
 lanzanian notion of a solvent gastric juice had no foundation 
 in truth ; but that gastric digestion or chymification is a vital 
 process, depending on the peculiar properties and powers of 
 the tissues of the stomach, rendering it indispensably neces- 
 sary that the food should come in contact with the inner sur- 
 face of that organ, to produce that genuine vital change or 
 transformation which alone can properly be called chymifica- 
 tion. They did not deny the presence of a fluid in the stom- 
 ach, nor the maceration of the food, preparatory to the gen- 
 uine vital digestion or assimilation which follows. But they 
 considered it questionable, whether that fluid is a secretion 
 of the stomach, or merely the swallowed saliva; and wholly 
 denied that it possesses any of that peculiar and powerful 
 solvent property attributed to it by the Spallanzanian school. 
 
 On the other hand again, it was asserted that if animals 
 are killed when the stomach is full and the process of diges- 
 tion going on, the gastric juice will perforate the coats of the 
 stomach. 
 
 Dr. Carswell declared that he had killed rabbits by a blow 
 on the head, after a full meal, when digestion might be ex- 
 pected to be at its full activity ; and suspended them by the 
 hind-legs for nine or ten hours ; — that afterwards, on open- 
 ing them, he invariably found the great curvature of the 
 stomach more or less altered, according to the interval which 
 
 ♦See Appendix toBroussais' Physiology second or third edition. Phil- 
 adelphia, Carey & Lea. 
 
107 
 
 had elapsed after death ; — the coats of the stomach being 
 either softened or completely perforated ; and in the latter 
 case, the softening often extended to the liver, the spleen, 
 and the diaphragm, yet the food in the stomach was some- 
 times not at all digested, and sometimes a very little. The 
 blood remaining in the vessels of the destroyed parts was 
 black, and the liquid remaining in the stomach very acrid. 
 Z Dr. Carswell concluded that these effects were produced by 
 the gastric juice, in its natural condition and character. 
 While in opposition to these views it was contended by others, 
 that all these softenings and perforations of the stomach were 
 the result of disease during life. The latter opinion is prob- 
 ably incorrect, and the former one is unquestionably so. It 
 is now fully proved that cold gastric juice has about as little 
 solvent effect on flesh and other articles of food, as cold wa- 
 ter has; and even when at the natural temperature of the 
 healthy living stomach, it acts on masses of flesh out of the 
 stomach very slowly indeed. In all Dr. CarswelTs experiments 
 no change took place in the coats of the stomach, until the 
 animal had been dead some hours, and the contents of the 
 stomach had become reduced to nearly or quite the tempera- 
 ture of the atmosphere, and therefore, too low for the activi- 
 ty of any energetic solvent power in the fluids of the stomach. 
 Two principles were probably concerned in the production 
 of the phenomena observed by Dr. Carswell. It has been 
 said that there is but one step from the sublime to the ridic- 
 ulous; so also it may with truth be said that there is a high 
 state of vital activity which borders .on disorganization, at 
 which, if vitality be suddenly destroyed, disorganization is 
 astonishingly rapid. The state of the stomach in the early 
 stages of digestion, is very peculiar, — its blood-vessels are 
 full, approaching to congestion, and in all respects there is an 
 accumulation of vital energy and activity in that important 
 organ. A sudden destruction of life at this moment, must 
 therefore necessarily put the stomach (and especially that 
 portion of it generally found softened or perforated, in the 
 experiments) in a condition prepared for rapid disorganiza- 
 tion and decay. In the second place, the fluid, or rather the 
 contents of the stomach, had probably degenerated into a 
 more intense degree of acidity than is natural to the healthy 
 gastric juice of the living stomach ; and it is well known that 
 the acid principle is very powerful in softening and dissolving 
 the animal solids. There is therefore no reason to believe 
 that the softenings and perforations of the stomach observed 
 s by Dr. Carswell, were affected by the gastric juice, as such, 
 in its true and natural character. 
 
 In this state of the controversy as to the existence or non- 
 
108 
 
 existence of a fluid secreted by the stomach, possessing the 
 solvent powers attributed to it by Spallanzani and his follow- 
 ers, Dr. Beaumont, of the United States' Army, published in 
 the close of the year 1833, his " Experiments and Observa- 
 tions on the Gastric Juice and the Physiology of Digestion/' 
 These experiments " were commenced in 1825 and continued 
 with various interruptions till 1833." The subject of them 
 was Alexis St. Martin, a Canadian, of French descent, who, 
 in 1822, when about eighteen years of age, with a good con- 
 stitution and robust health, was accidentally wounded by the 
 discharge of a musket, the contents of which were received 
 in his left side, and carried away the parts so as to wound 
 the lungs and stomach very seriously. The very remarkable 
 result was that the man recovered his health ; but in the heal- 
 ing of the parts the lacerated coats of the stomach attached 
 themselves to the lips of the external wound, and formed an 
 artificial aperture to the stomach, so that this organ could be 
 examined at any time by pushing in a valve which the stom- 
 ach had formed to close the aperture so as to prevent its con- 
 tents from escaping thereat. 
 
 With advantages for gastric experiments never before en- 
 joyed, Dr. Beaumont applied himself to this interesting in- 
 quiry with a degree of assiduity and patience highly com- 
 mendable. The work which he has published as the result 
 of his experiments and observations, is interesting, and, in 
 many respects, valuable. But to a truly scientific physiolo- 
 gist, it is very evident that Dr. Beaumont was not qualified to 
 make the best of his peculiar advantages. He seems neither 
 to have commenced nor pursued his experiments with very 
 enlarged views on the subject ; and he was evidently more 
 intent on demonstrating the existence and the solvent power 
 of the " gastric juice M than in ascertaining the true physiol- 
 ogy of the stomach. The opportunities which he enjoyed, 
 and the time he devoted to these experiments were such as 
 would have enabled a profound physiologist of enlarged views 
 and of acute powers of observation, to produce a work far 
 more valuable to physiology, pathology and dietetics, than 
 th >ne now before us. Nevertheless the work is of very 
 considerable value to those who can accurately understand it, 
 for it contains a great many interesting and valuable facts, 
 and fully establishes many exceedingly important points, in 
 opposition to generally received opinions. Still, however, as 
 a popular work, to be placed in the hands of the general 
 reader, and especially in the hands of the dyspeptic, it is very 
 questionable whether it will not do more harm than good. 
 
 Dr. Beaumont's book has, we trust, forever put to rest all 
 controversy concerning the existence of the " gastric juice." 
 
