Last night's Gazette announces that the Queen has appointed Thomas
Southwood Smith, M.D., to be the Medical Member of the General Board of Health.
The Gazette also contains a notification on the prevention of cholera, is- sued by the General Board of Health, under the Nuisances Removal and Diseases Prevention Act.
It repeats the statement that the cholera is not contagions; so that panic, flight from the sick, quarantine regulations, &c., under that imaginary supposi- tion, are supererogatory evils. The notification warns the Guardians of the Poor, Parochial Boards, &c., that they will be called upon to put the Nuisances &c. Act into operation; and sup- plies them with mach useful, distinct, and specific advice, as to the mode of doing so. The Boards will have to institute visits from home to house, especially in "dangerous" districts (marked out by prevalence of typhus and other epidemics); to enforce internal and external cleansing of dwellings, with removal of filth, de- caying animal and vegetable matters, and whatever produces atmospheric im purity; to give directions for obtaining dryness and ventilation,—moisture being an active cause of cholera; to supply the poor with information, to aid them with physic, and to remove destitute patients to proper asylums; general cholera hospitals not being recommended. The premonitory symptom is diarrheas, often without pain, mostly of a very mild character. During the prevalence of cholera ffiarrlicea demands instant at- tention: the slightest degree of looseness of the bowels ought not to be neglected, The proper remedies at this stage are "twenty grains of opiate confection- mixed with two table-spoonsful of peppermint-water or with a little weak brandy- and-water, and repeated every three or four hours, or oftener if the attack is se- vere until the looseness of the bowels is stopped; or an ounce of the compound cnaia mixture, with ten or fifteen grains of the aromatic confection, and from five to ten drops of laudanum, repeated in the same manner. From half a drachm to a drachm of tincture of catechu may be added to this last if the attack is severe. Half these quantities should be given to young persons under fifteen, and still smaller doses to infanta. It is recommended to repeat these remedies, night and morning, for some days after the looseness of the bowels has been stopped." Diet should be moderate. Every variety of green vegetables, cooked or not, and all kinds of fruit, raw, cooked, dried, or preserved, should be avoided. The wholesome articles of vegetable diet are, well-baked bread, (not new,) rice, oat- meal, and good potatoes. Diet should be solid rather than fluid, and principally animal food; avoiding salted and smoked meats, pork, salted fish, and shell-68h. Avoid acid drinks of all kinds, ginger-beer, and ardent spirits. Above all, be moderate, daring the whole duration of the epidemic period. "One single act of
indiscretion has in many instances been followed by a speedy and fatal attack." In proof, during the former visitation of this country, " theInost frequent and deadly attacks were those that took place in the middle of the night, a few hours after a heavy supper." Three fatal cases at Hamburg, recently, were those of sailors who had just taken plums and sour beer. Two fatal cases at Sunder- land, recently, were those of drunkards who defied warnings.. Clothing should be warm, with flannel next the skin; the feet,keptfriT and • warm; clothes changed after exposure to wet or moisture; sittiog-asor 40,1_4 rooms kept kept well aired, dry, and warm. 5.
Purgative medicines of all kinds must be avoided: Glauber salts, Epsom salts, and Seidlitz powders, in any quantity, are dangerous; also senna, colocynth, =haloes; except under medical advice.
When seized with cold, giddiness nausea, vomiting, and cramps, get into a warm bed; use heated flannel, bags of ha camomile flowers, of heated loran, salt, or sand, or bottles of hot water, to produce warmth; have the extremities rubbed; apply a large poultice of mustard and vinegar over the region of the stomach, for fifteen or twenty minutes; drink, every half-hour, a spoonful of sal volatile in a little hot water, or a dessert-spoonful of brandy in a little hot water' or white wine whey (made by pouring one glass of -sherry into a tumbler of hot milk); and send for the doctor as quickly as possible.
Districts are seldom visited by the epidemic for longer periods than a few months, or even a few weeks. Preventives for cholera are equally applicable as preventives of typhus or other recurrent epidemics. Such are the chief points carefully picked out from the official notifica- tion. But, of course, all public bodies, or managers of large establishments, will procure the original document, in the Gazette of October 6, 1848.
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