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53
In respect of the commencement and predispositions
of the disease, it is now well known—first,
that in this country it habitually begins with
diarrhoea of a painless and apparently trivial
character; secondly, that diarrhoea, however produced,
is, of all known personal conditions, the one
most likely to invite an attack of cholera at times
when that disease is epidemic; thirdly, that during
the prevalence of Cholera, side by side with it in a
district, there is always a vast amount of epidemic
diarrhoea, apparently constituting slighter degrees
or earlier stages of the same disease; that this
condition is just as amenable to treatment as the
confirmed collapse of Cholera is utterly the opposite;
and—since we can never say how incurable a few
hours may render this insidious symptom, that its
immediate arrest is a consideration of vital importance.
Precautions against causing diarrhœa to oneself
by errors of diet will vary somewhat with different
individuals. Every person of ordinary discretion
knows the habits of his own body, and can be
tolerably confident, within certain limits of food,
that he gives himself no occasion of sickness. He
remembers articles of diet, which his neighbour
perhaps may innocently indulge in, but which to
himself are the occasion of inward disorder—of
purging or vomiting, "bilious attack" or nettlerash,
headache, nightmare, or some other inconvenience.
This knowledge fixes the limits which
it primarily behoves him to regard; taking such