109 
 
 He has fully ascertained that, on the ingestion of food, the 
 stomach rapidly secretes a fluid which, by the " churning mo- 
 tion " of the organ, is freely mixed with the ingesta ; and 
 it is very evident also, that this fluid possesses so much of a 
 solvent power, as to reduce the various kinds of food, receiv- 
 ed into the stomach, into a fluid or nearly fluid mass, appa- 
 rently of a homogeneous character. But whether this solu- 
 tion is real chymification, or only a proximate state to chymi- 
 fication is a question yet to be decided. Excepting, therefore, 
 the proof that the stomach does actually and copiously secrete 
 a fluid which is mixed with the food in the process of diges- 
 tion, and which, with a quality peculiar to itself, reduces the 
 food to a common state of fluidity, Dr. Beaumont's work 
 has thrown little light on the nature of chymification. Phys- 
 iologists will continue to differ as widely as they have done, in 
 their opinions on this point ; and all will quote Dr. Beaumont's 
 Experiments to prove their doctrines. The Chemical School 
 will continue to assert with Spallanzani, that gastric diges- 
 tion is purely a chemical process effected wholly by the sol- 
 vent fluid of the stomach : while the Vitalists, on the other 
 hand, will still insist, that the gastric juice is a vital secre- 
 tion, — that, as such, it is endowed with its peculiar proper- 
 ties, — that its peculiar nature, properties and efficiency are 
 immediately and necessarily dependent on the vital powers 
 of the living body, and particularly on the vital powers of the 
 stomach ; and therefore that it does not possess the intrinsic 
 independent power of changing food into real and true chyme 
 out of the living stomach, and that even in the living stom- 
 ach it probably does nothing more than to disintegrate or dis- 
 solve the mass of food, in a manner peculiar to itself, prepar- 
 atory to genuine chymification, which is purely a vital pro- 
 cess, effected only by the living stomach itself. And cer- 
 tainly there is not a single experiment nor fact presented 
 in Dr. Beaumont's book which militates against the latter 
 opinion : while there are, at least, many inferences to be le- 
 gitimately drawn from it, which are very adverse to the chem- 
 ical theory. Granting all that Dr. B. asserts of the peculiar 
 solvent and antiseptic power of the gastric juice, and what is 
 proved ? Why, that the living stomach secretes from the liv- 
 ing blood, a fluid which cannot be perfectly imitated by any 
 artificial composition ; and which, therefore, possesses pro- 
 perties and powers, both as a solvent and antiseptic, peculiar 
 to itself, and consequently produces effects, both in and out 
 of the stomach, peculiar to itself; — and perhaps essentially 
 different, even out of the living stomach, from the effects of 
 any artificial composition, made in imitation of gastric juice, 
 
110 
 
 But does this prove the solution of food, either without or 
 within the stomach, by the genuine gastric juice, to be real 
 and true chymification l Most evidently not ! 
 
 According to Wilson Philip, the true chyme is only to be 
 found in a very thin layer in contact svith the inner surface 
 of the stomach, and is gradually carried forward to the pylo- 
 ric orifice, — becoming more and more perfectly changed as 
 it advances, till it passes into the small intestines ; and if it 
 be not thus removed, so as to permit another portion of food 
 to come in contact with the surface of the stomach, digestion 
 or chymification ceases. Now all this may be strictly true, 
 consistently with the experiments and observations of Dr. 
 Beaumont. There is therefore nothing in all his experiments 
 which proves that genuine chymification can be effected out 
 of the living stomach ; and nothing which proves that the 
 chymifying change is not effected wholly by the vital powers 
 of that organ. 
 
 Dr. Beaumont is too fond of his chemical speculations. 
 He would lead one to suppose that, with a little skill and 
 management, an artificial process might be arranged, by 
 which chyme, chyle, blood, bone, muscle, nerve, &,c. might 
 all be produced in the chemist's laboratory, entirely inde- 
 pendent of nature's established economy. Heat and elec- 
 tricity or the magnetic fluid would set this organized machine 
 into operation, and thus we should have a living man, produc- 
 ed wholly by the action of chemical agents and the play of 
 chemicai affinities. / q 
 
 In some respects, Dr. Beaumont's book is a very danger- 
 ous one, and is fitted widely to mislead the Faculty , as well 
 as the invalids who may read it or refer to it for dietetic in- 
 struction. If chymification is effected wholly by the gastric 
 juice, — if it is purely a chemical instead of a vital process, 
 «-~if the vital powers of the stomach are no farther concerned 
 in it than merely to secrete the solvent fluid, then the physi- 
 cian, or his patient who is just recovering from a fit of sick- 
 ness, or is grievously afflicted with dyspepsia, has only to 
 turn to Dr. Beaumont's scale of the digestibility of different 
 kinds of food, and ascertain what articles passed through the 
 stomach in the shortest time, or yielded most readily to the 
 action of the gastric juice out of the stomach, and whether 
 it be soused tripe, pig's feet, or whatever else it may be, it is 
 to be selected as the most proper food for the feeble invalid 
 and those of weak stomachs because it is most easily digest* 
 ed. 
 
 But this notion, which already too extensively prevails,, is 
 |H the very f4ce of physiological truth. Nothing is more 
 
Ill 
 
 certain than that many articles of food which pass most 
 rapidly through the stomach cause a much greater expendi- 
 ture of the functional powers of that organ, than other arti- 
 cles which pass more slowly through it. Indeed, it may be 
 regarded as a general law, that those kinds of food, appro- 
 priate for man, which naturally pass slowly through the sto- 
 mach, are digested with the least vital expense and exhaus- 
 tion of the organ, and most slowly wear out its functional 
 powers ; and therefore, are not only best calculated to pro- 
 mote the most vigorous condition of the alimentary organs, 
 but also, are most conducive to the general welfare of the 
 system. Thus, fresh beef, because it is generally supposed 
 to be easily digested, has long been prescribed as the most 
 suitable food for dyspeptics ; whereas, the truth is that the 
 free use of beef or flesh meat always — in civic life- — tends to 
 induce dyspepsy ; and no man ever was, nor ever can be cur- 
 ed of that complaint by virtue of flesh-eating. While, on the 
 other hand, vegetables and fruits are generally prohibited in 
 such cases, because they are supposed to be hard of diges- 
 tion, but it is scarcely possible for those who subsist on a 
 well-regulated vegetable diet, and are reasonably temperate 
 in quantity, to be dyspeptic; and no food whatever, will so 
 soon restore a broken-down dyspeptic stomach to a healthy 
 and vigorous state. In relation to this point, Dr. Beaumont 
 has made some very just remarks, — " The quality of nutri- 
 ment is of considerable importance in dietetic regulations. 
 Bulk is perhaps nearly as necessary to the articles of diet 
 as the nutrient principle. They should be so managed that 
 one should be in proportion to the other. Too highly nutri- 
 tive diet is probably as fatal to the prolongation of life and 
 health, as that which contains ail insufficient quantity of 
 nourishment." P. 39. But the Doctor is greatly mistaken if 
 he supposes that carnivorous animals only, are injured by 
 concentrated food. Extensive experiment has fully demon- 
 strated that herbivorous animals suffer equally from the same 
 cause. 
 
