Cholera Infection. -- a few days after their return the same terrible disease rapidly attack other members of the household, so that, within a fortnight, and that one little circle, 11 person's had been seized with cholera, including a mother, father, grandmother, two daughters, sons, doctor, serving lad, serving maid, labor and countrywoman, and of these 11 only three survived, namely, the Sun, a daughter and a serving lad. Later, in the countrywoman's family, there was another fatal case. It cannot well be doubted, concluded Mr. Simon, but that the exciting cause of the succession of events was in some way or other the return of the parents from Weymouth-of the father with the remains of choleraic diarrhea upon him, of the mother with apparently the beginnings of the same complaint. But this is only part of the case, and the remainder teaches a most impressive lesson. All the drinking water used in the house came from a well beneath the floor of the scullery, and into that well there was habitual  soakage from the water closet.

Now for some people reviewing 100 year old accounts of cholera epidemics might be about as exciting as reviewing marketing budgets and covering line items for promotional pens to insure that enough red pens versus blue pens have been ordered. That said this actually has some very interesting historical references in the next few sections so don't miss them.

Additional Articles from the Book of Medicine:

• How We Walk
  
  

  How We Walk.- the foot is in raised from the ground and swung forward into true pendulum fashion.  The leg in so doing becomes flexed at the knee joint, and considerably shorter, and the whole weight of the body is transferred to and supported by the leg and foot, which is planted firmly on the ground.  The leg in the foot which was swinging in the air is now brought down to the ground, the muscles passing through changes just the reverse of those employed in raising it.  Planting this foot firmly on the ground, to prevent the body from failing, we raise the other foot, swing it forward, like describing the same movements as before, repeating the process alternatively with each leg.  These movements constitute the act of walking; the complexity of which is fully illustrated by the consultative machinery employed for its performance, as we’ve seen in the beautiful place join the wonderful unskillful arrangements of the bones and muscles of the leg.

  This description sounds slightly unscientific.  I picture a man standing there and slowly lifting his leg while the author slowly writes in perfect form each word describing the movement, but the entire time failing to recognize the chaotic nature of walking or running which is at best an exercise in repeated controlled falling.  Its much easier today to analyze true movement with the benefit of cameras and slow motion.  The author might not even be suited for practicing medicine today and could possibly be better suited to accounting or banking working with mortgage lenders.

• Deadly Affect of Water Impurity
  
  

  Deadly Affect of Water Impurity.  — according to the late Dr. William Budd, it also appears to be highly probable that, the poison of typhoid fever enters the system by drinking water, infection is more certain than when it is disseminated by the hair and is breathed into the lungs.  It’s part of the statement, he instances an outbreak which occurred in Wales, where out of ninety or a hundred persons who attended a ball, fully one third was shortly afterward laid up with fever.  Although the water was not examined, there was satisfactory reason to believe it was polluted with sewage.

   

  Even in public places where you would expect the aristocracy or at least the rich people together, water impurity was such a problem that sewage could be mixed into the drinking water supply at a ball.  Clearly this highlights the fact that discovering this problem was still relatively new compared to attempt to deal with the problem effectively.  This was such a new problem, that they were literally dying from it because they could act fast enough, and maybe they didn’t even know that they were supposed to act fast.  For all we know looking at this account, replacing their Movado watches might have been of higher importance than investing money in improving their drinking water supply.

• Delicacy of the Organs
  
  

  Again this next section has a title that doesn’t sound like something you’d find in a medical textbook. If I were to read this title is where I would think I was preparing to read a book about Hannibal Lecter. In fact maybe it was medical textbooks like this that inspired some evil doctor to become a cannibal somewhere.
  

  Delicacy of the Organs. –the protection of the organs which carry on the stupendous office challenges our warmest admiration. So delicately are they arranged that the slightest pressure will cause intense pain, yet tons of air surged to and fro through their intricate passages, and bathe their innumerable cells without our knowledge, so to speak, of its coming and going. We annually perform over 8,400,000 acts of breathing, inhale over 150,000 feet of air, and purify nearly 4000 tons of blood! This gigantic and unburdensome process goes on constantly, never wearying or worrying us when in robust health, we are struck dumb founded with amazement when the cold calculations of science reveal to us its magnitude and marvelousness.

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  So it does appear that the title for this action was completely inept. The section actually is a off topic. It jumps from the concept that our organs are designed with sensors to indicate pain when the organs or threaten, and then jumped into the statistics section talking about just how much the organs process. Nothing in this section talked about how fragile the organs might be, and much to the chagrin of many cannibalistic psychologists, there is no talk about how to cook up a meal.