A Homeopathic History of Cholera

1815 - The volcano of Mount Tamboura erupted, the largest known eruption in over 1,600 years, causing the Year Without a Summer in 1816.

In this same year, Cholera sprang from a local problem to become a World Pandemic, and gave homeopathy a real chance to prove its worth:

http://www.the-cma.org.uk/cma_images/Jayney’s%20Presentation.pdf

From Wikipedia: Cholera likely has its origins in and is endemic to the Indian subcontinent, with the River Ganges serving as a contamination reservoir. The disease spread by trade routes (land and sea) to Russia, then to Western Europe, and from Europe to North America.

Cholera is now no longer considered a pressing health threat in Europe and North America due to filtering and chlorination of water supplies, but still heavily affects populations in developing countries.

From Wikipedia: In the United States, many historians cite the “Year Without a Summer” as a primary motivation for the western movement and rapid settlement of what is now western and central New York and the American Midwest.

Many New Englanders were wiped out by the year, and tens of thousands struck out for the richer soil and better growing conditions of the Upper Midwest (then the Northwest Territory).

Europe, still recuperating from the Napoleonic Wars, suffered from food shortages. Food riots broke out in Britain and France and grain warehouses were looted. The violence was worst in landlocked Switzerland, where famine caused the government to declare a national emergency.

Huge storms, abnormal rainfall with floodings of the major rivers of Europe (including the Rhine) are attributed to the event, as was the frost setting in during August 1816.

A BBC documentary using figures compiled in Switzerland estimated that fatality rates in 1816 were twice that of average years, giving an approximate European fatality total of 200,000 deaths.

The eruption of Mount Tamboura also caused Hungary to experience brown snow. Italy experienced something similar, with red snow falling throughout the year. The cause of this is believed to have been volcanic ash in the atmosphere.

In China, unusually low temperatures in summer and fall devastated rice production in Yunnan province in the southwest, resulting in widespread famine. Fort Shuangcheng, now in Heilongjiang province, reported fields disrupted by frost and conscripts deserting as a result. Summer snowfall was reported in various locations in Jiangxi and Anhui provinces, both in the south of the country. In Taiwan, which has a tropical climate, snow was reported in Hsinchu and Miaoli, while frost was reported in Changhua.

High levels of ash in the atmosphere led to unusually spectacular sunsets during this period, a feature celebrated in the paintings of Joseph Mallord William Turner. It has been theorised that it was this that gave rise to the yellow tinge that is predominant in his paintings such as Chichester Canal circa 1828. A similar phenomenon was observed after the 1883 Krakatoa eruption, and on the West Coast of the United States following the 1991 eruption of Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines.

The lack of oats to feed horses may have inspired the German inventor Karl Drais to research new ways of horseless transportation, which led to the invention of the Draisine or velocipede. This was the ancestor of the modern bicycle and a step towards mechanized personal transport.

The crop failures of the Year Without a Summer forced the family of Joseph Smith to move from Sharon, Vermont to Palmyra, New York, precipitating a series of events culminating in the publication of the Book of Mormon and the founding of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints.

In July 1816 “incessant rainfall” during that “wet, ungenial summer” forced Mary Shelley, John William Polidori and their friends to stay indoors for much of their Swiss holiday. They decided to have a contest, seeing who could write the scariest story, leading Shelley to write Frankenstein, or The Modern Prometheus and John William Polidori to write The Vampyre. The Year Without a Summer also inspired Lord Byron to write his 1816 poem Darkness.

The chemist Justus von Liebig, who had experienced the famine as a child in Darmstadt, later studied the nutrition of plants and introduced mineral fertilizers.

From Wikipedia: 1816-1826 - First cholera pandemic: Previously restricted, the pandemic began in Bengal, and then spread across India by 1820. 10,000 British troops began in and countless Indians died during this pandemic.

The cholera outbreak extended as far as China, Indonesia (where more than 100,000 people succumbed on the island of Java alone) and the Caspian Sea before receding. Deaths in India between 1817 and 1860 are estimated to have exceeded 15 million persons.

Another 23 million died between 1865 and 1917.

Russian deaths during a similar time period exceeded 2 million.

From Wikipedia: 1829-1851 -Second cholera pandemic reached Russia (see Cholera Riots), Hungary (about 100,000 deaths) and Germany in 1831, London (more than 55,000 people died in the United Kingdom) and Paris in 1832.

In London, the disease claimed 6,536 victims and came to be known as “King Cholera”; in Paris, 20,000 succumbed (out of a population of 650,000) with about 100,000 deaths in all of France.

The epidemic reached Quebec, Ontario and New York in the same year and the Pacific coast of North America by 1834.

The 1831 cholera epidemic killed 150,000 people in Egypt.

In 1846, cholera struck Mecca, killing over 15,000 people.

A two year outbreak began in England and Wales in 1848 and claimed 52,000 lives.

Please note: this list is far from complete…

1823 - Tsar Nicholas I 1796 – 1855, The first cholera pandemic began in Russia in 1823 and reached its greatest intensity in 1830 and 1831. When the peak of the epidemic passed, more than a quarter of a million of the Tsar’s subjects had died, and the overall mortality among those stricken stood just below 50 per cent.

1830 - Friedrich Edmund Peithner Ritter von Lichtenfels 1795 – 1854, homeopath, fought the Cholera epidemics in Europe, and in Friedrich Edmund Peithner Ritter von Lichtenfels case, he treated 44 cases of which only 3 died.

1830 - Gyorgy Forgo 1787 – 1835, homeopath, at the time of the cholera epidemic he wrote in Hungarian about the homeopathic treatment of this disease, and he was a diligent collaborator in The Orvisitàr, a Hungarian medical journal.

1830 - Christian Theodore Herrmann 1773 – 1836, homeopath, wrote to Simon Nicolaievitch von Korsakoff 1788 – 1853, who said “Herrmann writes to me that he had to give up the treatment of cholera patients in the hospital, for all those who were sent to him were dying, and had already gone through the whole course of allopathic treatment. All methods are admissible here, only Homeopathy is persistently (useful).”

1830 - Johann Emanuel Veith 1787 – 1877, pastor and canon of the cathedral of St. Stephen’s, in Vienna, homeopath, student of Samuel Hahnemann, Johann Emanuel Veith witnessed the cure of his brother by homeopathy and immediately converted to homeopathy. He treated 125 patients with Cholera in 1830, losing only 3 patients. Johann Emanuel Veith discovered Phosphoric Acid as an important homeopathic remedy in the treatment of advanced Cholera, and he promoted the use of the homeopathic remedy Camphor in the treatment of Cholera. Samuel Hahnemann wrote to Veith congratulating him on his success in treating Cholera and welcoming him as a homeopath. His successful treatment of Cholera by homeopathy, alongside Matthias Marenzeller, Moritz Wilhelm Mueller, and many others, resulted in Francis II ordering clinical trials of homeopathy in Vienna, and the successful outcome of these trials led to a wide acceptance of homeopathy as a university discipline in Prague and in Vienna. Johann Emanuel Veith’s reputation extended greatly and he became known throughout Germany as one of the most skillful physicians for the cholera. Johann Emanuel Veith wrote Healing and Prophylaxis of Cholera in 1832,

1830 - Matthias Marenzeller 1765 – 1854, homeopath, conducted the first clinical trials on homeopath at the Garrison Hospital in Vienna, and he undertook provings and administered veratrum album to 50,000 patients in Vienna, thereby preventing them from catching Cholera.

1830 - David Didier Roth, brother of Mathias Roth treated cholera with homeopathy in Austria. There was panic in the towns and the Jews were accused of poisoning the wells. David Didier Roth moved to Hungary and then to Paris, where he published _Health Instructions against Cholera Morbus _in 1832.

1830 - Gilbert Elliot Murray Kynynmound 2nd Earl of Minto 1782 – 1859, homeopathic advocate, a patient of Frederick Hervey Foster Quin in Paris. In 1830, in answer to Frederick Hervey Foster Quin’s queries about the Cholera in England, Lord Minto wrote to Frederick Hervey Foster Quin:

“As you are in pursuit of information respecting cholera, it occurs to me that it might be worth your while in the first instance, to pass a week or two in investigating the character of the complaint, and I have no doubt that a great deal of useful information may be obtained from the reports of its medical agents.

“As far as my information goes, this complaint is the genuine Indian cholera, differing, as of course you know, in very essential characters from the cholera of Europe, and though there are of course varieties of opinion and systems for its treatment, one extremely intelligent practitioner told me that he had very early in his experience been induced to abandon the established treatment by opium, calomel, and bleeding, and resort to a different plan, which proved extremely successful…

“If it be true that extremes meet, you will soon have all the London doctors with you, for they have but one system for all complaints. Calomel measured by the bushel, bleeding by the gallon, and a continual stream of tonics and restoratives for the remaining few days of life.”

1830 - J A Schubert 1800 – 1868, homeopath, student of Samuel Hahnemann, treated Cholera homeopathically in 1830.

1831 - In the territory of Raab in Hungary,  Joseph Bakody treated 223 patients with mild to severe cholera, 14 of whom were in the collapse state. He lost a total of 8 patients, a mortality of 3.6%.

1831 - The 1830 – 1832 Cholera Epidemic – Samuel Hahnemann was able to identify the stages of the illness and predict what homeopathic remedies would be needed for which stages. When Cholera finally struck Europe the mortality rate under conventional treatment was between 40% – 80% depending on the information sources. Frederick Hervey Foster Quin of London reported the mortality in the 10 homeopathic hospitals in 1831 – 1832 as 9%. Mathias Roth homeopathic physician to the King of Bavaria, reported that the mortality was 7%. Admiral Mordoinow of The Imperial Russian Council reported 10% mortality under homeopathy. Samuel Hahnemann was in tune with the thinking of his times by attributing cholera to infection. He also supported the contagion-miasma theory,

1831 - Augustus Bozzi Granville 1783 – 1872 became convinced that cholera was a water bourne  disease, and he published Catechism of Health,

1831 - Edward Cronin 1801 – 1882, homeopath, treated cholera in Persia and in India,

1831 - Count Eduard Clam Gallas 1805 – 1891, Austrian General, cured of cholera by spirits of camphor by Count Laransky in 1831, as Samuel Hahnemann recommended,

1831 - Adolph Heinrich Gerstel 1805 – 1890, homeopath, a pupil of Samuel Hahnemann, who had treated cholera patients in Brno since 1831,

1831 - Charles Gaspard Peschier 1782 – 1853, homeopath, wrote _Instruction succincte pour le traitement homéopathique_ (Notices et Documents sur le Cholera).

1831 - M Hanusch 1803 – 1871, homeopath, a student of Samuel Hahnemann, who had treated cholera patients in small Moravian town of Tisnov since 1831,

1831 - Joseph Reubel 1779 – 1852, homeopath, wrote Vier Vorlesungen uber die Cholera in Europa,

1831 - Frederick Hervey Foster Quin 1799 – 1879, homeopath, travelled to Germany to treat a cholera epidemic, and despite catching it himself, he worked through the epidemic until it ceased, to be warmly praised by the local Mayor. Frederick Hervey Foster Quin successfully cured himself of Cholera on Samuel Hahnemann’s advice.

1832 - Frederick Hervey Foster Quin in Paris treating the cholera epidemic.