 In attempting to explain the Physiology of Hunger, Dr., 
 Beaumont has come at least as near to the truth, as any one 
 whose opinions on the subject had previously been present- 
 ed to the public through the medium of the press; yet there 
 are some very important facts which powerfully militate 
 against his theory. " My impression, 1 ' says he, (p. 57, &c.) 
 " is that hunger is produced by a distension of the gastric 
 vessels, or that apparatus, whether vascular or glandular, 
 which secretes the gastric juice ; and is believed to be the 
 effect of repletion by this fluid. " " A distension by the gas- 
 
112 
 
 trie juice of a particular set of vessels or glands, constitut- 
 ing, in part, the erectile tissue of the villous coat of the sto- 
 mach. The sensation varies according to the different de- 
 grees or states of distension ; from the simplest desire to the 
 most painful sense of hunger ; and is allayed or increased in 
 proportion to the application or refusal of alimentary stimu- 
 lus to the excretory vessels. The greater the distension of 
 the vessels the more acute will be the pain ; hence the dif- 
 ference between a short and a protracted fast." The doctor 
 considers it almost a matter "of demonstration that a large 
 quantity of gastric juice must be contained in appropriate 
 vessels, during a fast; ready to obey the call of aliment/' 
 
 " The quiescence and relief from the unpleasant sensations, 
 which are experienced as soon as the vessels are emptied, 
 are, I think," continues he, " additional proofs of my opin- 
 ion." 
 
 This theory is one step removed from that of gastric juice 
 in the stomach corroding its inner surface, when the digest- 
 ed food has all passed from it ; and thus causing hunger. 
 The doctor's theory is, of course, the more plausible now, 
 since it is demonstrated that, at such times, there is no gas- 
 tric juice in the stomach. Nevertheless, most of the objec- 
 tions which lie against the one, bear with equal force against 
 the other. If hunger be a sensation produced by the disten- 
 sion of the vessels containing the gastric juice ; and if the 
 longer the fast, the greater will be the distension and the 
 more pressing and painful the hunger; how is it that hunger, 
 which occurs from physiological habitude, at regular peri- 
 ods, according to the individual's customary hour for eat- 
 ing, will subside and totally disappear, if the usual hour of 
 eating be permitted to pass by, without taking food? unless, 
 indeed, the wants of the system for nourishment are real and 
 pressing; and even then the same thing will take place to 
 some degree ! Will it be said that there is a re-absorption of 
 the gastric juice, and a consequent abatement of hunger ? 
 This is wholly an assumption; of the truth of which there is 
 no proof — no evidence. But again, if tC hunger is caused 
 purely by the distension of the vessels containing the gas- 
 tric juice ;" and if " the sensation varies according to the 
 different degrees or states of distension ; from the simplest 
 desire to the most painful sense," why is it that the sense of 
 hunger is always more or less painful and imperious, accord- 
 ing as the customary food is more or less stimulating in pro- 
 portion to the nourishment which it affords. Thus for illus- 
 tration ; if we select three men of regular habits, each tak- 
 ing his three regular meals a day — one subsisting on pure 
 
113 
 
 I vegetable food, simply and plainly prepared, the second par- 
 taking freely of flesh meat, without conciiment, the third par* 
 taing freely of flesh meat highly seasoned with salt, pepper, 
 mustard, &,c. — now, other things being equal in the circum- 
 stances and conditions of these men, if food be withheld 
 from them at their usual time of eating, the sense of hunger 
 will always be much more painful and imperious in the second 
 than in the first, and still more so in the third. Are these differ- 
 ent degrees of the intensity of the sense of hunger in the three 
 individuals owing to the different degrees of distension in the 
 vessels containing the gastric juice? Most certainly not ! 
 Furthermore, it is well known to physiologists, that, in the 
 artificial states of civic life at least, the sense of hunger often 
 occurs with much intensity when the vital economy is so far 
 from actually standing in need of a new ingestion of aliment- 
 ary matter, that nothing would be more beneficial to every 
 organ and part of the system than a temporary abstinence 
 from food. 
 
 There are, also, other facts in point, which are not easily- 
 got over. Here are several individuals assembled around a 
 table loaded with sumptuous fare, — their hunger is powerful 
 — they contemplate the repast with eager desire — their ap- 
 petite is sharply whetted — the savory viands are smoking on 
 their plates; and now they are just about to commence their 
 meal ; — at this moment several letters are thrown upon the 
 table. One reads that a steamboat has burst her boilers, 
 and that his beloved wife or child whom he was hourly ex- 
 pecting home, is scalded to death ! — his hunger is entirely 
 gone in an instant. Another reads an insulting communica- 
 tion which throws him into a violent fit of anger, and his 
 hunger is all gone. Another reads that a dreadful pesti- 
 lence has broken out, and is committing awful ravages in 
 the neighborhood ; a paroxysm of fear at once destroys his 
 hunger. Another reads that his ship, which he believed to 
 have been captured by the pirates, has just entered the har- 
 bor with a rich freight ; — overwhelming joy annihilates his 
 hunger. Another takes a pinch of snuff and his hunger is 
 gone. Another puts a piece of tobacco in his mouth, and 
 his hunger is destroyed. Another dissolves some emetic 
 tartar, stirs it up, and contemplates swallowing it, and his 
 hunger disappears. 
 
 These are not merely fanciful suppositions ; — they are 
 real cases which have happened thousands of times. But 
 how are these cases met by Dr.JSeaumont's theory? — Is his 
 gastric juice re-absorbed in an instant 1 — or does it instan- 
 taneously gush from its distended vessels into the stomach ? 
 10 
 
114 
 
 Neither ! What then becomes of the sense of distension in 
 the vessels containing the gastric juice, which constitutes 
 the feeling of hunger 1 — Dr. Beaumont's theory is at fault 
 here ! — nor here only ! — many other facts might easily be 
 adduced to prove its falsity. The Doctor has not yet got 
 hold of the true physiology of hunger. His chemical and 
 mechanical principles will not answer for the solution of 
 vital phenomena. The true theory of hunger has not yet 
 found its way to the press. 
 
 In relation to the gastric juice, there is one other point in 
 Dr. Beaumont's theory, which is not only incorrect, but 
 which does not even harmonize with his own facts. 
 
