Democratic Sentinel, Volume 17, Number 3, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 February 1893 — Quinine as a Protection Against Cholera [ARTICLE]

Quinine as a Protection Against Cholera

Dr. Laurie, a physician well known in India, long ago asserted that he would stake his reputation on the efficacy of quinine a« a prophylactic against cholera. A five-grain dose of this drug every morning while the disease is about is, he held, a sure preventive. During the epidemic of cholera in India last year, Dr. Hehir made certain investigations which resulted in the discovery of the presence in the blood, etc., of cholera patients, of a peculiar parasitic pretozoon or microbe, although whether this is the cause or result of the disease has yet to be determined. He fount] that this organism could not live in strong solutions of quinine, and he further found that the protective virtues of quinine were amply demonstrated during the epidemiclie now commits himself unreservedly to the opinion expressed by Dr. Laurie, and recommends the use of quinine as a prophylactic in addition to sulphurous acid. It has been his practice for years to administer one drachm doses of acid every three hours to all the inmates of a house in which the disease breaks out during the time the patient is in the house. He has given it in about 7,000 instances, and for the last three years he has not seen cholera occur in any case in which it was used. If quinine is really the effective prophylactic against cholera that these eminent authorities have such excellent cause to believe it to be, this fell disease has lost its terrors, for nothing is easier and less harmful than taking a five-grain dose of the drug during the epidemic of the disease.