1832 - George Henry Bute 1792 – 1876, homeopath, treated the cholera epidemic in Philadelphia, the Cholera Hospital of Philadelphia was the first public charity of the homeopathic school of medicine in this country, and was established by the authorities of that city during the cholera epidemic of 1832, placed in charge of George Henry Bute, one of the homeopathic pioneers of the city and state.

1832 - William Channing 1794 – 1855, homeopath, adopted homeopathic practice in the Cholera epidemic of 1832 and was so impressed by the results he published them. This public conversion to homeopathy had a profound effect on his colleagues, his successful public trials of Veratrum, Camphor, and Cuprum in the 1832 cholera epidemic were to firmly establish homeopathy in New York.

1832 - John Franklin Gray 1804 – 1882, homeopath, treated the cholera epidemic in New York, though so few in numbers, and with no public hospitals under their administration, the comparative results of the different modes of treating that fearful disease produced a powerful reaction in favor of Homoeopathy among the people, and a new impulse was given to the examination of its claims by numbers of the medical profession (and as a result, in 1834, there was a considerable force of homeopathic physicians in the city ready to contest the field).

1832 - Isaac Moreau Ward 1806 - 1876, homeopath, was chosen to high positions in the County and State Medical Societies, and to fill important public trusts. One of these was to study and report upon the Asiatic cholera, when first it appeared in New York city, in 1832, its character, and the comparative effects of remedial agents. He saw homeopathy and allopathy tried side by side in the Park Hospital, and the superior advantages of the former demonstrated beyond all question.

1832 - Bram Stoker 1847 – 1912, writer, Homeopathic advocate, the Stoker family moved to Sligo and returned to Ballyshannon in 1832 to escape from the cholera plague, which killed five eighths of the population of Sligo.

1832 - Friedrich Jakob Rummel 1793 – 1854, homeopath, In the year 1832 the cholera in Merseburg fell in all its malignancy almost the first upon his own family, so that he fist from it his wife and a daughter, and was himself brought to death’s door by the same disease; but he recovered with the assistance of Heinrich Heine (a homeopathic advocate), who was paying him a visit. He wrote Cure of Cholera Merseburg,

1832 - Pierre Joseph De Moor 1787 – 1845, homeopath, the epidemic of cholera in 1832 brought homeopathy to the fore. Pierre Joseph De Moor and the physicians at the hospice of Alost had been experimenting with homeopathy since 1829, and Pierre Joseph De Moor had been using homeopathy for his private patients as well as patients of the hospital. In the year 1832, when the first invasion of the epidemy of cholera broke out, Pierre Joseph De Moor had made sufficient experiences in other diseases to have entire confidence in the homeopathic treatment of cholera.

1832 - Hans Burch Gram 1786 – 1840, homeopath, student of Samuel Hahnemann, was the ultimate proselytizer of homeopathy in America. As a result, innovators like John Franklin Gray, Amos Gerald Hull, Benjamin Franklin Joslin, William Channing, Isaac Moreau Ward (1806-1876), and George Henry Bute (1792-1876) and Abraham D Wilson were all in place to treat the 1832 cholera epidemic with homeopathy.

1832 - Gustav Theodor Fechner 1801 – 1887, psychologist, advocate of homeopathy, wrote Schutzmittel Für Die Cholera,

1832 - Amos Gerald Hull 1810 – 1859, homeopath, used homeopathy to treat the cholera epidemic in America,

1832 - Meyerhoffer, orthodox physician the Hospital of the Sisters of Charity at Gumpendorf, who successfully used homeopathic remedies to combat the cholera epidemic in 1832,

1832 - Charles W Mayerhoffer 1804 – 1863, homeopath, braved the law prohibiting the practice of homeopathy in Austria to conduct secret clinical trials into homeopathy, especially during the first epidemic of cholera.

1833 - Franklin W Hunt 1810 -  1873, homeopath, converted to homeopathy as a result of treating the cholera epidemic in Richmond, Indiana,

1834 - Juan Norberto Casanova 1808 – 1880, homeopath, wrote General observations respecting cholera-morbus,

1835 - Frederick Hervey Foster Quin 1799 – 1879, homeopath, wrote Die Cholera mit dem besten Erfolg bekämpft durch die homöopathische Curart … ,

1835 - Joseph Hyppolyte Pulte 1811 – 1883, homeopath, made the first attempt at a more systematic and fixed treatment of Asiatic cholera in America,

1835 - Mary Ann Bickerdyke 1817 – 1901, homeopath, treated cholera homeopathically,

1835 - Frederick Hahnemann, fleeing from persecution in Europe, soon arrived. Thus was homeopathy well placed to treat the epidemics that plagued America in those early days, and for homeopathy to prove forever its worth.

1835 - Francois Perrussel 1807 – 1872, homeopath, attended a cholera epidemic in the South of France amongst the poor. His mortality rate was 5-7%, whilst the allopaths mortality rate was nearer 90%. He wrote Trip of a Homoeopathic Physician to the Cholera at Marseilles in 1835,

1836 - Joseph Reubel 1779 – 1852, homeopath, The Homeopathic Hospital in Munich was founded by Prince Carl Ottingen Wallerstein, and his physician was Joseph Reubel. Probably the only one homeopathic hospital that survived World War I is the homeopathic cholera hospital in Munich. It opened in 1836. It emerged from the Society of Homeopathic Physicians, the administrative responsibility was taken over by Prince Carl of Oettingen and Wallenstein. The physicians Joseph Reubel and Franz Seraph Widnmann did correspond with Samuel Hahnemann. Johann Joseph Roth even visited Samuel Hahnemann, in 1831 in Kothen, in 1836 and 1842 in Paris. From 1837 on, the hospital exclusively had to be financed by private funds. After the epidemic, cholera had changed to a cholera sporadica, the hospital had to be closed for lack of the necessary funds.

1836 - Francesco Romani 1785 – 1854, homeopath, wrote Treatise on Cholera,

1836 - Jules John Mabit 1781 – 1846, orthodox physician who converted to homeopathy after extensive clinical trials into the homeopathic treatment of cholera., Napoleon III awarded him the Knights Cross of the Legion of Honour for his extensive labours against cholera.  In 1832, Jules John Mabit was sent to England to study Cholera, and he began with a collection of the cholera statistics from 1796 – 1837 (?1832) across the whole of Europe, showing an allopathic mortality rate of 49%, and a homeopathic mortality rate of 7.5%. Jules John Mabit also corresponded with Samuel Hahnemann in 1833 regarding the homeopathic treatment of cholera, Lettre au conseiller Samuel Hahnemann, sur le traitement homoeopathique du choléra morbus asiatique. These results were widely circulated around the World, in America, to the Ministry of Health in Britain, in Canada, in India. Jules John Mabit began treating his own cholera cases homeopathically with great success, and after many clinical trials on homeopathy, he founded a Homeopathic Hospital in Bordeaux. He wrote Etude sur le Cholera in 1835,

1836 - Friedrich Wilhelm Karl Fleischmann 1799 – 1868, homeopath, the homeopath at the Vienna Homeopathic Hospital for thirty three years, and at the Gumpendorf Hospital, where he successfully used homeopathy to treat the Cholera epidemic in 1836 (732 cases: 488 recovered, 244 died : a mortality of 33 per cent, while the reported mortality of the Allopaths was 70 per cent). This result was very much less than that obtained by the Homeopaths of Bohemia and Hungary, and was to be attributed to the inexperience of Friedrich Wilhelm Karl Fleischmann, who had not treated the epidemic of 1832, and who had but a short time been practicing Homeopathy. This success resulted in the annulment of the decree of 1819 forbidding Homeopathy in Austria.

1836 - John Martin Honigberger 1794 – 1869, homeopath, converted to homeopathy after curing himself of cholera with Ipecac,

1837 - Settimio Centamori 1812 – 1860, homeopath, In 1837, when the cholera visited Rome, Settimio Centamori was very successful in its homeopathic treatment. but the rector of St Peter’s dying of cholera while under his treatment, he was accused of poisoning that prelate.

1837 - Benoit Jules Mure 1809 – 1858, homeopath, the cholera having broken out in the kingdom of Naples, he crossed over to Palermo in 1837, and on the voyage wrote some papers on the progress of homeopathy and the homeopathic treatment of cholera, with Samuel Hahnemann’s instructions for the cure of that disease. These he published on his arrival. The cholera not appearing in Sicily, he went elsewhere to propagate the faith, but was speedily recalled to Palermo by the invasion of the Pest in June, 1837; he did not arrive there, however, until the disease was already in its decline, after having carried off near a quarter of the population in forty days. Whilst most of the allopathic physicians had fled from the town during these fatal days, two of Benoit Jules Mure’s disciples, Drs. De Blasi and Bartoli, remained faithful to their post, and were instrumental in rescuing a number of persons from the grave.

1838 - George Calvert Holland 1801 – 1865, homeopath, wrote An Inquiry Into the Nature and Treatment of Cholera,

1841 - Simon Nicolaievitch von Korsakoff 1788 - 1853, homeopath, in the cholera years 1830 - 1847, Simon Nicolaievitch von Korsakoff was elected by the nobility, district inspector. From this appointment, we derive notes on the character of the cholera in Orenburg; of its treatment in Kasan by Arnhold, and in Pensa by Peterson; its course in different European countries, also the results of homeopathic treatment of cholera in the old Catharine Hospital, under the management of Dr. Goldberg, showing that out of 1,274 cases in 1841-4 the mortality was but 6 per cent.

1843 - Francis Black 1820 – 1882, homeopath, wrote Homeopathic Treatment of Asiatic Cholera,

1844 - William Huber 1806 – 1859, homeopath, conducted a study of 2160 cases of cholera in Russia,

1845 - Edward Hamilton 1824 – 1899, homeopath, wrote Comparative Results of the Homeopathic and Allopathic Treatment of Asiatic Cholera,

1845 - Francois Perrussel 1807 – 1872, homeopath, attended a cholera epidemic in the South of France amongst the poor. His mortality rate was 5-7%, whilst the allopaths mortality rate was nearer 90%.

1845 - Pope Gregory XVI 1765 – 1846, awarded the Grand Cross to Settimio Centamori 1812 – 1860, homeopath, for his work combating cholera,

1846 - Joseph Hyppolyte Pulte 1811 – 1883, homeopath, During the prevalence of this fearful scourge in 1846, Joseph Hyppolyte Pulte had the satisfaction of seeing the homœopathic treatment triumphant over all others.

1846 - Joseph D Laurie 1829 – 1865, homeopath, wrote A Few Plain Directions for the Homeopathic Treatment and Prevention of British and Asiatic Cholera, and Also Cholerine,

1847 - Samuel Basil Carlingford 1824 – 1892, homeopath, converted to homeopathy after a visit to Vienna which was was buzzing with the success of homeopathy in the treatment of the recent cholera epidemics (1831, 1836 and 1847),

1847 - Richard Tuthill Massy wrote Cholera and its Cures,

1847 - Carl Ernst Brutzer 1794 – 1877, homeopath, wrote Anleitung zur Behandlung der Cholera homöopathischen,

1847 - Walter Channing 1786 - 1876, orthodox physician, relative of homeopaths, Dean of Harvard Medical School, many of the medical lectures delivered at the Harvard Medical School, where Channing taught from 1815 to 1847 included lectures on cholera and homeopathy.

