§ 57. These kinds of cholera are of the milder kind.

The precursory symptoms, if there be any, can be easily removed by the well-selected homoeopathic agent. If the characteristic symptoms of the disease have made their appearance, the physician has to select his remedy with great care, lest it should not correspond to the symptoms. The cases of sporadic cholera which arise from overloading the stomach, from eating sour food, or taking sour drinks, from general or partial catarrhs, cannot terminate unfavourably unless the treatment is entirely mismanaged. In making such an assertion, the age and constitution of the patient are of course taken into consideration; it is self-evident that children, whose nervous system is extremely irritable, and who, on that account, are more predisposed to spasms, are more easily carried away by an attack of sporadic cholera than full-grown, robust persons. It is for similar reasons that cholera is particularly dangerous for old people and females.

§ 58. The treatment of a disease ought always to correspond to the exciting cause. As in most cases of sporadic cholera it is impossible to assign a specific cause for the disease, we will commence with the treatment of this class of cholera cases and afterwards speak more in detail of those few cases where the exciting cause is well known.

The precursory symptoms which we have mentioned above, yield in most cases to a dose of Chamomilla more speedily than to Ipecacuanha, even in cases where one or two diarrhoeic stools, with colic in the umbilical region have already taken place. Chamomilla would be inferior to Ipec, if vomiting and a constant desire to vomit, with diarrhoea, had already set in; in this case Ipec. may be repeated in from one to three hours, if the first dose should not have been sufficient to remove the disease.

If either of those remedies should fail, and the characteristic symptoms of the cholera should make their appearance, or if the physician should have been called when the disease had already broken out, it is advisable to administer at once Veratrum album, which is the specific remedy.

If the characteristic symptoms of cholera should be accompanied in the very beginning with an excessive prostration of strength altogether disproportionate to the vomiting and diarrhoea, with great anguish, violent, unquenchable thirst, diarrhoeic and sometimes sanguineous discharges from the bowels, occurring almost every moment, vomiting, excessive colic, and the like, Arsenic will be found the best remedy if administered in suitable doses. Arsenic is likewise the best remedy if Veratrum had no effect and the disease threatens to pass into the third stage; even when the hippocratic countenance has already set in, and the pulse is scarcely perceptible, Arsenic may still save the patient's life.

§ 59. Cholera symptoms which have been occasioned by chagrin are most speedily relieved by Chamomilla, provided the physician is called in time. In many cases, especially when the alvine evacuations consist principally of mucus, Pulsatilla is indicated, unless Colocynth. should correspond more accurately to the symptoms, which might be the case, since, as has been stated above, Colocynth is even a better specific against the consequences of chagrin than Chamomilla.

The cholera symptoms to which hypochondriac and hysteric persons are liable do not require any different treatment from the one which is required by cholera arising from cold or errors in diet.

If the symptoms should have been occasioned by poison, such as arsenic, and the patient should not yet have vomited, the vomiting must be excited by artificial means, in order to remove the deleterious substance from the stomach as soon as possible, and to prevent its passing into the circulation. The most expeditious means of bringing on vomiting, is to swallow a quantity of soap-suds and to tickle the fauces with a feather; injections of soap-water ought to be administered at the same time. If the vomiting should already have been very copious, it may be quieted by drinking a quantity of rich milk, or, if no milk should be had, oil or mucilaginous drinks, or by taking a little potash which has been shaken with oil or with a solution of hepar sulp. calc. The best antidote to Arsenic is the sesquioxyde of iron, which has been recommended of late. The nervous symptoms which remain after the poison has been neutralized, cannot be expected to yield to a single homoeopathic remedy; the first remedies to be used for such secondary affections, are the antidotes to Arsenic: Ipec, Verat., Chin., Ferr., and Nux vomica, the remedy to be chosen in every case in accordance with the symptoms.

If the cholera symptoms depend upon mercurial salts, the milk ought to be mixed with some potash or powdered chalk, or the patient ought to swallow the white of an egg, which is likewise a most excellent remedy for poisoning by copper; after this a solution of Hepar sulph. calc. ought to be administered, and if any secondary affection remain, the antidotes to Mercury ought to be used against it.

The cholera symptoms which had been occasioned by vegetable poisons, are most certainly and thoroughly removed by small doses of a saturated solution of Camphor; of course, if any poison remain in the stomach, this is to be removed above all things.