, apparently stimulating,
is in reality, a paralyzer and therefore mischievous; the
death-rate might be considerably reduced provided alcohol were
rigidly excluded.'"

Dr. Norman Kerr in a valuable paper upon Cholera says:--

"The first thing is to get rid of the poison. How? By assisting
it out; but alcohol keeps it in by blocking the doors, just as
the doors were blocked in the terrible calamity at Sunderland
not long ago. The alcohol makes the heart and circulation labor
more. Alcohol not only retains the cholera poison, but retards
the action of the heart. Brandy and opium used to be employed,
but the records show that if the object had been to make cholera
as fatal as possible, that object was achieved by the
indiscriminate administration of brandy and opium. Better leave
the victim alone, and his chances of recovery will be greater
than if he have a thousand doctors, and as many nurses,
administering to him brandy and opium. Alcohol is especially
dangerous in the third stage, that of reactive fever, because it
adds to the fever. Then, alcohol is not only unsafe in the three
stages of genuine cholera, but especially unsafe in the
premonitory diarrhoea stage, which gives nearly every one
warning before they are attacked by genuine cholera. Brandy is
taken simply because it puts away the pain. If there are only
the pain and slight diarrhoea, speaking medically, it is all
right, but if there is anything behind the pain, it is all
wrong. After the alcohol, the mischief is going on, only the
patient does not know it, and valuable time is lost. All the
alcohol does is to deaden sensation. * * * * * Here I can
thoroughly recommend ice and iced water. I have always treated
cholera patients with these. Let them drink iced water to their
hearts' content; they can never drink too much; and this opinion
is fortified by that of Professor Maclean, of Netley. There is
no need of a substitute for brandy in cholera, because in
ordinary circumstances in that disease the action of a stimulant
is bad. Flushing of the blood is required, and water will do
it. Milk will not do it, because it is too thick--nothing but
pure, cold water, all the better if iced."

In 1893 Dr. Ernest Hart, editor of the _British Medical Journal_, read
an able paper upon Cholera before the American Medical Association.