1847 - Robert Ellis Dudgeon 1820 – 1904, homeopath, wrote Homeopathic Treatment and Prevention of Asiatic Cholera,

1848 - James Lindsay 7th Earl of Balcarres was a Patron of the Edinburgh Homeopathic Dispensary’s Report on Asiatic Cholera,

1848 - John Stuart Sutherland 1810 – 1878, homeopath, physician at the Edinburgh Homeopathic Dispensary, treated a case of Asiatic Cholera and submitted this for publication in The British Journal of Homeopathy.

1848 - Adam Lyschinski 1814 – 1878, homeopath, the Edinburgh Homeopathic Dispensary was advised to be in attendance, at all hours, day and night, during the prevalence of Cholera in Edinburgh,

1848 - Martin Wilhelm von Mandt 1799 – 1858, homeopath, Mandt’s treatment during the epidemic of cholera in 1848, and later similar treatment in some military hospitals, had had such a success that Tsar Nicholas I, who had never been indifferent to the treatment of soldiers, became interested in this method. (In 1849, he wrote The Spinal cord and intestinal mucosa and their relationships to the cholera, and The Colour of the intestinal mucosa in cholera and typhoid corpses - Rückenmark und Darmschleimhaut und ihr Verhältniss zur Cholera, Färbung der Darmschleimhaut in Cholera- und Typhusleichen: dargestellt in 15 colorierten Tafeln nebst erläuterndem Texte.)

1848 - Arthur FitzGerald Kinnaird, 10th Lord Kinnaird 1814 - 1887, homeopathic advocate and a patient of Samuel Hahnemann, was also a patron of the General Committee of Management of the Edinburgh Homeopathic Dispensary on the Treatment of Asiatic Cholera in October 1848,

1848 - Peter Jacob Liedbeck 1808 – 1876, homeopath, wrote Directions for the use of Some Homeopathic Medicine in Cholera

1848 - Amos Henriques 1812 – 1880, homeopath, wrote Etiological, Pathological and Therapeutic Reflections on Asiatic Cholera,

1848 - Thomas Robinson Leadam 1809 – 1881, homeopath, was a witness called before the Metropolitan Sanitary Commisioners. Thomas Robinson Leadam was the Medical Officer and Surgeon to the Poor Law Union of St. Olave’s, Southwark, and present during the Cholera and Typhus epidemic in 1848, when he partitioned off part of a workhouse to become a Cholera Hospital. In his report to the Metropolitan Sanitary Commisioners on this epidemic, Thomas Robinson Leadam described his district as a very poor area with no water supply beyond a few street taps, with cesspools and open stagnant ditches such that the stench outside his house was terrible. Thomas Robinson Leadam reported that the effluvia often floods into the houses. Thomas Robinson Leadam recommended that Parliament should instruct landlords to connect the houses to the sewers and initiate appropriate sanitation and drainage, as well as street paving.

1848 - Karl Hencke 1806 – 1890, homeopath, submitted a report on the cholera epidemic in Riga in 1848 to the Quarterly Homeopathic Journal, reporting how useful the homeopathic  remedies arsenicum, camphor, hydrochloric acid (muriaticum acidum), kali hydrocyanicum, iatropha curcas, secale and veratrum were in the treatment of this disease.

From Wikipedia: 1849 Second major outbreak in Paris. In London, it was the worst outbreak in the city’s history, claiming 14,137 lives, over twice as many as the 1832 outbreak.

Cholera hit Ireland in 1849 and killed many of the Irish Famine survivors already weakened by starvation and fever. In 1849 cholera claimed 5,308 lives in the port city of Liverpool, England, and 1,834 in Hull, England.

An outbreak in North America took the life of former US President James Knox Polk. Cholera, believed spread from ship(s) from England, spread throughout the Mississippi river system killing over 4,500 in St. Louis and over 3,000 in New Orleans as well as thousands in New York. Mexico was similarly attacked.

In 1849 cholera was spread along the California, Mormon and Oregon Trails as 6,000 to 12,000 are believed to have died on their way to the California Gold Rush, Utah and Oregon in the cholera years of 1849-1855. It is believed that over 150,000 Americans died during the two pandemics between 1832 and 1849.

From Wikipedia: 1852-1860 Third cholera pandemic mainly affected Russia, with over a million deaths.

In 1852, cholera spread east to Indonesia and later invaded China and Japan in 1854. The Philippines were infected in 1858 and Korea in 1859. In 1859, an outbreak in Bengal once again led to the transmission of the disease to Iran, Iraq, Arabia and Russia.

1854 - Outbreak of cholera in Chicago took the lives of 5.5% of the population (about 3,500 people).

In 1853-4, London’s epidemic claimed 10,738 lives. The Soho outbreak in London ended after removal of the handle of the Broad Street pump by a committee instigated to action by John Snow. This proved that contaminated water (although it didn’t identify the contaminant) was the main agent spreading cholera. It would take almost 50 years for this message to be believed and acted upon. Building and maintaining a safe water system was and is not cheap—but is absolutely essential.

1849 - William Budd wrote Malignant cholera: its mode of propagation and its prevention,

1849 - Otis Clapp 1820 – 1886, homeopathic pharmacist and Professor of Pharmacy at the homeopathic Boston University School of Medicine, published C F Hoffendahl’s Homeopathic Treatment of Cholera,

1849 - the death rate from cholera at the Liverpool Homeopathic Dispensary was 25%

• 162 cases and 119 cured,

1849 - Frederick K Humphreys 1816 – 1900, homeopath, wrote _The Cholera, and Its Homoeopathic Treatment_,

1849 - Egbert Guernsey 1823 - 1886, homeopath, the Hudson River Railroad was then being opened through the place, and the cholera broke out with great severity along the line of the road, among the laborers. This was followed by a severe type of dysentery, which spread with wonderful rapidity over all the country. All the physicians of the neighborhood were kept busy day and night; and so pressing was the exigency that, during four months of the continuance of the disease, almost the whole of Egbert Guernsey sleep was obtained while travelling in his carriage.

1849 - Benjamin F Chillicothe Ehrmann 1834 – 1886, homeopath, the partner of Joseph Hyppolyte Pulte, then came the terrible epidemic of cholera in 1849 and the two made a reputation most enviable, despite of the envy of the opposing medical school that sought to destroy the “ignorant German fanatics (Cincinnati).”

1849 -  John James Drysdale 1816 – 1890, Robert Ellis Dudgeon, and John Rutherford Russell, Editors of the _British Journal of Homeopathy_ and Permanent Secretary of the Organization of the International Congress of Homoeopathy Physicians, dedicated a whole edition of the British Journal of Homeopathy Volume 7 1849 _to cholera, _

1849 - William Makepeace Thackeray 1811 – 1863, writer, was treated for cholera by John Elliotson,

1849 - Edward Hamilton 1824 – 1899, homeopath, wrote A Short History of Cholera,

1849 - John James Drysdale 1816 – 1890, homeopath, his successes (using homeopathy) in the cholera epidemic of 1849 had so ‘roused the envy of his allopathic colleagues’ that he was forthwith ‘expelled from the Liverpool Medical Institute‘.

1849 - Robert Chambers 1802 – 1871, Barrister, (who, in partnership with his brother William Chambers, was the anonymous author of the _Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation), _Robert Chambers and his brother William Chambers reported on the homeopathic treatment of cholera in Edinburgh by John Rutherford Russell in their Edinburgh Journal in 1849,

1849 - Charles Thomas Pearce 1815 – 1883, homeopath, attended his brother who had contracted cholera, and treated him homeopathically. Charles Thomas Pearce was then himself struck down by cholera and could not attend his brother. He left careful instructions for the care of his brother, but these were not carried out and an allopath was called in, and his brother died. Thomas Wakley and a biased deputy Coroner H Membury Wakley (the son of Thomas Wakley, founder of _The Lancet_) charged Charles Thomas Pearce with manslaughter, and he was arraigned in front of Mr. Justic Maule at the Old Bailey on 29.10.1849, who having heard the evidence threw the case out of court.

1849 - Alexandre Charge 1810 – 1890, homeopath, went to the South of Frace to treat a major cholera epidemic, and for the exceptional care he provided at this time, Napoleon III bestowed the Legion of Honour upon him. Records show that Alexandre Charge treated 1,662 cases of cholera with only 49 deaths (2.9%). Pope Pius IX also granted Alexandre Charge the Order of St. Gregory the Great for these services.

1849 - George Bigler Ehrmann 1858 – 1886, homeopath, treated the cholera epidemic in Cincinnati. The Board of Health issued an order calling for physicians to report all cases of cholera. The Board received reports of a high mortality rate from the city hospital and allopathic physicians. However, six homeopathic physicians attracted national attention when they reported not one single death out of their first 350 cases of cholera. Two of these homeopathic physicians, Joseph Hyppolyte Pulte and George Bigler Ehrmann would eventually report treating 2,646 cases with 35 deaths, or a mortality rate of 1.3%. Allopaths reported fatal outcomes in 50% of their cases.

1849 - Jean Paul Tessier 1810 – 1862, homeopath,conducted clinical trials into homeopathy at the St. Marguerite Hospital in Beaujohn in Paris, successfully treating pneumonia and cholera. The vitriolic attacked of the allopaths that resulted from the publication of these successful clinical trials into homeopathy were so atrocious they caused Pope Pius IX to come to Jean Paul Tessier’s defense. The results of these clinical trials were so startling in favour of homeopathy, the mortality rate under homeopathy dropped dramatically from 33% to 7.6%, that Jean Paul Tessier was immediately vilified by his allopathic colleagues, who blocked him from further promotion and progression in his chosen profession. No allopathic medical journal would publish results so favourable to homeopathy, and Jean Paul Tessier was immediately and summarily dismissed from his profession! Horribly, his clinical assistants were also blocked from admission to the Allopathic Medical Faculty! Jean Paul Tessier immediately converted to homeopathy, once again proving how attacks upon homeopathy only lead to the benefit of homeopathy. Jean Paul Tessier wrote Clinical Researches Concerning the Homeopathic Treatment of Asiatic Cholera,

1849 - Joseph Lloyd Martin 1820 - 1890, homeopath, he was instrumental in demonstrating very clearly, and to the satisfaction of hundreds, the superiority of homeopathy, in the great success which attended his treatment of the cholera. This terrible epidemic (of 1849), which ravaged the city of Boston in that year, was held in check by the homeopathic treatment,

1849 - Instructions on the cholera were published by the Hahnemannian Society in 1849.

1849 - Paul Francois Curie 1799 – 1853, homeopath, wrote Paul Francis Curie, A treatise on cholera, English and Asiatic: with directions for the homeopathic treatment, (Headland, 1849).,

1849 - William Henry Holcombe 1825 – 1893, homeopath, converted to homeopathy when he witnessed its success in the 1849 cholera epidemic and began his own experiments on homeopathy.

1849 - As a result of Jules John Mabit’s statistical studies into cholera in 1836, in 1849 American audits on cholera were collected from all American hospitals, showing an allopathic mortality rate of 60%, and a homeopathic mortality rate of just 3%.

1850 - James George Hunt 1821 - 1892, homeopath, during the prevalence of the cholera in 1850, James George Hunt made his first tests of the value of homeopathy in the treatment of his patients. His success was so marked, that he gradually introduced homeopathy into his practice (in Cincinnati) in all diseases.

1850 - Adam Miller 1821 - 1875, homeopath, wrote Review of Dr. S. A. Latta’s Pamphlet, Entitled “The Cholera in Cincinnati, or a Connected View of the Controversy between the Homeopathists and the Methodist Expositor: Also, A Review of the Report Read before the Homeopatic Association.