 "The quantity of gastric juice/ 5 he says, " either con- 
 tained in its proper vessels, or in a state of preparation in 
 the circulating fluids, is believed to be in exact proportion to 
 the quantity of aliment required for the due supply of the 
 system. If more than an ordinary quantity of food be taken, 
 a part of it will be left undissolved in the stomach, and pro- 
 duce the usual unpleasant symptoms of indigestion." P. 65, 
 
 Again ; — Cl the stomach is not designed to receive more 
 food than can be duly mixed with the gastric solvent already 
 in its proper vessels, or in a state of preparation in the blood 
 vessels." P. 71. 
 
 Again; — <( the gastric juice does not accumulate in the 
 cavity of the stomach, until alimentary matter is required, 
 and excites its vessels to discharge their contents, for the 
 immediate purposes of digestion. It then begins to exude 
 from its proper vessels ; and increases in proportion to the 
 quantity of aliment naturally required and received." Pp. 
 85, 86. 
 
 Again; u there is always disturbance of the stomach when 
 more food has been received than there is gastric juice to act 
 on it." P. 140. 
 
 Now if the doctor's notion be true, that there is a fixed 
 law of relation between the quantity of gastric juice in its 
 proper vessels and in a state of preparation, and the quantity 
 of food naturally required, how is it that he could so fre- 
 quently draw off from the stomach, two ounces of gastric 
 juice, and yet, so soon afterwards, his subject take into his 
 stomach as much food as the real wants of his system re- 
 quired, and digest it in due time, without manifesting any 
 inconvenience from the loss of the two ounces of gastric 
 juice 1 — And how is it, that, on some occasions, two hours 
 before the time of the meal, and before hunger had begun 
 to be felt, the Doctor found such a copious flow of the gas- 
 tric juice ? when on other occasions, immediately preceding 
 
115 
 
 the time of the meal, he could with difficulty procure even 
 a small quantity ; and still the stomach would receive its full 
 supply of food, and readily digest it, without evincing any 
 lack of gastric juice ? 
 
 It is not very easy to perceive how these and many other 
 questions which might be asked, can be answered consist- 
 ently with Dr. Beaumont's theory of hunger, gastric diges- 
 tion, &c. The truth is, there is no more a fixed relation 
 between the quantity of gastric juice which the stomach is 
 capable of secreting, and the quantity of food naturally 
 required by the system, than there is between the quantity 
 of fluid which the salivary glands are capable of secreting, 
 and the quantity of food naturally required. In both cases, 
 the secreting function is variously affected by exciting and 
 depressing causes. In both cases the function may be 
 pushed to such an extent as to cause a temporary exhaustion 
 of the functional power of the secreting organs; and in both 
 cases the organs secrete immediately from the arterial blood 
 their appropriate fluids as they are demanded, and can con- 
 tinue to secrete those fluids as long as a due supply of arte- 
 rial blood is received, and the secreting power of the or- 
 gans is sustained. There is not the slightest anatomical 
 nor physiological evidence that the stomach has any vessels 
 which receive and retain the gastric juice preparatory for 
 digestion, and the distension of which, by the gastric juice 
 causes the sense of hunger. 
 
 As an argument against the notion which had been enter- 
 tained by many physiologists, that when the chyme has 
 passed from the stomach, and previous to the reception of 
 another meal, a quantity of gastric juice is secreted, and 
 remains in a free state in the stomach, preparatory for the 
 digestion of the new aliment, Dr. Beaumont says, (p. 138), *Lf 
 that in such a case, there would be danger that the gastric 
 juice would be weakened, by the introduction of large quan- 
 tities of water or other fluids, in the intervals of eating, and 
 thus lose its energy and concentrated solvent properties. 
 This idea is several times expressed and implied in the 
 Doctor's book, and seems to be a very valid one in his own 
 mind ; and yet he ought to be well aware that it is a com- 
 mon practice, with people of good digestive powers, to drink 
 two and even three tumblers of water during the ingestion of 
 a single meal ; and not unfrequently do people, at the close 
 of a meal, or some few minutes after it, take large draughts 
 of water, cider, beer, or some other liquid. In such cases 
 the water or the liquid must mix with the gastric juice, in 
 some measure at least ; and, according to Dr. Beaumont, 
 
116 
 
 reduce its energy and concentrated solvent properties. And 
 then the stomach must perform an elective function, and 
 absorb the water and leave the gastric juice, or it must ab- 
 sorb them both, or they must pass together into the small in- 
 testines ; or the gastric juice must remain with the water in 
 the stomach, to perform the digestive function in its diluted 
 state. But if the stomach can perform the elective function 
 of absorption, then the Doctor's objection to free gastric 
 juice in the stomach before the reception of food, is of no 
 force. If the diluted gastric juice is absorbed, or passed 
 into the small intestines, and more is secreted for the diges- 
 tion of the food, then his idea that the quantity of gastric 
 juice, in its appropriate vessels, and in a state of prepara- 
 tion in the blood vessels, bears a fixed relation to the quan- 
 tity of food demanded by the real wants of the economy, is 
 evidently refuted by fact; and if digestion is performed by 
 diluted gastric juice, his position is equally disturbed. 
 
 It is undoubtedly true, as the Doctor states, that free gastric 
 juice does not accumulate in the cavity of the stomach previ- 
 ous to the reception of food ; nor, as a general physiological 
 fact, is there any gastric juice secreted before the ingestion 
 of food commences. But as soon as a portion of food is re- 
 ceived into the stomach, and excites its secreting organs, 
 the process of secretion commences, and the gastric juice 
 appears on the inner surface of the stomach like prespiration 
 on the forehead of a laboring man, and becomes mixed with 
 the food as it is carried around the gastric cavity by the mus- 
 cular action or " churning motion' 5 of the stomach, When 
 considerable fluid is taken with the food during the meal, as 
 when tea, coffee, and other liquids, are constantly sipped to 
 wash down the food, the gastric juice is less freely secreted 
 during the ingestion, and the aqueous fluid is mostly absorb- 
 ed before the process of digestion commences. But when 
 the meal has been completed, and the process of digestion 
 has fully commenced, if a large quantity of water or other 
 liquid is received into the stomach, either this organ sud- 
 denly contracts upon its contents, and presses them forward 
 towards the pyloric orifice, and then by the powerful con- 
 traction of some of the circular fibres of its muscular coat, 
 brings itself into the form of an hour-glass, confining the 
 food in the pyloric end, and retaining the newly received 
 fluid in the cardiac or larger end, till the absorbing vessels 
 of that region shall take it up and carry it away, or else, the 
 newly received fluid mixes with the previously received con- 
 tents of the stomach, reducing them to a very diluted state 
 and wholly arresting the process of digestion, till the fluicj 
 
117 
 
 thus received has been absorbed or otherwise removed. — In 
 both cases, therefore, the process of digestion is more or less 
 disturbed, and in the latter case particularly, it is greatly 
 retarded; and in weak, dyspeptic stomachs much oppression 
 and distress and derangement of function is often occasioned 
 by this cause. — Yet we know that people with healthy and 
 vigorous stomachs will indulge in free imbibitions of water, 
 during, and immediately following the ingestion of food, with 
 apparently little or no inconvenience. 
 
