The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 40, July 1936 - April, 1937 Page: 218
348 p. : maps ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Southwestern Historical Quarterly
and since the military quarters are so horribly unkept, the filth
itself may give rise to the aforementioned disease."
Evidently San Antonio was slow in preparing a reception for
cholera. In spite of the warning of Arciniega, which was for-
warded to Ram6n Mfzquiz from Guadalupe Victoria on Decem-
ber 19, 1832, to the Ayuntamiento, no active steps were taken
until early in September, 1833, when Mizquiz himself called a
mass meeting, appointed a Board of Health composed of seventeen
members and listed their duties. He then divided the city into
five wards, and placed a committee of three members of the
Board of Health in each ward. The committees were instructed
to consult Citizen Alejandro Vidal, who was not a physician but
merely a practitioner with a fair knowledge of medicine, whenever
any cases of cholera should develop in the city. Alejandro Vidal
offered his services free of charge to all indigent persons of the
city. Mizquiz then ordered the Board of Health to distribute
three prescriptions6 which had been received from the capital of
'Alcalde of Nacogdoches to Carlos Ocampo, January 18, 1833. Nacog-
doches Archives, transcripts, University of Texas.
'One general prescription consisted chiefly of a campaign of cleanli-
ness. Streets were to be swept, and no garbage or trash was to be
allowed to accumulate in homes or in the streets. A second prescription
was the use of a piece of copper hung as an amulet around the neck
touching the skin. This prescription was suggested by some German doc-
tors and transmitted by the governor to the Political Chief. The third
prescription is given below in detail.-Ram6n Mizquiz to Ayuntamiento
of Nacogdoches, February 19, 1833. Nacogdoches Archives, transcripts,
University of Texas.
Before Robert Koch, in 1883, isolated the puny but deadly comma
bacillus, many absurd methods were used in Texas for the prevention of
cholera during other epidemics. Even countries which were supposed to
be more highly civilized than this frontier state succumbed to the use
of ridiculous prescriptions. The Board of Health of Liverpool permitted
the publication of an infallible cure for cholera submitted to it by an
English officer of rank who had resided in India for many years. It con-
sisted of pulverized black pepper mixed with opium made into pills which
were washed down with brandy and water.-Quoted in the Nacogdoches
Times, November 4, 1848. In a lecture, otherwise quite scholarly and
to the point, a New York doctor on September 9, 1848, admitted that
"bleeding" was proper in cases of cholera.-Quoted in the Nacogdoches
Times, November 18, 1848. A simple cure was suggested early in 1849,
consisting of "ten drops of laudanum, and repeat the dose every three
hours." The statement was added, "The cholera may thus be cured as
easily as a common cold."-Democratic Telegraph and Texas Register,
January 11, 1849. The cause and cure of cholera were set forth by J.
H. Shearman in the following lines: "All persons who have the cholera
are seized with it late at night or early in the morning. An early warm
sleep secures you from its attack. If all public places, and all private
ones, were closed by 10 or 11, and all people in bed asleep, we are safe218
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 40, July 1936 - April, 1937, periodical, 1937; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101099/m1/240/: accessed April 27, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.