1850 - Pierre Augustus Rapou 1780 – 1857, homeopath, travelled with his son to Koethen, Vienna, Presberg, Raab, Pesth and Berlin to study homeopathy, and they made a special study of the homeopathic treatment of cholera during this time, and he wrote The Only Preservative and Curative Treatment of Asiatic Cholera in 1850,

1850 - Mary Jane Seacole 1805 – 1881, was an advocate of homeopathy, her mother was a homeopath, and sponsored by many homeopaths, she treated patients in the cholera epidemic of 1850, which killed some 32,000 Jamaicans (homeopaths travelled to Jamaica to treat the cholera epidemic of 1850). In 1851 Mary Jane Seacole travelled to Cruces to visit her brother, but shortly after her arrival the town was struck by cholera, a disease which had reached Panama in 1849. Mary Jane Seacole was on hand to treat the first victim, who survived, establishing Mary Jane Seacole’s reputation and bringing her a succession of patients as the infection spread. The rich paid, but she treated the poor for free. Towards the end of the epidemic, Mary Jane Seacole herself succumbed but survived.

1850 - Henry Kelsall 1802 – 1875, homeopath, gave evidence in a Coronor’s case involving the death of a patient from cholera in 1850 which was widely reported at the time. He also wrote journal articles on Cholera to the British Journal of Homeopathy at this time.

1850 - Thomas Southwood Smith 1788 – 1861, orthodox physician who also practiced some homeopathy, was frequently consulted in fever epidemics and on sanitary matters by public authorities, and his reports on quarantine (1845), cholera (1850), yellow fever (1852), and on the results of sanitary improvement (1854) were of international importance.

1852 - Storm Rosa 1791 – 1864, homeopath, the first homeopathic teacher in the West of America and the first Chair of Homeopathy at the Eclectic Medical Institute and lecturer at the Western College of Homeopathy, the period from 1849 to 1852 in the history of Ohio homœopathy is important. The Homeopathic Society of Cincinnati was composed largely of laymen and had a thousand members whose purpose was to vindicate homeopathy and to uphold the truth regarding the cholera epidemic,

1852 - Reuben Ludlam 1831 – 1899, homeopath, had been educated in an allopathic school and he practiced allopathy, but the success of homeopathic physicians in the treatment of cholera so impressed him that he was forced to investigate its teachings and, being convinced of the truth of the new theory, he cast aside his old beliefs and became a homeopathic practitioner.

1852 - Robert Chambers 1802 – 1871, Barrister, (who, in partnership with his brother William Chambers, was the anonymous author of the _Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation), _Robert Chambers and his brother William Chambers reported again on cholera, when they reported on the controversy between allopathy and homeopathy and came out in favour of giving no drugs at all!

1853 - David Griffiths Jones wrote _Cholera chemically considered_,

1853 - Hans Thomsen 1802 – 1864, homeopath, worked through the Cholera epidemic of 1853, when 4000 people died. However, only 5% of Johann Carl Ludwig Pabst and Hans Thomsen’s patients died compared to the allopathic death rate of 50-70%.

1853 - Charles Thomas Pearce 1815 – 1883, homeopath, wrote Diarrhoea and Cholera,

1853 - Alexandre Charge 1810 – 1890, homeopath, Marshal Armand Jacques Leroy de Saint Arnaud 1801 – 1854 was restored to health by homeopath Alexandre Charge, the homeopath of Napoleon III. In gratitude, Marshal Armand Jacques Leroy de Saint Arnaud 1801 – 1854 established a Chair of Homeopathy in the Faculty of Medicine in the University of Paris. Marshal Armand Jacques Leroy de Saint Arnaud 1801 – 1854 became an ardent advocate of homeopathy, and employed Surgeon General Cabrol to be the homeopathic physician to his troops during a cholera outbreak at Alms. In 1854, during the cholera epidemic at Varna, Surgeon General Cabrol treated a great number of people with homeopathy.

1854 - Alfred Hughes 1824 – 1880, homeopath, when the cholera made its appearance, in 1854, he labored constantly night and day, being the only homeopathic physician in the city, and meeting with almost unprecedented success in his treatment of the fearful scourge, then in epidemic form, homeopathy was then firmly established (in Baltimore),

1854 - Charles Auguste Louis Joseph Demorny 1811 – 1865 was the half brother of Napoleon III. He contracted cholera in 1854 and was saved by homeopathy.

1854 - Francois Perrussel 1807 – 1872, homeopath, attended a cholera epidemic in the South of France amongst the poor. His mortality rate was 5-7%, whilst the allopaths mortality rate was nearer 90%. He was awarded Chevalier of the Order of Charles III in 1863 for his work in this area. When the cholera first appeared in France, at Marseilles, a bronze medal was given to him for his valor. In 1849, at Nantes, during an epidemic of cholera which claimed many victims; in 1854 in Champagne, where he had an official commission from the government, he was faithful, and received for his devotion a gold medal.

1854 - Alexandre Charge 1810 – 1890, homeopath, published a pamphlet on the Cholera in Marseille, in 1854 (one on the treatment of the cholera, The Treatment of Cholera, and also a history of that epidemic).

1854 - Henry Turner ?1807 – 1873, homeopath, trialed the use of salts in the treatment of cholera in Jamaica in 1854, and he wrote to The Times to advertise his success.

1854 - Rocco Rubini 1805 – 1886, homeopath, so successfully treated the cholera outbreak in Naples in 592 people, using homeopathy, that his ‘Rubini’s camphor‘ became famous and is still famous amongst homeopaths today.

1854 - William Vallancy Drury 1820 – 1892, homeopath, wrote Cholera: Its Treatment on Homeopathic Principles,

1854 - Caroline Wells Healey Dall 1822 – 1912, homeopathic advocate, author, journalist, lecturer, champion of women’s rights, Unitarian community service worker, minister’s wife and lay preacher, lived in Toronto in 1854 during the outbreak of a deadly cholera epidemic (and treated her friends and family with homeopathy).

1854 - the London Homeopathic Hospital was turned over entirely to cholera victims. In the Cholera epidemic of 1854, 54,000 people died, the death rate under allopathic methods was 59.2% and only 16.4% under homeopathic treatment.

1854 - Hugh Cameron 1810 – 1897, homeopath, Physician at the London Homeopathic Hospital,

Dr Macloughlin, one of the medical inspectors appointed by the General Board of Health, visited the wards, examined the cases under treatment, and watched their progress. His statement, addressed to Hugh Cameron, a member of the medical staff, was as follows :

“You are aware that I went to your hospital prepossessed against the homeopathic system, that you had in me in your camp an enemy rather than a friend… and I need not tell you that I have taken some pains to make myself acquainted with the rise, progress and medical treatment of cholera, and that I claim for myself some right to be able to recognise the disease, and to know something of what the medical treatment ought to be, and that there may, therefore, be no misapprehension about the cases saw in your hospital, I will add that, all I saw were true cases of cholera, in the various stages of the disease, and that I saw several cases which did well under your treatment which I have no hesitation in saying would have sunk under other.

“In conclusion I must repeat to you what I have already told you, and what I have told everyone whom I have conversed, that although in allopath by principle, education and practice yet were it the will of Providence to afflict me with cholera, and deprive me of the power of prescribing for myself, I would rather he in the hands of a homeopathic than; in allopathic adviser.”

1855 - James John Garth Wilkinson wrote War, Cholera, and the Ministry of Health. An appeal to Sir Benjamin Hall and the British People,

1855 - a report on the treatment of cholera patients at the London Homeopathic Hospital was made to Parliament. The London Homeopathic Hospital report for that year reveals 3636 patients were treated, making a total of 18,002 patients treated since it opened in 1850.

1855 - The British Medical Association reports that the cholera statistics from the homeopathic hospitals were ‘overlooked’ in the official returns as this would ‘give an unjustifiable sanction’ to homeopathy,

1855 - by far the majority of homeopaths at this time were using very low potencies, not far from material dose, relying on the law of similars only - see William Hitchman’s cure of a cholera case

• very typical of the time…

1855 - Simon Felix Camille Croserio 1786 – 1855, homeopath, so exhausted himself treating the cholera epidemic, he would take no care of himself, nor give himself the necessary time to recover, he died shortly thereafter.

1855 - William Henry Mayne 1819 – 1876, homeopath, wrote On the use of Caster oil as a powerful Anti Spasmodic, with satisfactory results from its use in cholera, diarrhoea and dry bellyache,

1855 - Jacob Dixon 1818 – 1890, homeopath, wrote Cholera in 1855,

1855 - John Anderson 1817 – 1875, homeopath, wrote Observations on the Cholera Epidemic,

1855 - William Headland ?1800 – 1860, homeopathic chemist and publisher, collected donations in support of a Homeopath who had been summarily dismissed without pay or pension for curing a fellow doctor of cholera,

1856 - Francois Perrussel 1807 – 1872, homeopath, wrote The Sweating Sickness and the Cholera in 1856,

1857 - In a letter to _The Lancet, _John Hitchman (an allopath who later converted to homeopathy) explained that he had been experimenting with high dilutions, using arsenius acid, in doses of one hundredth of a grain in the treatment of cholera with good success,

1857 - Henri Leroux 1790 – 1881, homeopath, published the results of his homeopathic treatment of cholera, and at this time he was practicing in Cette. (These results were also published in L’Art Medical),

1857 - John Chapman 1821 – 1894, publisher, advocated his spinal ice bag as a treatment for sea sickness and cholera, and he wrote to The Times to describe his use of ice packs to treat cholera patients in Southampton.

1861 - Laura Matilda Towne 1825 – 1901, homeopath, treated the cholera epidemic on St. Helena,

1862 - Abraham Lincoln 1809 – 1865, US President, signed a bill allocating some civil war military hospitals over to homeopaths because of their unparalleled success in treating cholera, yellow fever, diptheria and influenza compared to allopathic medicine.

1862 - Gottlieb Heinrich Georg Jahr 1800 – 1875, homeopath, wrote a treatises on cholera in his New manual of Homeopathic Practice,

From Wikipedia: 1863-1875 Fourth cholera pandemic spread mostly in Europe and Africa.

At least 30,000 of the 90,000 Mecca pilgrims fell victim to the disease.

Cholera claimed 90,000 lives in Russia in 1866.

The epidemic of cholera that spread with the Austro-Prussian War (1866) is estimated to have claimed 165,000 lives in the Austrian Empire. Hungary and Belgium both lost 30,000 people and in the Netherlands 20,000 perished.

In 1867, Italy lost 113,000 lives.

1866 Outbreak in North America. It killed some 50,000 Americans.

In London, a localized epidemic in the East End claimed 5,596 lives just as London was completing its major sewage and water treatment systems—the East End was not quite complete. William Farr, using the work of John Snow et al. as to contaminated drinking water being the likely source of the disease, was able to relatively quickly identify the East London Water Company as the source of the contaminated water. Quick action prevented further deaths.

Also a minor outbreak at Ystalyfera in South Wales. Caused by the local water works using contaminated canal water, it was mainly its workers and their families who suffered, 119 died.