 In regard to the temperature of the stomach, there is 
 reason to believe that the artificial aperture in Dr. Beau- 
 mont's subject, had a considerable effect. The temperature 
 of a perfectly natural and healthy stomach, in a vigorous, 
 laboring man, probably ranges from one hundred to one 
 hundred and four degrees Fahrenheit. And beyond all 
 question, much allowance must be made, in relation to 
 many other phenomena observed by Dr. Beaumont, on the 
 score of the artificial condition and treatment of the stomach 
 on which he experimented. 
 
 On the subject of saliva, Dr. Beaumont talks very loosely 
 and evinces his want of physiological science. " Dry food," 
 says he, " cannot be swallowed until it receives an admixture 
 of a fluid ; whether it be saliva or some other liquor, is not, 
 I conceive, a matter of much importance. 55 ic Water will 
 answer the purpose nearly as well as saliva. " # * * * " I 
 have known many persons to spit freely and constantly, 
 whose appetites and digestion were perfect. Those who 
 smoke tobacco are constantly discharging large quantities 
 of saliva, and yet I am not aware that dyspepsy is more 
 common with them than with others." " The legitimate 
 and only use of saliva," the Dr. concludes, " is to lubricate 
 the food, and to facilitate the passage of the bolus through 
 the organs of deglutition." Pp. 68, 69. But Dr. Beaumont 
 ought to know that the important salivary apparatus was not 
 inserted in the organic machinery of the human system for 
 so unimportant a purpose as he attributes to it. In all his 
 experiments and observations on this point he evidently con- 
 founds the salivary secretion with the mucous secretions of 
 the mouth and oesophagus. The truth is that, in a perfectly 
 healthy body, the salivary secretion very nearly resembles, 
 in properties and powers, the gastric juice and pancreatic 
 fluid, and it is not in any degree intended to <c lubricate the 
 food," (for this is done by the mucous secretions of the mouth, 
 fauces and oesophagus,) but, like the gastric juice, to act on 
 it as a solvent ; and when the food is thoroughly masticated, 
 and by this process, retained for a considerable time in the 
 10* 
 
118 
 
 mouth, an incipient state of solution takes place, similar id 
 that of the stomach and small intestines. And if Dr. Beau* 
 mont's notion in regard to the relation between the quantity 
 of gastric juice and the quantity of food, were true, he 
 would find that all waste of the salivary fluid would be at- 
 tended with immediate inconvenience ; but the stomach 
 being compelled to make up for the delinquencies of the 
 mouth, the evil effect of those delinquencies is seldom if 
 ever perceived, and never duly appreciated. 
 
 But enough has been said concerning the objectionable 
 parts of Dr. Beaumont's book. It is a far more pleasing 
 task to point out its excellences, of which it contains many. 
 
 On the importance of mastication he insists with much 
 truth and propriety. 
 
 " Mastication is absolutely necessary to healthy digestion. 
 If aliment in large masses be introduced into the stomach, 
 though the gastric juice may act upon its surface, chymifi- 
 cation will proceed so slowly, that other changes will be 
 likely to commence in its substance before it will become 
 completely dissolved. Besides, the stomach will not retain 
 undigested masses for a long time, without suffering great 
 disturbance. It is governed by certain laws with respect to 
 aliment. After food has been retained for a certain length 
 of time, undigested, say from five. to ten hours, according to 
 the healthy or diseased state of the organ, or the quantity 
 received into it, it is either rejected by vomiting, or is per- 
 mitted to pass into the duodenum and lower bowels, where 
 its presence almost invariably produces colic, flatulence, &,c. 
 When the stomach is unusually debilitated, food, however, 
 is frequently retained for twenty-four hours or more ; and is 
 sometimes the cause of most distressing symptoms, producing, 
 particularly in children, convulsions and death. I there- 
 fore consider mastication as one of the most important pre- 
 liminary steps in the process of digestion. " P. 70. 
 
 In his numerous experiments Dr. Beaumont has fully de- 2 
 monstrated that the more perfectly the functions of the teeth 
 are performed, the more easily and healthfully the function 
 of the stomach is accomplished. 
 
 " With respect to deglutition, " says he, (p. 71,) " I shall 
 make but few remarks. It is important for the preservation 
 of health, that this process should be effected slowly. If 
 food be swallowed rapidly, more will generally be taken into 
 the stomach, before the sensation of hunger is allayed, than 
 can be digested with ease. If due attention be paid to the 
 primary step of mastication, we shall not be so likely to err 
 in this latter one; and swallowing very rapidly produces ir- 
 
119 
 
 regular contractions of the muscular fibres of the oesopha- 
 gus and stomach ; disturbs the vermicular motions of the 
 rugae, and interrupts the uniform actions of the gastric appa- 
 ratus." 
 
 On introducing food into the stomach of his subject, 
 through the artificial aperture, the Doctor found that the 
 organ would not receive it rapidly even in a liquid state. 
 
 " If a few spoonfuls of soup or other liquid diet be put in, 
 with a spoon or funnel, the rugae quickly close upon it, and 
 gradually diffuse it through the gastric cavity, entirely 
 excluding more, during this action. When a relaxation 
 takes place, another quantity will be received in the same 
 manner." 
 
 The Doctor shows that digestion commences much sooner, 
 and proceeds far more rapidly than has hitherto been gener- 
 ally supposed by physiologists. Indolent inactivity is not so 
 favorable to digestion as gentle exercise after a meal. Sleep 
 after a meal decidedly retards digestion. Anger, fear, grie/, 
 &,c. also retard and interrupt it. The presence of bile in 
 the stomach retards the digestion of all other than oily or 
 fatty substances, but is necessary for the digestion of these 
 substances. 
 
 " Oily substances are digested with great difficulty ; and 
 the fat of all meats is converted into oil in the stomach, 
 before it is digested." 
 
 (( Bile is not essential to chymification. It is seldom 
 found in the stomach except under peculiar circumstances. 
 I have observed that, when the use of fat or oily food has 
 been persevered in for some time, there is generally the pres- 
 ence of bile in the gastric fluids." " Irritation of the pylo- 
 ric extremity of the stomach, and external agitation by 
 kneading with the hand, on the right side, over the region of 
 the liver and pylorus, occasion a flow of bile into the sto- 
 mach." 
 
