of November, there being 49 attacks on the 6th of that month. Yet the observations of Mr. Adie, a highly scientific and accurate observer, who has for many years kept a register of the weather, altogether failed to shew any important deviation from the usual standard, or with the corresponding days in the previous year. The readings of the two were as follows: This table shews that the barometer was actually rather lower instead of being decidedly higher at the period when the cholera prevailed than at a similar period of the preceding year when there was no cholera. It is of much importance to observe, that Edinburgh being the first place where it made a decided impression, leads to the inference that it was, so to speak, constitutionally weak; and we should, therefore, expect that if in any degree the weakness of a place or its liability to a morbific influence depended upon the undue amount of atmospheric pressure, here, if anywhere, it should have shewn itself. In other words, if undue pressure is a requisite for the active and energetic propagation of choleraic poison, how comes it that the disease should have selected as peculiarly favourable a place where this supposed requisite for its vigorous existence and propagation was not only absent but even reversed? This counter observation ought to be taken into account by our scientific enquirers, for it is not by ignoring observations of perfectly qualified observers that they will satisfactorily reconcile conflicting evidence, and elicit solid truth on which successful theories may eventually arise. That cholera is an exotic requiring for its development in this country an unusually high range of temperature is a prevailing opinion supported by the following statements of Mr. Glashier:-" During the early part of 1854, the mean daily temperature of the air had been higher than normal; its excess for the first 101 days of the year averaging 34. There had then set in a very cold period, injuring vegetation, and killing many hardy plants, and for the 97 days, terminating July 19th, there had been a daily defect of temperature, averaging 3.3. The next few days shewed a sudden increase of heat; the 25th of July was the hottest day of the year, its temperature rising nearly to 90, and exceeding the normal by 11. Three weeks of cooler weather followed, but from the 19th of August to the 11th of October (within which there were the worst ravages of disease) there was an excess of heat, averaging 2.6 per cent. of the 54 days; and during one week of this period, that ending the 2nd of September, the excess amounted to 6 and a quarter. After the week ending the 14th of October, and excepting the week ending the 14th of November, the temperature was below its average till December." Although we believe that this has generally been observed, yet there was an important exception in Edinburgh which we shall exhibit in a tabular form rather with the view of limiting the importance given to the generalization than of disproving its accuracy. It will be seen by the following tables, that during the greatest prevalence of cholera the temperature was much lower than it was in the same period of the preceding year. During the extreme prevalence of the disease. Morn. Even. Min. Max. 1848. Min. Max. 42 43 On Mr. Glashier's observations upon this head the committee make the following remarks:-"Despite some exceptions probably less real than apparent, it seems that Asiatic cholera, and indeed bowel poisons generally, are favoured by high temperature; and in comparing together our two last epidemics with a of November, there being 49 attacks on the 6th of that month. Yet the observations of Mr. Adie, a highly scientific and accurate observer, who has for many years kept a register of the weather, altogether failed to shew any important deviation from the usual standard, or with the corresponding days in the previous year. The readings of the two were as follows: This table shews that the barometer was actually rather lower instead of being decidedly higher at the period when the cholera prevailed than at a similar period of the preceding year when there was no cholera. It is of much importance to observe, that Edinburgh being the first place where it made a decided impression, leads to the inference that it was, so to speak, constitutionally weak; and we should, therefore, expect that if in any degree the weakness of a place or its liability to a morbific influence depended upon the undue amount of atmospheric pressure, here, if anywhere, it should have shewn itself. In other words, if undue pressure is a requisite for the active and energetic propagation of choleraic poison, how comes it that the disease should have selected as peculiarly favourable a place where this supposed requisite for its vigorous existence and propagation was not only absent but even reversed? This counter observation ought to be taken into account by our scientific enquirers, for it is not by ignoring observations of perfectly qualified observers that they will satisfactorily reconcile conflicting evidence, and elicit solid truth on which successful theories may eventually arise. That cholera is an exotic requiring for its development in this country an unusually high range of temperature is a prevailing opinion supported by the following statements of Mr. Glashier:-"During the early part of 1854, the mean daily temperature of the air had been higher than normal; its excess for the first 101 days of the year averaging 34. There had then set in a very cold period, injuring vegetation, and killing many hardy plants, and for the 97 days, terminating July 19th, there had been a daily defect of temperature, averaging 3.3. The next few days shewed a sudden increase of heat; the 25th of July was the hottest day of the year, its temperature rising nearly to 90, and exceeding the normal by 11. Three weeks of cooler weather followed, but from the 19th of August to the 11th of October (within which there were the worst ravages of disease) there was an excess of heat, averaging 2.6 per cent. of the 54 days; and during one week of this period, that ending the 2nd of September, the excess amounted to 6 and a quarter. After the week ending the 14th of October, and excepting the week ending the 14th of November, the temperature was below its average till December." Although we believe that this has generally been observed, yet there was an important exception in Edinburgh which we shall exhibit in a tabular form rather with the view of limiting the importance given to the generalization than of disproving its accuracy. It will be seen by the following tables, that during the greatest prevalence of cholera the temperature was much lower than it was in the same period of the preceding year. When there was no cholera. During the extreme prevalence of the disease. Morn. Even. Min. Max. On Mr. Glashier's observations upon this head the committee make the following remarks:-" Despite some exceptions probably less real than apparent, it seems that Asiatic cholera, and indeed bowel poisons generally, are favoured by high temperature; and in comparing together our two last epidemics with a parallel comparison of their seasons, we are struck with the fact that in 1854, when the summer temperature began later than in 1849, and quite abruptly rose to its maximum, so too the course of mortality in that epidemic was peculiar, seeming to imitate the summer temperature in its deferred commencement and sudden rise." What a strange confusion of ideas in the brain of the scientific committee this paragraph exhibits! The cholera is no longer a disease, but a poison-not only a poison, but a bowel poison! The whole question of the pathology which professes to be treated afterwards, and is afterwards settled by an unsettling mark of interrogation, is here dogmatically decided by an inference! We are taught to speak of cholera as a bowel poison. By an ingenious abuse of purely hypothetical language in framing a statement upon the amount of heat in the air, an attempt is made to win belief for a notion, the grounds of which have not yet been even stated, and which, when they are brought forward afterwards by the same writers, are by themselves admitted to be insufficient. After so glaring an illustration of setting at defiance the fundamental principles of induction, one of which is the avoidance of conjecture in the statement of observed phenomena, what confidence can we repose in this national committee for scientific inquiries? One of the most curious and interesting observations made with regard to the state of the atmosphere was its increased weight during the prevalence of cholera. This fact was noted during the last epidemic by Dr. Prout, and it has since been confirmed by Mr. Glashier. The explanation given of it is, that it depended upon the diffusion of some gaseous matter in the air; and in connection with this the remarkable absence of ozone at all the stations where the air was examined in the cholera districts, seems to indicate the presence of some poisonous gas; for this ozone is held to be the sort of vital principle of our atmosphere, representing by its presence in abundance an invigorating condition favourable to life, and incompatible with any destructive power, and by its diminution or entire absence, a state favourable to the development of noxious influWhat ozone is and how produced is yet a mystery; all that is known of its production, however, points to active elec ences. |