In the same year more than 21,000 people died in Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

1864 - In America, homeopaths were busy in this field - Charles Cropper published Cholera and its Homeopathic Treatment , Joseph Hyppolyte Pulte 1811 – 1883 published Asiatic Cholera: its preventatives and treatment, Edwin A Lodge published Asiatic Cholera,

1866 - William Budd wrote Memoranda on Asiatic cholera: its mode of spreading, and its prevention,

1866 - Cholera broke out in Doncaster, and the St. James Homeopathic Hospital in Doncaster was placed unconditionally at the disposal of the local people, during which time allopaths and homeopaths worked side by side together,

1866 -  Peter Jacob Liedbeck 1808 – 1876, homeopath, wrote On the Spirit of Camphor Alone as a Remedy for Cholera,

1866 - John Chapman 1821 – 1894, publisher, wrote Diarrhœa and cholera: their nature, origin, and treatment through the agency of the nervous system,

1866 - William Vallancy Drury 1820 – 1892, homeopath, wrote Cholera and Diarrhoea,

1866 - Joseph Kidd 1824 – 1918, homeopath, wrote Directions for the Homeopathic Treatment of Cholera,

1866 - James George Hunt 1821 - 1892, homeopath, wrote The Prevention and Domestic Treatment of Cholera, which was published in all the daily papers of Cincinnati, and extensively copied.

1866 - Adolph Lippe 1812 – 1888, homeopath, wrote Cholera; Its Treatment by Homoeopathy, Cholera: Lecture Delivered at the Homœopathic Medical College of Pennsylvania,

1866 - William Tilbury Fox 1836 – 1879, orthodox physician and homeopathic advocate, friend of Frederick Hervey Foster Quin, advocated the use of nux vomica in his book Cholera Prospects, and he describes how sought after this remedy was in Alexandria as a treatment for cholera.

1866 - Alfred Orlando Jones wrote Cholera: its symptoms and treatment,

1866 - Susan McKinney Steward 1847 – 1918, homeopath and first African American woman physician in New York, treated the cholera epidemic in the New York cholera epidemic of 1866,

1866 - Charles Robert Drysdale 1829 – 1907, brother of homeopath John James Drysdale 1816 – 1890, an orthodox physician with homeopathic sympathies, wrote On Cholera; Its Nature and Treatment,

1866 - Charles Henry Marston wrote Cholera: its causes, prevention, and treatment,

1867 - Karl Friedrich Gottfried Trinks 1810 – 1868, homeopath, the two diseases in the study of which he felt most interest were typhus fever and cholera. On the former he was engaged in the preparation of a monograph at the time of his death. In August, 1867, at a meeting of the Central Society of German Homeopathic Physicians, he excited the admiration of the members present by his excellent, albeit extemporary, address on cholera.

1867 - George Schmid 1820 – 1882, homeopath, wrote Das Choleragift,

1867 - Henry Whatley Tyler 1827 – 1908, Sponsor of the Henry Tyler Wing at the London Homeopathic Hospital, investigated London’s water supply following an outbreak of cholera, an investigation which involved emptying a reservoir of the East London Waterworks Company next to the river Lea, and tasting the contaminated water. His report helped confirm that cholera was water borne rather than by the air.

1867 - Peter Proctor report on Homeopathy and Cholera in Liverpool, when the Dispensary allied to the Sisters of Mercy, raised a fighting fund and leafleted the area advising a bag of hot salt to the abdomen and 5 drop doses of spirits of camphor every 10 minutes, the camphor was distributed free to patients, the cholera was especially bad down by the docks, and less common on higher ground, the peak of the epidemic was at the height of the heat wave when the rain fell incessantly, on 18th and 19th September, when many cases presented in the collapse stage and died, and lessened as soon as the weather cleared. The last case presented on 26.10.1867. Peter Proctor used the remedies camphor, arsenicum, cuprum, aconite, phosphorus and veratrum. Tartar emetic and secale were disappointing. 156 cases of choleric diarrhoea (no cases developed into cholera), and 99 cases of cholera were seen by Peter Proctor, 14 died and 85 recovered. 13 additional cases were transferred to allopaths, 10 of which died.

1867 - George Lade 1823 – 1892, homeopath, wrote Iris Versicolor in cholera,

1868 - David H Cowley, homeopath, was an influential homeopath who collected statistics on the treatment of cholera by homeopathy in 1868.

1868 - Charles Gaspard Peschier 1782 – 1853, homeopath, collected a summary of the whole number of cholera patients treated with homeopathy up to 1832,

1868 - Johann Gustav Schweikert 1816 – 1903, homeopath, student of Samuel Hahnemann, wrote Die Cholera, eine epidemische Lähmung der Capillaren der Darmschleimhaut und ihrer nerven, and Homöopathischer Rathgeber bei Cholera-Erkrankungen (written 1853),

1870 - Rudolf Ludwig Karl Virchow 1821 – 1902, orthodox physician and homeopathic advocate, was extremely interested in homeopathy. He praised Samuel Hahnemann for being the first person to emirically and systematically test the effects of medicaments on healthy people, and for his concept of the minimum dose. He wrote Resemblance to Cholera in the Symptoms of Arsenic Poisoning in 1870.

1871 - William Budd wrote Cholera and disinfection: Asiatic cholera in Bristol in 1866,

1871 - Karl Hencke 1806 – 1890, homeopath, reported on the cholera epidemic in Riga in 1871 in The Homeopathic Medical Directory of Great Britain and Ireland.

1873 - Willmar Schwabe 1839 – 1917, homeopathic chemist and publisher, published De cholera en hare genezing door de homoeopathie, and Le Cholera: querison prompte et sure par l’homeopathie,

1878 - Jabez Philander Dake 1827 – 1894, homeopath, his treatment of cholera was extremely successful as he only lost one patient out of sixty two cases in Nashville in 1878._ _

1879 - John Henry Clarke 1853 – 1931, homeopath, wrote Cholera, Diarrhœa, and Dysentery: Homœopathic Prevention and Cure,

1880 - Louis Pasteur 1822 – 1895, chemist and microbiologist, published his articles on chicken cholera,

From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pandemic: 1881-1896 Fifth cholera pandemic. According to Dr A. J. Wall, the 1883-1887 epidemic cost 250,000 lives in Europe and at least 50,000 in Americas.

Cholera claimed 267,890 lives in Russia (1892); 120,000 in Spain; 90,000 in Japan and 60,000 in Persia. In Egypt cholera claimed more that 58,000 lives. The 1892 outbreak in Hamburg killed 8,600 people. Although generally held responsible for the virulence of the epidemic, the city government went largely unchanged. This was the last serious European cholera outbreak.

1883 - Arthur de Noe Walker 1820 – 1900, homeopath, wrote The Prophylactic power of copper in epidemic cholera,

1883 - Robert Koch 1843 – 1910, orthodox physician, isolated the vibrio cholera,

1885 - John Chapman 1821 – 1894, publisher, wrote Cholera curable: a demonstration of the causes, non-contagiousness, and successful treatment of the disease,

1888 - Edward Kellogg Dunham 1860 - 1922, homeopath, studied under Robert Koch 1843 – 1910 where he discovered the “cholera-red” reaction.

1890 - Jabez Philander Dake 1827 – 1894, homeopath, wrote _ Asiatic Cholera,_

From Wikipedia: 1899-1923 Sixth cholera pandemic had little effect in Europe because of advances in public health, but major Russian cities (more than 500,000 people dying of cholera during the first quarter of the 20th century) and the Ottoman Empire were particularly hard hit by cholera deaths.

The 1902-1904 cholera epidemic claimed 200,000 lives in the Philippines.

27 epidemics were recorded during pilgrimages to Mecca from the 19th century to 1930, and more than 20,000 pilgrims died of cholera during the 1907–08 hajj.

The sixth pandemic killed more than 800,000 in India.

The last outbreak in the United States was in 1910-1911 when the steamship Moltke brought infected people to New York City. Vigilant health authorities isolated the infected on Swinburne Island. Eleven people died, including a health care worker on Swinburne Island.

1900 - Thomas Lindsley Bradford compiled The Logic of Figures, detailing all of the homeopathic cholera statistics over the last 70 years. He reports that in Vienna, the total statistics compiled from all hospitals clearly showed that 2/3rd of cholera cases treated by homeopathy were cured, whereas 2/3rd of cholera cases treated by allopathy died, and as a result Count Kolowrat, Minister of the Interior in Vienna repealed the law on homeopathy, allowing homeopathy to flourish in Vienna and in the Austrian Empire.

Thomas Lindsley Bradford in The Logic of Figures also reports to work of Mathias Roth, who was sent by the Baviarian Government to observe the cholera epidemic statistics, which clearly showed that allopathic treatment of cholera had a mortality rate of 39%, whereas the mortality rate under homeopathic treatment was only 10%.

Thomas Lindsley Bradford in The Logic of Figures also reports that Fewster Robert Horner, an allopathic Physician, was appointed by The Medical Board to review the cholera epidemic statistics in Britain, and he reported that the statistics of the London Homeopathic Hospital were ’deliberately and designedly suppressed, because they showed that by that treatment, 2/3rd were cured; while according to the aggregate statistics of the other hospitals, 2/3rds died’. (Fewster Robert Horner converted to homeopathy in 1857),

Thomas Lindsley Bradford in The Logic of Figures collated the statistics from nearly every hospital in Europe and America for the period 1835 - 1848, and found that the mean percentages were as follows: 16.83% homeopathic mortality, 49.57% allopathic mortality, 66.05% cured by homeopathy (66 lives saved in every 100 cases of cholera). The collated statistics for the period 1839 - 1854 (including some statistics from India), revealed a mean percentage of 20% homeopathic mortality, 54% allopathic mortality.

Thomas Lindsley Bradford in The Logic of Figures also reports independent statistics reported by a Report on Life Assurance 1866 by Hawley, revealing 9% homeopathic  mortality, 40% allopathic mortality.

1950 - Thomas Lackenby Maughan 1901 – 1976, homeopath, noticed that the monks in Tibet wore Camphor moth balls round their necks to prevent Cholera,

From Wikipedia: 1961-1970s Seventh cholera pandemic began in Indonesia, called El Tor after the strain, and reached Bangladesh in 1963, India in 1964, and the USSR in 1966. From North Africa it spread into Italy by 1973.

In the late 1970s, there were small outbreaks in Japan and in the South Pacific. There were also many reports of a cholera outbreak near Baku in 1972, but information about it was suppressed in the USSR.

From Wikipedia: January 1991 to September 1994 - Outbreak in South America, apparently initiated when a ship discharged ballast water. Beginning in Peru there were 1.04 million identified cases and almost 10,000 deaths. The causative agent was an O1, El Tor strain, with small differences from the seventh pandemic strain.

In 1992 a new strain appeared in Asia, a non-O1, nonagglutinable vibrio (NAG) named O139 Bengal. It was first identified in Tamil Nadu, India and for a while displaced El Tor in southern Asia before decreasing in prevalence from 1995 to around 10% of all cases. It is considered to be an intermediate between El Tor and the classic strain and occurs in a new serogroup.

There is evidence of the emergence of wide-spectrum resistance to drugs such as trimethoprim, sulfamethoxazole and streptomycin. (Modern epidemics continue today).

Please note: this list is far from complete…

A Homeopathic History of Cancer** **

A Homeopathic History of Malaria

Medical Chatter: Homeopathy and Cholera 1853-1855 Sue Young BSc, RSHom 2.10.09

The following are short précis excerpts taken from some articles published about the cholera epidemic at the time.

Association Medical Journal 18.11.1853 The Investigation of Cholera

We have a poor understanding of cholera and no information has been collected and collated.

‘If the same kind of searching investigation had been pursued in tracing cholera from one individual to another, as if employed by the detective police officers in tracing criminals…’

A ‘clearer light’ may be shone, such that we will no longer be at the mercy of ‘every ingenious theorist’.