 " Magendie says, ' I believe that, in certain morbid condi- 
 tions, the bile is not introduced into the stomach/ implying 
 that, in a healthy state, it is always to be found there. There 
 can hardly be a greater mistake. With the exceptions that I 
 have mentioned, it is never found in the gastric cavity, in a 
 state of health, and it is only in certain morbid conditions 
 that it is found there." P. 95. 
 
 " When much fat meat, or oily food has been used, the 
 oil always maintains an ascendency in the gastric cavity. 
 P. 142. 
 
 " Bile is required, and necessarily called into the stomach, 
 only for the purpose of facilitating the chymification of all 
 
120 
 
 fatty and oily aliments." P. 264. (See also pages 127, 147, 
 154, 171, 173, 178, 209, 213, from all which it is fully evi- 
 dent, that fat meats and oily substances of every kind, are 
 with great difficulty digested, and tend to irritate the stom- 
 ach, derange its function and disease its tissues.) 
 
 u Undigested portions of food in the stomach, produce all 
 the phenomena of fever ; which should warn us of the dan- 
 gers of all excesses, where that organ is concerned ; and also 
 admonish us of the necessity of a perfect comminution of 
 the articles of diet." P. 127. 
 
 " Solid food is sooner disposed of by the stomach, than 
 fluid ; and its nutritive principles are sooner carried into the 
 circulation." P. 48. " Soup cannot be digested in the 
 stomach, until it is formed into a harder mass, by the absorp- 
 tion of the watery part." P. 157. u Fluids pass from the 
 stomach very soon after they are received ; either by absorp- 
 tion, or through the pylorus." P. 97. " Drinks, though 
 not subject to digestion, enter into the circulation, and be- 
 come important agents in the ultimate changes that are go- 
 ing on in the tissues of the organism. Simple water is per- 
 haps the only fluid that is called for by the wants of the econ- 
 omy. The artificial drinks are probably all more or less in- 
 jurious, some more so than others, but none can claim exemp' 
 tionfrom the general charge. Even coffee and tea, the com- 
 mon beverages of all classes of people, have a tendency to 
 debilitate the digestive organs. Let any one who is in the 
 habit of drinking either of those articles in a weak decoction, 
 take two or three cups, made very strong, and he will soon 
 be aware of their injurious tendency: And this is only an 
 addition to the strength of the narcotic which he is in the 
 constant habit of using. The whole class of alcoholic li- 
 quors, whether simply fermented or distilled, may be consid- 
 ered as narcotics, producing very little difference in their ul- 
 timate effects on the system." P. 49. See also pages 189, 
 191, 236, 537, 239. 
 
 '•' That the introduction of narcotics into the stomach 
 should destroy the appetite, proves only, that they have the 
 same effect on that organ as they have on other parts of the 
 body ; that they paralyze the nerves and render them incapa- 
 ble of being the media of communication to their common 
 centre." P. 55. 
 
 " Wine and beer are both pernicious in their effects on 
 the stomach." P. 50. 
 
 " The gastric juice has no effect upon wine and spirits." 
 P. 136. 
 
 "Wine, spirits, water and other fluids, which conduce 
 
121 
 
 nothing towards alimentation, are neither coagulated nor 
 otherwise affected by the gastric juice. These fluids are not 
 digested, and probably enter the circulatory system, without 
 much change." P. 146. 
 
 " Condiments, particularly those of the spicy kind, are 
 non-essential to the process of digestion, in a healthy state 
 of the system. They afford no nutrition. Though they may 
 assist the action of a debilitated stomach for a time, their 
 continual use never fails to produce an indirect debility of 
 that organ. They affect it as alcohol or other stimulants do 
 — the present relief afforded, is at the expense of future suf- 
 feririg." P. 49. " It would seem then (from Experiments, 
 pp. 241, 242,) that stimulating condiments, instead of being 
 used with impunity, are actually prejudicial to the healthy 
 stomach." P. 243. 
 
 And if prejudicial to the healthy stomach, much more are 
 they to the debilitated and the diseased stomach. As Dr. 
 Beaumont justly observes, they may seem to afford a present 
 relief, but it is always at the expense of increased debility 
 and future suffering. 
 
 li The diseased appearances of the stomach, which have 
 frequently presented themselves, in the course of my experi- 
 ments and examinations, have generally, but not always, suc- 
 ceeded to some appreciable cause. Improper indulgence in 
 eating and drinking, has been the most common precursor of 
 these diseased conditions of the coats of the stomach. The 
 free use of ardent spirit, wine, beer, or any other intoxicat- 
 ing liquors, when continued for some days, has invariably 
 produced these morbid changes. Eating voraciously, or to 
 excess, — ^swallowing food coarsely masticated, or too fast, &c. 
 &c. almost invariably produced similar effects, if repeated a 
 number of times in close succession." — P. 239. 
 
 "When these diseased appearances are considerable, and 
 particularly, when there are corresponding symptoms of dis- 
 ease, as dryness of the mouth, thirst, accelerated pulse, &c, 
 no gastric juice can be extracted, not even on the application 
 of alimentary stimulus. Drinks received are immediately 
 absorbed, or otherwise disposed of: none remaining in the 
 stomach ten minutes after being swallowed. Food taken in 
 this condition of the stomach, remains undigested fortwent}'- 
 four, or forty-eight hours, or more ; increasing the derange- 
 ment of the whole alimentary canal, and aggravating the 
 general symptoms of disease." P. 108, 
 
 " These morbid changes and conditions, however, are seh 
 clom indicated by any ordinary symptoms, or particular sen* 
 gations descrihed or complained of; unless when in consider* 
 
122 
 
 able excess, or when there have been corresponding symp- 
 toms of a general affection of the system. They could not, 
 in fact, in most cases, have been anticipated from any exter- 
 nal symptoms ; and their existence was only ascertained by 
 actual ocular demonstration." 
 
 " It is interesting to observe to what extent the stomach, 
 perhaps the most important organ of the animal system, may 
 become diseased, without manifesting any external symptoms 
 of such disease, or any evident signs of functional aberration. 
 Vitiated secretions may also take place, and continue for 
 sometime without affecting the health, in any sensible degree. 
 Extensive active or chronic disease may exist in the mem- 
 branous tissues of the stomach and bowels, more frequently 
 than has been generally believed : — and it is possible that 
 there are good grounds for the opinion advanced by a cele- 
 brated teacher of medicine, that most febrile complaints are 
 the effect of gastric and enteric inflammation. In the case 
 of the subject of these experiments, inflammation certainly 
 does exist, to a considerable extent, even in an apparent state 
 of health, — greater than could have been believed to com- 
 port with the due operations of the gastric functions." Pp. 
 239,240. 
 
