Richmond Enquirer

TO THE EDITOR OF THE ENQUIRER.

Natchez, Oct. 21st 1834.

As the cholera is prevailing in some parts of Virginia, I herewith send you Dr. Cartwright's prescription for that disease. You might confer a great favor on your subscribers by publishing the entire pamphlet in your paper.

Dr. C. never sold or speculated on the pamphlet in any way—in fact, he paid the printer for the first edition, to my knowledge. As Dr. C. has advised a remedy which has not heretofore been used by regular physicians, but very generally used by a set of Quacks called Botanical, or Steam Doctors, you or your readers might suppose, that he belonged to that tribe of ignorant impostors, and consequently pay no attention to his advice. This would be doing him great injustice. The conclusion that he is a quack, because he prescribes red pepper, can be very easily disproved. The library of any Physician in your City will prove that Dr. Cartwright is not an Empiric. In the 13th volume of the New England Journal of Medicine and Surgery, published in 1824, page 445, you will perceive that the Medical Committee of Harvard University, conferred on him a gold medal of $50 value for an Essay on suspended animation. In the 15th volume of the same work, page 433, you will perceive that another medal, by the same University, was conferred on him. In the 14th volume of the Medical Recorder, published in Philadelphia, page 153, the same individual was awarded the premium, (a silver pitcher of $500 value,) by the Medical and Chirurgical Faculty of Maryland, for an Essay on Cholera Infantum. In a volume antecedent to this, you will perceive, that a society of Physicians in Philadelphia awarded him a handsome premium in books, for an Essay on Yellow Fever. The statements made in the Essay, as regards matters of fact, having been denied, at page 201, vol. 11th, of the Medical Recorder, you will find a letter of the City Council and Board of Health of Natchez, verifying the Facts set forth by Dr. Cartwright, and attesting to his respectability and veracity. In the Natchez Courier of May 9th, 1834, you will perceive that the citizens among whom he practices, tendered to him a vase of six hundred dollars value, as a testimony of their gratitude for the advantages they derived from his prescription for the cholera, when that disease was epidemic among them. The plan of treatment he advises, has been used with the most unparalleled success in Louisiana and Mississippi.

It is no disparagement to Dr. C. to inform you, that he was born and bred a Virginian, and bore arms in the ranks of her soldiers during the late war. In Mississippi, he is a leader of the Democratic Party. His speech against Nullification and Federalism, and in support of the present Administration, recently published in the Mississippian, at Jackson, you have probably noticed, and can judge of its merits. His practice as a Physician, in and about Natchez, has been for the last ten years very extensive and lucrative, probably as much so as any other Physician in the United States, amounting, as I am creditably informed, to more than ten thousand dollars per annum, clear of expenses and bad debts. Lest the discovery of such an individual be partially lost, it is very important that the public at a distance should know what confidence to attach to his medical advice.

Some additional observations relative to the Cholera, and a prescription for the treatment of that disease in all its stages; by Samuel A. Cartwright, M. D.

A few months since, after repeated solicitations on the subject, I published a small tract on the Cholera, containing the substance of what I conceived to be the most useful information on the subject. Since its publication, I have had considerable experience with the disease, and am induced to believe that its character has changed materially, or that the treatment recommended by the Physicians of the Northern States, as well as those of Asia and Europe, is far from being the best the disease admits of. The treatment I am about to recommend is applicable to the Cholera as it now exists on plantations in the vicinity of Natchez. It may or may not be applicable in other places, or in the same places in a different season, or in another visitation. A part of the treatment is mentioned at the 24th page of the pamphlet, as having been signally successful in New Orleans during the terrible epidemic of last autumn. At the time the pamphlet was written, I had only tried it in one case, and was pleased with it.

I must confess that the remedies I have found by experience to be the most successful in Cholera, are not such as comported with my pre-conceived opinions. I could not believe that large doses of Cayenne Pepper, combined with Calomel and Camphor, would quench thirst, ease pain, relax spasms, and arrest rice water discharges. Incredulous myself, until convinced by repeated experience, I expect similar incredulity in others, particularly physicians.

In publishing methods of cure, I know that I am doing what many Physicians will condemn, as some of them conscientiously believe, that if the remedies advised were ever so good in themselves, the public would do mischief in administering them. Dr. Rush, however, believed that the treatment of all malignant epidemics should be taught to the people, and in a manner taken out of the hands of the physicians.

No man was more opposed to empiricism than he; no man exerted himself more, and with greater success, in elevating the character of his profession. Following his example, I shall endeavor to put the treatment of the present epidemic in the hands of the public;—whatever evil may result from it, I firmly believe will be more than compensated by ten-fold good. Impressed with this belief, I stop not to calculate consequences, or to consider whom it may please or displease. I owe too much to the people around me, to let selfish motives or a fear of censure, ridicule or misrepresentation, deter me from making some efforts, (however inefficient they may be,) to mitigate the evils of the pestilence now spreading over this portion of the Southern States.

Prescription for CHOLERA, And Its Premonitory SYMPTOMS.

Take 2 drachms Calomel, 2 drachms Red Pepper, and 1 drachm of Gum Camphor, rub together in a mortar, and divide into six equal parts, Label—Non Purgative Powders.

Make the above quantities into 42 pills with mucilage of Gum Arabic or slippery Elm water, mark them—Non Purgative Pills—Dose 7, and keep them in a vial.

Again—Take Calomel, Aloes, Rhubarb and Red Pepper, of each 1 drachm, and pulverised Gum Camphor half a drachm—divide into six equal parts, label—Purgative Powders.

As soon as any pain in the bowels is complained of, or any bowel complaint or vomiting, one of the Non-Purgative Powders, or 7 of the pills, should be given without loss of time, and the patient ordered to bed. Half a powder, or 3 or 4 of the pills, should be given after every spell of vomiting, and after every thin or whitish operation. After the pain has been relieved, and the vomiting and purging arrested by the Non Purgative medicine, one of the purgative powders should be given every 4, 6 or 8 hours, until bilious evacuations are produced; known by their black, green or deep yellow color. In the mean time, Mint or Chamomile tea should be taken warm and in small quantities, frequently repeated. After bilious operations, if the patient be not restored to health, Ginger and Virginia Snake Root tea, with or without Senna, according to the state of the bowels, should be taken occasionally.

If the first dose of non-purgative medicine does not produce a perspiration in about two hours, it will be necessary to repeat it, and if the pain, diarrhoea or vomiting continues, a moderate quantity of blood should be drawn. Bleeding should be resorted to at once, if there be much pain in the head. In violent cases, the medicine should be assisted by a mustard plaster over the stomach, rubbing the extremities with mustard or hot Turpentine, and the application of hot Turpentine to the spine. When the rice water purging continues, after the vomiting has ceased, I have given a tea-spoon full of red pepper in Alum water, as an injection, with a good effect.