Annals of Cholera, from the Earliest Periods to the Year
1817. By John Macpherson, M.D. (Ranken).—A book of great research, telling us, we believe it may be said, all the facts of importance that belong to the history of this disease. A layman's impression is that it may be road with more interest than satisfaction. The physiological and historical know- ledge of medical matters which the ingenuity and industry of our physi- cians and surgeons are collecting is enormous in amount. But, as a too candid lecturer recently remarked when he had passed in review the achievements of medical science, "In one department less satisfactory progress has been made, and that department is the treatment of dis- ease." Yes, we know, or soon shall know, everythieg about disease except how to cure it. As to cholera in particular, it is discomfiting to see that the battle between the purgative and non-purgative, stimulant and non-stimulant methods of treatment was fought with the same vigour among the wise men of antiquity as it is being fought among our own, and with as little result.
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