 These pathological facts are of fearful importance, and 
 should serve to break up the deep and universal delusion 
 cherished by mankind, that so long as they are not sensible 
 of any evil effects from their indulgences, they have the 
 strongest evidence that those indulgences are not pernicious. 
 Post mortem examinations have exhibited astonishingly ex- 
 tensive disease pervading the stomach and bowels, and of 
 the abdominal viscera generally, of a character which indi- 
 cated a progress of many years ; and yet the subject was 
 not, during life, in the least sensible of its existence. But 
 the cause of all this is found in the effects which the artifi- 
 cial habits of life have on the natural susceptibilities and sym- 
 pathies of the system; destroying its original power to man- 
 ifest the most delicate symptoms of the slightest functional 
 aberrations or derangements. In a purely natural and healthy 
 state of the vital susceptibilities of the nervous tissue, the 
 slightest disturbing cause or morbid affection in the alimen- 
 tary canal, reveals itself in appreciable and definite syrup* 
 toms ; and yet, wonderful to be told ! that very state of health 
 is, by most people, regarded as a state of disease? The man 
 whose natural susceptibilities are so impaired that he can 
 drink rum and consume tobacco enough, in a few minutes, 
 to destroy the lives of three men whose healthy susceptibili* 
 ties retain the purity and delicacy of undebauched nature, 
 
123 
 
 is considered to be in a strong and healthy condition of body; 
 while he who would be powerfully affected by small quanti- 
 ties of these substances, would be considered as too delicate 
 for active usefulness in life. The man who has so depraved 
 the sensibilities of his stomach, and destroyed the healthy 
 sympathies of his body that he can eat any thing and every 
 thing without feeling any immediate inconvenience, is regard- 
 ed as having a healthy and vigorous stomach ; while he whose 
 stomach is so pure and truly healthy as to be able to detect 
 and appreciate and manifest, the slightest disturbing cause, 
 is considered as having a very weak, unhealthy and irritable 
 stomach ! So do men in their delusion, mistake truth for er- 
 ror and error for truth ! 
 
 " In the present civilized state of society," says Dr. Beau- 
 mont, " with the provocations of the culinary art and the in- 
 centives of high seasoned food, brandy and wines, the temp- 
 tations to excess in the indulgences of the table, are rather 
 too strong to be resisted by poor human nature. It is not 
 less the duty, however, of the watchmen on the walls to 
 warn the city of its danger, however it may regard the pre- 
 monition. Let them, at least, clear their own skirts from the 
 stain of unfaithfulness, whatever may be the result." P. 63. 
 " There is no subject of dietetic economy, about which 
 people err so much, as that which relates to quantity. P. 
 63. The quantity of aliment is probably of more import- 
 ance than the quality, to insure health. The system requires 
 much less than is generally supplied to it. The stomach dis- 
 poses of a definite quantity. If more be taken than the ac- 
 tual wants of the economy require, the residue remains in 
 the stomach, and becomes a source of irritation, and produ- 
 ces a consequent aberration of function, or passes into the 
 lower bowels in an undigested state, and extends to them its 
 deleterious influence. Dyspepsy is oftener the effect of over 
 eating and over drinking than any cause" P. 51. 
 
 Dr. Beaumont is very correct in the opinion that quantity 
 is of the utmost importance to ensure health : and it is strict- 
 ly true that quality is of equal importance to permanent 
 health and longevity. A moderate quantity of even perni- 
 cious food, to which the system has become accustomed, 
 may be endured for many years, gradually sapping the con- 
 stitution, and bringing on the final catastrophe, without ever 
 manifesting any direct symptoms of its deleterious effects : 
 while an excessive quantity of the most salutary food will 
 soon either induce an unhealthy accumulation of adipose 
 matter in the cellular tissue, and thus lead to obesity, and 
 bring on disease and premature, and generally very sudden 
 
124 
 
 death ; or cause a re-action upon the digestive organs, induc- 
 ing very distressing, but generally less rapidly fatal diseases 
 in those important viscera: or lead to congestion, debility 
 and chronic or acute disease of particular parts, attended in 
 some cases, with general febrile symptoms, and the co-ope- 
 ration of other causes may superinduce or establish a fatal 
 disease. Nevertheless, an excessive quantity of the best 
 quality is incomparably better than an excessive quantity of 
 pernicious food. But a moderate quantity of a good quality 
 is the true rule of diet. 
 
 On the whole, then, the valuable rules to be drawn from 
 Dr. Beaumont's book are, 
 
 1. Bulk — or food possessing a due proportion of nutritious 
 and innutritious matter, is best calculated to preserve the 
 permanent welfare of the digestive organs, and the general 
 interests of the system. 
 
 2. The food should be plainly and simply prepared, with 
 no other seasoning than a little salt, or perhaps occasionally, 
 a very little vinegar. 
 
 3. Full and deliberate mastication or chewing, is of great 
 importance. 
 
 4. Swallowing the food slowly, or in small quantities and 
 at short intervals, is very necessary. 
 
 5. A quantity not exceeding the wants of the economy, is 
 of prime importance to health. 
 
 6. Solid aliment, thoroughly masticated, is far more easily 
 digested and more salutary than soups, broths, &x. 
 
 7. Fat meats, butter, and oily substances of every kind, 
 are with difficulty digested, offensive to the stomach, and 
 tend to derange the nutrient functions and induce disease. 
 
 8. Pepper, spices and stimulating and heating condi- 
 ments of every kind, retard digestion, and injure the stom- 
 ach and through it the whole system. 
 
 9. Coffee and tea debilitate the stomach and impair 
 digestion. 
 
 10. Alcohol, whether in the form of distilled spirit, or of 
 wine, beer, cider, or any other intoxicating liquors, retards 
 and impairs digestion, debilitates the stomach, and, if perse- 
 vered in for a short time, always induces a morbid state of 
 that organ. 
 
 11. Narcotics of every kind impair digestion, debilitate 
 the stomach, and tend to disease. 
 
 12. Simple water is the only fluid called for by the wants 
 of the economy; the artificial drinks are all, more or less 
 injurious ; some more so than others ; but none can claim 
 exemption from the general charge. 
 
125 
 
 3. Gentle exercise after eating promotes digestion more 
 than indolent inactivity or rest. Violent exercise with a 
 full stomach, is injurious. 
 
 14. Sleep, soon after eating heartily, retards digestion 
 and leads to debility and derangement of the stomach. 
 
 15. Anger, fear, grief and other strong emotions disturb 
 digestion, and impair the functional powers of the stomach, 
 and deteriorate the secretions generally. 
 
 These rules are all of the most salutary character; they 
 are founded on the permanent constitutional principles of 
 human organic life ; and are equally valuable to every por- 
 tion of the human race, in every part of the globe. 
 
 Dr. Beaumont's idea that the power of long established 
 habit, constitutes a necessity for the continuance of that 
 habit, is a very common one, but nevertheless, it is a very 
 erroneous one, entirely without any foundation in physiolo- 
 gical truth. 
 