The Lancet 8.10.1853 The Cholera in _\***_Newcastle*

1760 cases reported with mortality in excess of 2000.

Problems:

1. Deficient sewerage and drainage and supply of water.

1. Unpaved areas with liquid refuse and saturated subsoil.

1. Overcrowding and intolerable conditions which should be demolished, but the Corporation of Newcastle earns £2000 pa from these slums. The Poor Law Officers have not successfully persuaded the Council to effect repairs. Recent population increases have exhausted the water supply, despite efforts to address this as local industry took precedence of supply, resulting in the local population being forced to pay to use the polluted waters of the river.

1. The local doctors have been superceded by the Board of Health who does little to remedy the situation, are strangers to the area, who answer to local industry only.

Recommended allopathic treatment for cholera involves purging with calomel (mercury) in ‘large doses’. For the collapse stage, give emetic of sulphate of zinc and ipecacuana, and then repeat calomel – repeat this process every 10, 20 or 30 minutes. Feed with beef tea (per mouth or per rectum) and allay thirst with ice and cold water. Then give rhubarb and sulphate of potash in peppermint water, or a castor oil draught. Then administer liquid ammonium acetate or some carbonated soda and tartaric acid effervescence. Opium can be added in small doses to the calomel, and leeches, chalk and brandy can be used as required. For infants, use calomel on the tongue and beef tea injections as often as necessary.

Letters printed after this article contain the following suggestions from allopaths:

1. Try soda sesquicarb and laudanum together, and possibly combine capsicum tincture with infusion of cascarilla.

1. To prevent homeopaths visiting Newcastle to inspect the disease, treatments and conditions because they are ‘spies’.

1. To give rough cider and refuse all other foods except biscuits and toast.

1. To use chloroform, or, as cholera is ‘caused by fungus in the air’, sulphate of soda may be helpful.

1. To give croton oil on loaf sugar, while applying hot bricks and bags of sand to the feet.

1. To give nitromuriatic acid diluted in water, or sulphuric acid diluted in water to induce vomiting.

1. As cholera is absent from areas where cider and hard ale is drunk, give cooked apples.

The British Medical Journal 1853; 1045 Improper Treatment of Cholera by an agent of Cotton the Herbalist

George Burt, binge alcoholic, seen after a two week binge, complaining of diarrhoea, who received powders and a mixture from John Stephens, and agent of Cotton the herbalist over two days, but died.

The attending surgeon Alexander M Champneys, refused to accept a death certificate from John Stephens, rather he opened the body and sent the stomach to the London Hospital who discovered cayenne, ginger, lobelia, and deduced the stomach irritation was as a result of the herbal mixture.

The Coroner reported that John Stephens had been sent on two previous occasions to the Central Criminal Court on charges of manslaughter, but had been acquitted by the judge. The Coroner passed his verdict that George Burt died of natural causes which may have been accelerated by ‘improper medicine’. The attending surgeon Alexander M Champneys had recorded cholera on the death certificate.

The Lancet 5.11.1853 The Cholera in the Metropolitan Hospitals

The hospitals report very few deaths at this time. The best defence is to repair the atrocious conditions of the poor slums, and to enforce the Board of Health inspectors to force the slum landlords to clear out the conditions that make them rich! Slaughterhouses still reside in domestic areas, and hovels are still knee deep in effluvia.

Many charitable hospitals have not been called upon to admit cholera patients, the north London hospitals have few cases. Guy’s received the greatest number, being south of the river, but St. Thomas’ have received only 2 cases.

It is not yet possible to determine the successful treatments, though cleanliness, warmth and clean air on the wards have obvious benefits.

In the 1849 epidemic, cholera cases were not admitted to the hospitals, so no deaths were recorded. Today, we record deaths in hospital because they have been admitted, and cases of contagion have been noted, though the Lancet says ‘they are not contagious’ even though these cases seem to prove such theories. Mortality amongst those patients admitted appears to be 50%.

The Lancet 1854; 2:108 Announcement of the End of the Board of Health

Set up in the Act of 31.8.1848, the Board of Health has been ‘pronounced unworthy of future confidence’ in the House of Commons.

The Lancet 23.9.1854

Benjamin Hall, the President of the Board of Health has issued printed forms for the concise registration of cases of cholera to all doctors – to be returned by 15.11.1854.

Aims:

1. To correct the ‘ignorance of the pathology of the disease’.

1. To ascertain the correct treatments.

‘The medical profession has, at this moment, to stem a perfect torrent of nostrums; some of the offspring of the silliest charlatanry and self sufficiency; some of value attested not by reason, not by experience that will bear sifting, but upon oath or affirmation; some that have the testimony of careful and competent observers to recommend them; these last are few’.

One of the most recent ‘little puffs of mystification is the castor oil hypothesis of George Johnson’ (allopath, Assistant Physician at King’s College).

The Lancet 28.4.1855 Statistical Results of the Treatment of Cholera and Diarrhoea

A list of treatments used and the failures of those treatments is listed. (table not reproduced here as is it unintelligible, for example, salines and chalk (deaths 13.6% and 8% - failure rate 12.6%; calomel and opium (deaths 6.9% - failure rate 7.1%); etc).

However, The Lancet concludes that the statistics were rushed and not undertaken until the peak of the epidemic, the returns were poorly thought out, and the medical profession should have been more prepared to co-operate.

Of the % deaths recorded:                                     death rate

1. Alteratives (calomel, opium, salines)                48.5% (80% in collapse cases)

1. Astingents (sulphuric acid, logwood,                50%    (78.9% in collapse cases)

catechu etc)

1. Stimulants (ammonia, brandy, camphor,          79% (76.2% in collapse cases)

chloroform, creosote, capsicum etc)

1. Eliminants (emetics and olive oil)                     80.9% (77.6% in collapse cases)

War, Cholera, and the Ministry of Health. An appeal to Sir Benjamin Hall and the British People, 1855 a paper by James John Garth Wilkinson

James John Garth Wilkinson outlines the homeopathic treatment of cholera at this time:

30 drops of saturated spirit of camphor in half a tumbler of water to be taken every 5 minutes to half an hour, depending on the severity of the symptoms. Abstain from food and rest.

If the diarrhoea increases, take 20 drops of veratrum in half a tumbler of water, and 20 drops of arsenicum in half a tumbler of water, alternating every half hour. Add to this 20 grains of cuprum 3x if cramps and convulsions occur, to be taken when the pains are greatest. If the patient still worsens, then give carbo veg 3x tincture, or in extremis stramonium tincture 3x.

The Lancet 1855; 1: 345-348 Report on the Results of the Different Methods of Treatment pursued in Epidemic Cholera

The Board of Health reported 2749 cases (1104 in hospital and 1645 in the community).

The mortality rate is reported as follows; alteratives (20.3%), astringents (36.2%), stimulants (54%), eliminants (71.7%)

Therefore, eliminative treatments are not recommended, alterative treatments are the best, especially in collapse cases (mortality 59.2%). The mortality in hospital is greatest as they are almost always severe cases who have been transported, The lowest mortality is seen in private practice in affluent patients.

However, the Lancet notes confusion and lack of accuracy across the returns, and the profusion of different methods used, also the many different presentations of the disease, the inaccuracy of recording events, such that details of early treatment stages are often absent, and so many anomalies and inaccurate detail in collection and recording was discovered in the returns, such that conclusions are dubious and difficult to reach.

The Lancet 1855; 1: 412 The Results of Different Methods of Treating Cholera

2749 cases analysed:

1. Those from the Metropolitan Hospitals (1104)

1. Those from the Metropolitan District not in hospital (1645)

1. Those from provincial districts.

The treatments fall into 4 classes:

1. Alteratives (calomel, salines)

1. Astringents (sulphuric acid, chalk, opium, iron, alum, acetate of lead, cinchona/quinine)

1. Stimulants (ammonia, brandy, ether, camphor, chloroform, cajeput)

1. Eliminants (castor oil, ipecac, tartarised antimony)

Conclusion:

The eliminative method is condemned altogether. The alterative method is confirmed, especially when combined with opium (but only in severe cases in large doses.

Results:

1. Alteratives  (36.2% mortality)

1. Astringents (20.3% mortality)

1. Stimulants  (54% mortality)

1. Eliminants  (71.7% mortality

The mortality rates in hospitals are greater than in private practice, thus ‘gives the final blow’ to the homeopathic idea of administering agents similar to the disease (eliminants), so the Lancet denounces the castor oil treatment.

The Lancet 1855; 1:519-520

The Lancet reports that the homeopaths are upset as the Board of Health did not record their cholera returns.

Robert Grosvenor 1st Baron Ebury (a founder of The British Homeopathic Association, who also supported the staff of the Hahnemann Hospital at 39 Bloomsbury Square. Ebury Ward at the London Homeopathic Hospital is named after him), complained to the Board of Health.

Benjamin Hall President of the Board of Health defended the exclusion of the homeopathic report, and reports that the Medical Council was tasked to analyse the various methods of therapeutic treatment of cholera, ad what has homeopathy to do with therapeutics?

When Benjamin Hall asked the council to explain this omission, the reply was:

“That by introducing the returns of homeopathic practitioners, they would not only compromise the value and utility of their averages of cure, as deduced from the operation of known remedies, but they would give an unjustifiable sanction to an empirical practice alike opposed to the maintenance of truth and to the progress of science.” (Homeopathy and the Medical Profession by P A Nichols, London: Croom Helm, 1988, pages145–146)

In other words, the statistics from the homeopathic hospital were not listed because their listing would suggest that homeopathic medicines provide a superior treatment for cholera.

The inspector appointed to the District of London refused to visit the homeopathic hospital, so another inspector reluctantly agreed to do so. In a letter to the Homeopathic Hospital on February 22, 1855, he wrote:

“You are aware that I went to your hospital prepossessed against the homeopathic system; that you had in me, in your camp, an enemy rather than a friend, and that I must therefore have seen some cogent reason there, the first day I went, to come away so favourably disposed as to advise a friend to send a subscription to your charitable fund. (The Trials of Homeopathy by M E Dean, Essen, Germany: KVC, 2004, page 127)

The Lancet ridiculed the ‘third dilution of the billionth of a grain’ (despite the 1x, 2x, 3x and mother tinctures used by John Anderson), and the Lancet refutes the claim that medical doctors who convert to homeopathy are capable of diagnosing cholera.

The Lancet bristles under the epithet ‘allopath’ and accused Robert Grosvenor 1st Baron Ebury of ‘falling short of his duty to the country’.

The Lancet 1855; 2: 202-203 The Board of Health and the Cholera Epidemic

The Lancet lauds the ‘great pains’ taken to audit the comprehensive report, though it also notes that no complete number of those afflicted exists as there is no State Register of the Causes of Sickness.

This report includes the returns of over 300 medical doctors, and furnishes data of 3188 cases in England (46% mortality), and the returns of the poor Law Board of Scotland, who record 14,430 (47.5% mortality), so the Lancet infers that overall 25,000 cases of cholera occurred in England over the course of this epidemic. The Board of Health estimates some hundreds of thousands of cases in total.

5271 cases of diarrhoea were recorded (87 fatal), overall total 17,351 (1.6% mortality), though it must be considered that a multitude of cases of diarrhoea never came to medical attention at all.

Overall, this report gives an’ inadequate conception’ of the epidemic.

