latterly, what was best to be done. Small
indeed may be the chance of the present order of things as to
quarantines, the separation of persons attacked, &c., being changed
by anything which I can offer; but, having many years experience of
disease--having had no small share of experience in this disease in
particular, and having, perhaps, paid as much attention to all that has
been said about it as any man living, I should be wanting in my duty
towards God and man did I not protest, most loudly, against those
regulations, which shall have for their base, an assumption, that a
being affected with cholera can, IN ANY MANNER WHATEVER, transmit, or
communicate, the disease to others, _however close or long continued the
intercourse may be_; because such doctrine is totally in opposition to
all the fair or solid evidence now before the public;--because it is
calculated, in numberless instances, to predispose the constitution
to the disease, by exciting terror equal to that in the case of
plague;--because it is teaching us Christians to do what Jews, and
others, never do, to abandon the being who has so many ties upon our
affections;--because the desertion of friends and relatives, and the
being left solely in charge, perhaps, of a feeble and aged hireling (if
even such can be got, which I much doubt when terror is so held out,)
must tend directly to depress those functions which, from the nature of
the disease, it should be our great effort to support;--finally, because
a proper and unbiassed examination of the question will shew, that all
these horrors are likely to arise out of regulations which may, with
equal justice, be applied to ague, to the remittent fevers of some
countries, or to the Devonshire cholic, as to cholera.

Happily, it is not yet too late to set about correcting erroneous
opinions, pregnant with overwhelming mischief, for hitherto the measures
acted upon have only affected our commerce and finances to a certain
extent; but it appears to me that not a moment should be lost, in order
to prevent a public panic; and, in order to prevent those calamities
which, in addition to the effects of the disease itself, occurred, as we
have seen, on the Continent. Let then, I say, a Commission be forthwith
appointed, composed of persons accustomed to weigh evidence in other
cases, and who will not be likely to give more than its due weight to
the authority of any individuals. Let this be done, and, in the
decision, we