Already has the problem of the contagious or non-contagious nature of this disease been solved upon our own land; and as sophistry can no longer erect impediments to the due distribution of the resources of this pre-eminently humane nation, it is to be hoped that not an hour will be lost in shaping the arrangements accordingly. What now becomes of the doctrine of a poison, piercing and rapid as the sun's rays, emanating from the bodies of the sick—nay, from the bodies of those who are not sick, but who have been near them or near their houses? In the occurrences at Newcastle and Sunderland, how has the fifty times refuted doctrine of the disease spreading from a point in two ways, or in one way, tallied with the facts? We were desired to believe that in India, Persia, &c., "the contagion travelled," as the expression is, very slow, because this entity of men's brains was obliged to wend its way with the march of a regiment, or with the slow caravan: now, however, when fifty facilities for the most rapid conveyance have been afforded every hour since its first appearance, it will not put itself one bit out of its usual course. And then what dangers to the attendants on the sick to the members of the same family—to the washerwomen—to the clergymen—to the buriers of the dead—even to those who passed the door of the poor sufferer! Well, what of all this has occurred? Why it has occurred that this doctrine, supported by many who were honest, but had not duly examined alleged facts, and by others, I regret to say, whose interests guided their statements—that the absurdity of this doctrine has now been displayed in the broad light of day. Make allowance (even in this year of great notoriety for susceptibility to cholera in the people at large in this country) for insusceptibility on the part of numbers who came into contact at Sunderland and Newcastle, with the persons of cholera patients, with their beds, their furniture, their clothes, &c., yet, if there had ever been the slightest foundation for the assertions of the contagionists, what numbers ought to have been contaminated, in all directions over the face of the country, even within the first few days, considering the wonderful degree of intercourse kept up between all parts. But we find that, as in Austria and Prussia, "lamaladie de la terre" is not disposed here to accommodate itself to vain Pt_1
[Pg 49] speculations. Now the matter may be reduced to the simple rules of arithmetic, viz.:—if, as "contagionists par metier" say, the poison from the body of one individual be, in the twinkling of an eye, and in more ways than one, transmitted to the bodies of a certain number who have been near him, &c., how many thousands, or tens of thousands, in every direction, should, in a multiplied series of communications and transmissions, be now affected?

Those who have watched the course of matters connected with cholera in this country, have not failed to perceive, for some time past, the intent and purport of the assertion so industriously put forth—that the disease might be introduced by people in perfect health; and we have just seen how this ruse has been attempted to be played off at Sunderland, as the history of such matters informs us has been done before in other instances, and public vengeance invoked most foully and unjustly upon the heads of guiltless persons in the Custom House or Quarantine Department, for "permitting a breach of regulations;" but the several pure cases of spasmodic cholera, in many parts of England besides Sunderland, long before—months before—the arrival of the ship (as shewn in a former letter) leave no pretence for any supposition of this kind.

I request that the public may particularly remark, that, frequently as those cases have been cited as proofs of the absurdity of expecting the arrival of the disease by a ship, their identity has never once been disputed by those most anxious to prove their case. No; the point has, in common parlance, been always shirked; for whoever should doubt it, would only hold himself up to the ridicule of the profession, and to admit it would be to give up the importation farce.

Others have remarked before me that, though a very common, it is a very erroneous mode of expression, to say of cholera, that it has travelled to such or such a place, or has arrived at such or such places, for it is the cause of the malady which is found to prevail, for a longer or shorter time, at those different points. It cannot be expected that people should explain such matters, for, with regard to them, our knowledge seems to be in its infancy, and "we want a sense for atoms." However, as people's minds are a good deal occupied upon the point, and as many are driven to the idea of contagion in the face even of evidence, from not being able to make any thing of this casse-tÊte, the best guess will probably be found in the quotation from Dr.Davy, at page19.

I perceive that the Berlin Gazette is humanely occupied in recommending others to profit by the mistakes regarding contagion which occurred in that country:—"Dr.Sacks, in No.38 of his Cholera Journal, published here, has again shewn, against Dr.Rush, the fallibility of the doctrine of contagion, as well as the mischievous impracticability of the attempts founded on it to arrest the progress of the disorder by cutting off the communications. It is to be hoped that the alarm so methodically excited by scientific and magisterial authority in the countries to the west ofus[!!] will cease, after the ample experience which we have dearly purchased Pt_1
[Pg 50] (with some popular tumults), and that the system of incommunication will be at once done away with by all enlightened governments, after what has passed among us."—I am sure, good people, nobody can yet say whether those calling themselves scientific, will allow us to profit by your sad experience; but I believe that the people of Sunderland are not to be shut in, but allowed to remove, if they choose, in spite of silly speculations.

It may not be uninteresting to mention here, that there are no quarantines and no choleras in Bohemia or Hanover.