The Lancet discusses the different presentations of the disease, the effects of locality, air, water, atmosphere and the similarity of the 1849 and 1854 epidemics, the 1854 epidemic being judged less severe.

The Lancet 1855; 2:346-348 Report of the Committee for Scientific Inquiries in Relation to the Cholera Epidemic of 1854

This report examines 4271 cases of cholera (3188 in the Metropolitan District (46% mortality), and 20,301 cases of diarrhoea (17.460 in the Metropolitan District), collated from the returns submitted to the Board of Health by medical practitioners.

Firstly, diarrhoea and cholera must not be considered distinct diseases, but must be considered as the same process, especially when they prevail together epidemically.

If the 36 districts of London are arranged in order of their elevation above high water mark of the Thames, then the mortality is invariably in relation to it. Upon the highest terraces, the diarrhoea is as fatal as the cholera, and on the lowest ground, the cholera is 4 times as fatal as the diarrhoea.

It is notes that at the height of the epidemic, the atmospheric pressure had risen high above normal, the temperatures were above average, especially in September when the epidemic was at its height. The air quality was very poor at the height of the epidemic and a drought ensured. These effects were most noticeable in alluvial districts, the chief seats of cholera in London, thus proving beyond doubt that the climate is London accelerated the epidemic.

The air in the hospitals during the epidemic was rife with organic matter, fungi and vibriones, which declined as the disease declined. These findings make frequent escapes to the purity of the country air vital for all classes.

Reports on the variability of water purity have previously been reported in the Lancet, some of our London water contains unacceptable amounts of raw sewage, easily seen under the microscope. However, the theory of contamination through ingestion of contaminated water in cholera is still in dispute.

The results of the efficacy of different treatments is reviewed, but the Lancet concludes that the study was based on too few cases to allow satisfactory conclusions to be made.

The British Journal of Homeopathy 1855; 13:62-78 Observations on the Cholera Epidemic by John Anderson.

(John Anderson was a British orthodox physician who converted to homeopathy after 20 years of allopathic practice, to become Physician to the Clapham Homeopathic Dispensary, a Trustee and Honarary Secretary of the Hahnemann Hospital at 39 Bloomsbury Square, and a member of the Hahnemann Medical Society).

This article is a report on 166 cases (4 deaths) treated by John Anderson, and he summarises the cases. The remedies used throughout (in 1x, 2x, 3x and mother tincture) were Camphor (often already taken by the patient before consultation), veratrum, ipecac, nux vomica, mercury corrosivus, arsenicum, china, secale, pulstalilla, digitalis, belladonna, cuprum, ignatia, carbo vegetalis, chamomilla. NB: camphorated chloroform was used in cases of pulmonary congestion.

John Anderson illustrates two types of Cholera (fear and mental dread were noted

in all cases):

1. Rumbling and griping in abdomen with diarrhoea and fever of 2-8 days duration.

1. Vomiting thin, grass green fluids after a meal or from an error of diet, with diarrhoea, fever, prostration, cramps, with marked raging thirst accompanying the severe cases, severe collapse (as if dead), with suppression of urine, and very severe cramps with severe contortion of the whole body just prior to death (4 cases).

Atypical presentations were noted. Not all symptoms were always present. Some cases were noted to exhibit exacerbations or amelioration of existing symptoms during the illness. Some cases had absence of diarrhoea after an initial evacuation. In some cases, the fever led to delirium (which could be violent with screaming), asphyxia (one case - treated with camphorated chloroform). NB: eruptions and boils after homeopathic treatment proceeded cure in some cases.

Problems:

1. Malignant cholera was not always easy to determine.

1. It is as if a remedy for the collapse stage has not yet been identified.

1. A statistical comparison chart for successful homeopathic treatments would be of great value.

The British Journal of Homeopathy 1855; 13 (part 54): 674-688 Parliamentary Return of the Homeopathic Treatment of Cholera from the _\***_London*{::}Homeopathic{::}Hospital{::}_ 20.4.185_{::}_5 by _Ralph Buchan.

(Ralph Buchan was a British Civil Servant at the Commisariat and at the War Office, who was the Honorary Secretary of the London Homeopathic Hospital).

The report does not include the returns submitted in November 1854, and noted that this previous return had still not received comment from Parliament. Therefore, this communication was an official complaint, addressed to Benjamin Hall President of the Board of Health, and submitted to the Committee of Management of the Board of Health (dated 11.5.1855), and includes a list of all the individuals involved with the London Homeopathic Hospital, and the fact that the London Homeopathic Hospital has been open for 5 years and has already treated 14,000 people for ‘nearly every variety of acute and chronic disease’.

In September 1854, the London Homeopathic Hospital directed the hospital to offer all wards for the sole use of the poor attacked by the cholera epidemic, and a visiting staff of doctors were organised to visit those who could not be admitted as inpatients. All comers were treated, day and night for free.

Handbills containing directions for prevention of cholera or the arrest of the disease in its early stages, were widely circulated, and notices inserted in daily journals announcing the London Homeopathic Hospital was ready to receive patients. The London Homeopathic Hospital approached the Board of Guardians of the Parish of St, James Westminster for permission to use litters to convey cholera cases to and from the hospital, which was refused on the grounds the Parish had no means of complying with this request.

The Medical Inspector for the Board of Health never once visited the hospital, so the London Homeopathic Hospital invited John MacLaughlin, the Medical Officer for Stepney, Poplar, St. Andrews, St. Giles and St. George’s, to inspect the wards.

John MacLaughlin confirmed in his letter dated 22.2.1855 that the cases he saw at the London Homeopathic Hospital ‘were true cases of cholera, in the various stages of the disease, and that I saw several cases which did well under your treatment, which I have no hesitation in saying would have sunk under any other’.

A fund was set up to hire lodgings in Hampstead to house patients in convalescence, to distribute gifts of money and clothing to those left destitute by the cholera or extreme poverty, thus relieving any charge on the Parish.

The statistics collected and submitted were carefully collated, and include full names, addresses and occupations of the patients, the symptoms observed at all the different stages of the disease, all remedies employed, and included the names of the doctors, their qualifications, and similarly the names and qualifications of those compiling the reports were also included.

Statistics:

Cholera cases                      61

Diarrhoea cases                331

Deaths                                    10

Cases of collapse               59%

NB: 3 cases of cholera were removed from the hospital by relatives before the outcome was determined. 1 death from cholera occurred on the way to the hospital before treatment commenced. Several cases were brought to the hospitals after allopaths declared their case hopeless.

J J Campbell, Assistant Secretary to the Board of Health replied on 21.4.1855, to inform London Homeopathic Hospital that statistics from homeopathic practitioners had been included in the general returns without indicating the difference between allopathic and homeopathic treatment.

A letter was received from John Ayrton Paris, President of the Treatment Committee of the Board of Health dated 21.4.1855, stating that a resolution had been passed to exclude the London Homeopathic Hospital statistics as they would ‘compromise the values and utilities of their average of cure, as deduced from the operation of known treatments, but they would give an unjustifiable sanction to an empirical practice alike opposed to the maintenance of truth, and to the progress of science’.

Interments of the House of Commons 14.5.1855

Robert Grosvenor 1st Baron Ebury asks whether the Board of Health forms received from homeopaths were refused on receipt.

Benjamin Hall replied that forms were sent out to all doctors listed in the Medical Directory, homeopath and allopath, and those forms returned by homeopaths had been systematically identified and excluded from the report.

The Lancet 28.7.1855 The Resignation of Benjamin Hall as President of the Board of Health

Benjamin Hall took over when confidence in the Board of Health was very low, and he carried the Metropolitan Local Government Bill and the Disease Prevention Act through the House of Commons. The Lancet bemoans his ‘removal from office’.

The Lancet 18.8.1855

Benjamin Hall is now President of the Board of Works, and W F Cowper is appointed President of the Board of Health. W F Cowper is a well known Poor Reformer and supporter of allotments and gardens for the labouring classes.

The Lancet 20.10.1855

The Board of Health is finally given powers to improve sanitary measures, but is still restricted. Unless a Town or District voluntarily decides to communicate with the Board of Health, the Board has no power to intervene unless the mortality rate rises above 25 in 100 (the Pestilence Standard, or the natural rate of mortality in this country under favourable conditions).

The Lancet advises the operations of the poor Law Commissioners be brought under the Board of Health, as they are responsible for the failure of the Smallpox Vaccination Extension Act of Lord Lyttleton because the labouring classes will have nothing to do with Parish relief or with Poor Law Guardians. Thus vaccination must be given to the Board of Health.

The British Medical Journal 1855; 390-4 Report on Cholera in the Metropolis

This report is about the second epidemic of cholera in London (first epidemic 1849). Suspicious cases first appeared in the winter of 1852 (no deaths reported in January 1853). 2 deaths were reported in February 1853,, 2 in March, 6 in April, 1 in May, 3 in June, 18 in July. Thereafter, the death rate escalated, reaching full epidemic in October 1853, and peaking in November 1853. In December 1853, the deaths declined week by week, and cases of diarrhoea rose and fell with the patterns of cholera, which began to slowly rise again during the early months of 1854, reaching full epidemic in July 1854.

During this same period, dysentery claimed 7 (deaths per week), typhus claimed 40-60 (deaths per week), peaking in October 1853 when 88 people died from typhus in one week. The whole class of zymotic diseases were claiming 200-300 lives (deaths per week) until the cholera became epidemic, and a total of 2558 people had died of these diseases in the period ending 9.9.1853.

The cholera was epidemic over the whole Metropolis by July 1854, peaking in the 2nd week of September (exactly the same pattern as the 1849 epidemic), and terminating on 16.12.1854 after claiming 40,599 lives (10,675 from cholera, 2601 from diarrhoea, 1347 from typhus).

The cholera was London wide, but deaths from it was most unequal, being much worse south of the river (1 death to every 353 inhabitants north of the Thames, and 1 death to every 108 inhabitants south of the Thames). The mortality in St. James Westminster was abnormally high.

This report concludes that there is no relation to impure water and cholera, though the use of such water has aggravated the severity of the cholera in cases south of the river.

The cholera manifests its usual tendency to partial, localised outbreaks, attacking a single court or house and then disappearing, though there were favoured locations where it was seldom absent, often occurring in exactly the same place as in earlier epidemics, even to the same house on the anniversary date of earlier outbreaks.

This tendency to partial outbreaks at selected sites was also noted in cases of diarrhoea, noting the example of 330 cases at St. Saviour’s Workhouse, where only 1 case proceeded to cholera and no one died, though nearly all had diarrhoea.

John MacLaughlin reported that in Stepney, it was impractical to record all the cases of diarrhoea, though astringents were dispensed to 15,000 people between 5.8.1854 and 14.10.1854, though only 8610 subsequently presented for medical attention.

Many doctors noted that all of the cholera cases they had seen were preceded by diarrhoea, and John MacLaughlin noted that in Poplar, diarrhoea had increased so rapidly, it was not possible to record names and addresses of patients. In fact, the fatal neglect of the premonitory diarrhoea in Bermondsey was soley responsible for the resultant death rates from cholera, such that this has now been made a Parish matter, such was the antipathy of residents towards anything to do with the Parish.

House to house visitations to offer relief in the early stages of diarrhoea must be organised and directed, as reports on the 1849 epidemic illustrate that opening local dispensaries was insufficient. Medical relief must be sent in to affected districts, as relying on patients themselves to act, as the poor often overlook the dangerous significance of such symptoms, most deaths occur due to late presentation and neglect of early stages, such has been noted as far back as the epidemic of 1832.