 But with all the errors into which Dr. Beaumont has 
 fallen from a want of physiological science, that science, 
 is greatly indebted to him for the many valuable facts which 
 his patient and persevering " Observations and Experiments" 
 present to the truly scientific and discriminating mind : and 
 we heartily thank him for the corroboration which he has 
 afforded to our principles. 
 
 11 
 
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 Exercise — Rocking in the Cradle ; Carrying in the Arms ; Crawl- 
 ing; Walking; Riding in Carriages; Riding on Horseback. 
 Amusements. Crying. Laughing. Sleep — Hour for Repose; 
 Place for Repose ; Purity of the Air ; The Bed ; The Covering ; 
 Night Dresses ; Posture of the Body ; State of the Mind ; Quality 
 of Sleep ; Quantity of Sleep. Early Rising. Hardening the 
 Constitution. Society. Employments. Education of the Senses—^ 
 Hearing — Seeing — Tasting and Smelling — Feeling. Abuses. 
 
 IfJ 3 Copies bound in extra style for Presents. 
 
GEORGE W. LIGHT S PUBLICATIONS 
 
 THE HOUSE I LIVE IN, 
 
 OR 
 
 THE HUMAN BODY. 
 
 Second Edition — entirely re-written, enlarged and improved. 
 
 FOR THE USE OF FAMILIES AND SCHOOLS. 
 
 BY DR. WM. A. ALCOTT. 
 
 The great difficulty of making a subject which has hitherto been 
 deemed dry and unintelligible, at once agreeable and interesting 
 to the young mind, has led the author of this volume to describe 
 the human body as a House. 
 
 The work treats, first, on the Frame — consisting of the bones, 
 muscles, tendons, &c. 5 secondly, of the Covering — consisting of 
 the skin, hair, nails, eyes, ears, &c. ; and thirdly, of the Apart- 
 ments and Furniture — by which are meant the interior cavities 
 and organs. Nearly every anatomical and physiological tenn 
 which appears in the work is so used or so explained, as to be at 
 once clearly understood and apprehended. The subject is illus- 
 trated by numerous engravings. 
 
 The best recommendation of this work is, that it has been univep- 
 sally approved of by the families and schools where it has been 
 introduced, and by all medical men who have examined it. It has 
 also received the entire approbation of the Press ; and is selling 
 rapidly. 
 
 The Philadelphia Commercial Gazette, in speaking of it says — "It it 
 full of instruction and entertainment. It gives as plain and simple a 
 description of the human body as it is possible to write." 
 
 This work has also received the high commendation of Mrs. L. H. 
 Sigoukney. 
 
 J)^- By letters recently received from Europe, we learn that it is in the 
 course of re-publication in London, and that the teachers in the famous 
 institution of Count Fellenberg, at Hofwyl, in Switzerland, make it on« 
 of the regular exercises of their pupils in French to translate it into thai 
 language. 
 
ON HEALTH, DOMESTIC DUTIES, ETC. 
 
 LIBRARY OF HEALTH, 
 
 AND 
 
 Teacher on the Human Constitution. 
 
 Published Monthly — Price %\ a Year, in advance. 
 DR. WM. A. ALCOTT, Editor. 
 
 This is a Periodical work, originally called the " Moral Re- 
 former, and Teacher on the Human Constitution." It is published 
 in numbers of 32 pages each ? in neat book style for binding- into a 
 volume, illustrated by engravings, and has now concluded the third 
 year of its publication. The numbers of the past years are for 
 sale, bound in neat volumes. 
 
 This work discusses, in a familiar manner, all subjects connected 
 with physical education and self-management. It treats on the 
 connection of light, air, temperature, cleanliness, exer- 
 cise, SLEEP, FOOD, DRINK, CLIMATE, the PASSIOiNS, AFFEC- 
 TIONS, &C, with HEALTH, HAPPINESS and LONGEVITY. The 
 
 editor takes the ground that a proper understanding of the consti- 
 tutional laws of the human body, and of all its organs and func- 
 tions, and a strict obedience thereto, are indispensable to the 
 highest perfection and happiness — present and future — of every 
 living human being. He deems this knowledge more and more 
 indispensable in proportion to the progress of civilization and 
 refinement. The work is pledged to support no system nor set of 
 principles, any farther than that system and those principles can be 
 proved to be based on the laws of Physiology, and revealed 
 truth, and on human experience 5 and consequently its pages are 
 always open to fair and temperate discussion. 
 
 The work has recently been warmly approved of by George 
 Combe, (author of the " Constitution of Man,") as well as a large 
 number of distinguished men of this country, among whom are th« 
 following : 
 
 Dr. John C. Warren, Dr. S. B. Woodward, Rev. Dr. Humphrey, 
 Rev. S. R. Hall, Rev. Hubbard Winslow, Rev. R. Anderson, Rev. 
 Baron Stow, Rev. B. B. Wisner, R. H. Gillet, Esq., Rev. Wm. 
 Hague, Roberts Vaux, Esq., Dr. John M. Keagy, Dr. R. D. Mu»- 
 sey, Prof. E. A. Andrews, Rev. L. F. Clark, Rev. M. M. Carll, 
 Rev. Dr. Fay, Dr. Sylvester Graham. 
 
GEORGE W. LIGHT'S PUBLICATIONS 
 
 A TREATISE 
 
 ON 
 
 BREAD AND BREAD-MAKING. 
 
 BY SYLVESTER GRAHAM. 
 
 This treatise, by the celebrated lecturer on the Science of Human 
 Life, recently published, has thus far met with a good sale, and will 
 doubtless have a wide circulation. It meets with strong favor even 
 among those who do not agree with Mr. G. in his general principles 
 of diet, &c. It treats on the following subjects : 
 
 History of Bread 5 Laws of Diet 5 Material of Bread 5 Proper- 
 ties of Bread 5 Fermentation 5 Preparation of Bread 5 Who should 
 make Bread 5 Varieties of Bread. 
 
 LECTURE TO YOUNG MEN, 
 
 ON 
 
 CHASTITY. 
 
 INTENDED ALSO FOR THE SERIOUS CONSIDERATION OF 
 
 PARENTS AND GUARDIANS. 
 
 Second Edition — Enlarged and Improved, with Notes, 
 BY SYLVESTER GRAHAM. 
 
 The second edition of this important work is nearly double the 
 size of the first, although the price is increased but a trifle. It is 
 selling rapidly. It contains warm testimonials in its favor from 
 Wm. C. Woodbridge, Editor of the Annals of Education, Dr. 
 Woodward, Superintendent of the Massachusetts Lunatic Asy- 
 lum, Dr. Alcott, and others. 
 
 9 2 1 
 
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