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55
mental depression; the danger will certainly be
reduced to its minimum; and whatever effects the
epidemic may happen to produce can be readily
recognised and boldly encountered.
Should these effects arise in their customary
form of diarrhoea, it is of absolute urgent necessity
that immediate medical treatment be resorted to:
and so important for the safety of life is the recognition
of this symptom in the earliest stage of its
occurrence, that no unwonted action of the bowels
should pass unobserved.
The public constantly asks to be informed of
some drug, or combination of drugs, to which under
these circumstances they may have immediate
recourse. But after very careful consideration of
this subject, after hearing arguments on both sides,
and reading those prescriptions which have been
recommended for adoption, I venture to express my
opinion that the safest course for the public, in
regard of this threatened disease, will be to follow
the same principle as guides them in their ordinary
seizures of illness, and to obtain as quickly as
possible the aid of their customary medical advisers.
There is an invincible aptitude in the public to misapply
all precautionary medicines within their reach;
often superstitiously to treat them as charms, under
the protection of which they may neglect temperance
of diet and all other solicitude for health; often
ignorantly to employ them in cases for which their
use is forbidden; often, at the instigation of panic,
to abuse them by preposterous and hurtful