When daily house to house visitations to offer such aid was offered in Dumfries in 1848, the results were so beneficial, the technique was soon adopted in many other affected places to great effect. Daily house to house visitation was attempted in 1849 in London, and was of equal success, when 44,715 cases were treated in the early stages and only 52 died from cholera.

In 1853 in Newcastle, daily house to house visitations saved many lives, such that the Board of Guardians sent out directions country wide, but none of our Metropolitan Parishes had made any preparations for this measure. Therefore, some more suitable authority with adequate powers is required in the Metropolis.

In the epidemic of 1849, 14,590 cholera deaths were recorded, 2.2% were gentry, 13.6% were tradesmen, 60.8% were amongst the poor.

The current Board of Guardians thus relies on Poor Law Guardians to protect the poor. The Board of Guardians have few powers to sewer a street, drain a house, pave a street or to control water supply. The working classes and small tradesmen are the most vulnerable as they detest Parish assistance in all forms, and are thus often left without medical care, which is resident in Parish dispensaries and workhouses.

Often no fatalities occur in paupers as a result of early treatment from the Parish. However, until a local Board with sufficient power to demolish hovels and build decent houses exists, the Board of Guardians is totally inadequate to counter such epidemics. Sanitary improvements in certain areas demonstrate this beyond doubt.

The British Medical Journal 1855; 977-978 A Cholera Blue Book

We have suffered three cholera visitations in these islands to date, and we still do not know its cause. Previous reports record the endeavours of science to investigate this. The Medical Council has ‘begin the attack’ by direct investigation into every cause possible.

It has been noted that the meteorological phenomenon were identical in all three epidemics, the atmospheric pressure was great, the wind NE and SW and becalmed. Stifling heat at night, deficient electrical activity (storms) and a total absence of ozone made the air quality terrible.

Lambeth suffered extreme malignity in all three epidemics due to its position and situation near Plumstead Marshes, and surrounded by low lying hills, it acted as a cul de sac of bad air. The evidence that stagnant and polluted air has been amply demonstrated.

The microscopic examination of body parts and products and blood from cholera patients disproves the theory that the blood corpuscles break down, or that parasitic production was present in such cases. Post mortem results demonstrate little apart from the flaccid condition of the right side of the heart and extremities, and the rigid condition of the left side of the heart and extremities.

The Lancet 29.12.1855 Election and Duties of Medical Officers of Health

1. To familiarise themselves with natural and acquired features of place, locality, social, sanitary (including provision of wells and watersprings), meteorological peculiarities, distribution of buildings and open spaces, paved or unpaved streets, burial grounds, plans of drains and sewers, water supplies, nature of local industry, population statistics, local burial arrangements, local washing arrangements, and all regulations pertaining locally to Public Health.

1. To consult locally with professionals regarding local problems.

1. To familiarise themselves with weekly deaths and sickness and inquire how these depend on removable causes.

1. To take steps to improve the conditions of the place and locality, to examine drinking water regularly, to stop hurtful and illegal practices, to visit burial grounds, to observe all slaughter houses and industrial establishments liable to omit offensive effluvia (especially animal).

1. To report weekly to local Board on all deaths, on all sickness in the dstrict, on unwholesome conditions that should be removed, on progress of previously reported concerns. To report annually to the local Board on improvements made, on problems remaining, on sickness, death and atmospheric conditions of the period, on improvements needed.

1. To receive local complaints and take steps to deal with them. NB: candidate must have qualifications in pathology, statistics, chemistry (plus microscopic observation), natural philosophy. Local Boards must understand the nature of these educational requirements, and consider disbarring candidates from private practice, particularly at times of epidemics, due to the conflicts of interests involved.

The British Journal of Homeopathy 1856: 14:102-124 Report on the Committee for Scientific Inquiries in relation to the cholera epidemic of 1854, presented to both Houses of Parliament

Both allopaths and homeopaths are concerned that there is a great want for a systematic record of cases of cholera to determine the best mode of treatment.

Benjamin Hall has been found out for not following his own guidelines ‘ to include the observations of all qualified practitioners’ in this report.

The cases treated at the London Homeopathic Hospital were from an area where the disease was ‘most intense’ at the height of the epidemic, according to this report, and they presented the average number of collapses. So what has Benjamin Hall done with the homeopathic statistics?

This article reviews the official report and points out that epidemics of cholera around the World differ in atmospheric conditions and air quality (eg: the outbreak in the Black Sea in 1855). The effect of elevation above the water table on cholera has been attested all around the World (with the exception of the Euphrates outbreak in 1822 when a Persian army was decimated on high table land (300 out of 1000 died)).

This article notes with astonishment at the low priority given in the official report to the presence of vibriones identified in the water and in the choleraic discharges from the bowels of infected individuals, but applauds the call for improved water supplies in this country.

The confusion over diarrhoea and cholera (same disease or a different disease), and whether the diarrhoea should be stopped or allowed by medical practitioners is rife with confusion. If allopaths took a proper history, it would become apparent to them that diarrhoea is not cholera or vice versa.

The cause of diarrhoea is in its origin, of which these are known and are legion. The cause of cholera is as yet unknown, but it cannot be induced by any known cause of diarrhoea.

This allopaths get lost in such a profusion of confused symptoms. Numerous dissections of cholera cases do not demonstrate fluid in the bowels, and it is noted that in the most intense and characteristic form of cholera, no diarrhoea is observed at all.

This article notes that the chief effect of cholera is found in the nervous system, involving the respiratory nerves, the sense of death characteristic of the disease, the oppression of the heart and the hollow whispering voice. Diarrhoea does not cause any such symptoms.

The failure of respiration is noted in the chill of expired air. The suppression of urine and cold perspiration, and the decomposition of the blood, bile and foecal matter is noted. The cramps associated with cholera may indeed relate to this ‘dead blood’. And all this described so completely by camphor!

The allopathic treatments comprise a ‘burlesque’, their already confused notions result in a mess of statistics completely devoid of details of the individual, dates, doses given (small or large - what does this mean?), information about preparation of treatments, combination ratios (implied but not specified), treatments to counter the ill effects of calomel are included as therapeutics – in fact this is all the ‘stuff of verbiage’.

How can the saline treatment be more fatal than 100%?

Where is the trial of the use of salts in pronounced collapse?

Homeopaths treat thus:

When an individual shows its early stages of weakness, giddiness, heaviness of the head, loss of appetite, swelling or distention of the abdomen, nausea, frequent diarrhoea – put the patient in a warm and soft bed and cover them.

Treat these early stages with 2-4 drops of spirit of camphor diffused in a teaspoon of sugared water, or on a bit of sugar, every 5 minutes. If after a few doses the patient falls into perspiration, or if the symptoms have eased, then administer the treatment at longer intervals. If the symptoms have become worse, give the treatment more frequently.

If within 2 hours no important improvement has taken place and the well known symptoms of cholera appear, then melt 3 good table spoons full of common salt in a quart of warm water and let half of this be taken immediately till vomiting takes place. After the stomach is emptied, apply a mustard or horseradish poultice to the pit of the stomach, which should be kept there until a strong perspiration arises.

Then administer a moderate teaspoonful of bicarbonate of soda and a tablespoon of an equal part vinegar and water, given in a state of effervescence every 20 minutes. Also give Stevens saline powder in 2-3 tablespoons of beef tea or oatmeal gruel every half hour until the symptoms of cholera have entirely disappeared.

(No doubt homeopathic remedies were also administered at intervals).

Notes:

Henry Turner, homeopathic practitioner, trialed the use of salts in the treatment of cholera in Jamaica in 1854, and he wrote to The Times to advertise his success.

In 1867 Henry Whatley Tyler (Sir Henry Whatley Tyler gave the Tyler Wing to the London Homeopathic Hospital) investigated London’s water supply following an outbreak of cholera, an investigation which involved emptying a reservoir of the East London Waterworks Company next to the river Lea, and tasting the contaminated water. His report helped confirm that cholera was water borne rather than by the air.

Frederick Hervey Foster Quin, the founder of the London Homeopathic Hospital, treated cholera in 1831. In 1831, Frederick Hervey Foster Quin travelled to Germany to treat a cholera epidemic, and despite catching it himself, he worked through the epidemic until it ceased, to be warmly praised by the local Mayor. Frederick Hervey Foster Quin successfully cured himself of Cholera on Samuel Hahnemann’s advice.

Homeopaths  had successfully treated and recorded cholera epidemics in Vienna in 1831, 1836 and 1847. Settimio Centamori, Edward Cronin, Friedrich Wilhelm Karl Fleischmann, Gyorgy Forgo, Adolph Heinrich Gerstel, Christian Theodore Herrmann, John Martin Honigberger, Simon Nicolaievitch von Korsakoff, Friedrich Edmund Peithner Ritter von Lichtenfels, Adam Lyschinski, Matthias Marenzeller, William W Mayerhoffer, Pierre Joseph De Moor, Benoit Jules Mure, Rocco Rubini, George Schmid, J A Schubert, Hans Thomsen, Johann Emanuel Veith, Dionysius Wielobycki,

• just to name a few, had all had experience treating cholera before or during 1855, both in the UK and in Europe.

Many homeopaths had written up their experienced in treating cholera by 1855, including Robert Ellis Dudgeon who wrote Homeopathic Treatment and Prevention of Asiatic Cholera 1847, Juan Norberto Casanova who wrote General observations respecting cholera-morbus in 1834, Joseph Reubel wrote Vier Vorlesungen uber die Cholera in Europa in 1831, Johannes Gustav Schweikert who wrote Homöopathischer Rathgeber bei Cholera-Erkrankungen in 1853, Karl Hencke submitted a report on the cholera epidemic in Riga in 1848, Martin Wilhelm von Mandt who wrote Mandt’s treatment during the epidemic of cholera in 1848, Charles Gaspard Peschier who wrote a summary of the whole number of cholera patients treated with homeopathy up to 1832, Jacob Dixon who wrote Cholera: its treatment, prevention and cure in 1855, John Stuart Sutherland who wrote A case of Asiatic Cholera published in The British Journal of Homeopathy in 1848, William Huber who wrote a study of 2160 cases of cholera in Russia in 1844, Peter Jacob Liedbeck who wrote Directions for the use of Some Homeopathic Medicine in Cholera 1848, Friedrich Jakob Rummel wrote Cure of Cholera in 1831, Carl Ernst Brutzer wrote Anleitung zur Behandlung der Cholera homöopathischen in 1847, Charles Thomas Pearce wrote Diarrhoea and Cholera in 1853, Leon Francois Adolphe Simon wrote Instructions on the cholera published by the Hahnemannian Society in 1849, Jean Paul Tessier wrote Clinical Researches Concerning the Homeopathic Treatment of Asiatic Cholera in 1852, Alexandre Charge published a pamphlet on the Cholera in Marseille in 1854, Francois Perrussel wrote Trip of a Homoeopathic Physician to the Cholera at Marseilles in 1835, William Henry Mayne wrote On the use of Caster oil as a powerful Anti Spasmodic, with satisfactory results from its use in cholera, diarrhoea and dry bellyache – just to name a few.

In 1832, Jules John Mabit was sent to England to study Cholera, and he began with a collection of the cholera statistics from 1796 – 1837 (?1832) across the whole of Europe, showing an allopathic mortality rate of 49%, and a homeopathic mortality rate of 7.5%.