promise that, in so far as British practitioners are concerned, it may
ere long be excluded from the list of those which imitate irritant
poisoning. Meanwhile, however, malignant cholera must be allowed to
bear, in its essential symptoms and their course, a marked resemblance
to poisoning with the irritants. So much indeed is this the case that
some authors have actually compared its phenomena to the effects of
arsenic, tartar-emetic, and other powerful acrids. In many cases the two
affections are undoubtedly not so distinguishable by symptoms as to
warrant a physician to rely on the diagnosis in a medico-legal inquiry.
But in many other instances the distinction may be drawn satisfactorily.
Thus the uneasiness in the throat which sometimes attends cholera never
precedes the vomiting. The vomiting in cholera is never bloody. The
colour and expression of the countenance and whole body are peculiar. In
frequent instances the early signs which resemble poisoning are followed
by a secondary stage, sometimes of simple coma, sometimes of typhoid
fever, which a practised person may easily distinguish from the
secondary phenomena produced by some irritants. Lastly, no mistake can
arise where the patient, before presenting the symptoms common to both
affections, experiences violent burning pain or certain tastes, during
or immediately after the swallowing of food, drink, or some other
article.