Lo the Editor of the "Nonrrs-Curx Day News."
aroport of the enquiry held here (at our Sur,—As Abe? will doubtless be publishing request) with regard to the lamented death of the thirteen of our schoolboys, may T ask you to allow the following also a place in your columns In spite of the fact that your esteemed Health Officer was able to grow from the intestinal contents forwarded the comma invillus, and in consequence pronounced the disease cholera (with which opinion the jury naturally concurred), I feel compelled to adhere to my diagnosis of ptomaine poisoning, which rests on evidence so conclusive as to approach actual proof.
Authorities on cholera (vide Maoson's masterly treatise on "Tropical Diseases") are not agreed that the comma bacillus is the cause of cholera. It can be found in normal stools of healthy individuals; it has been absent in cases of undoubted cholera. It resembles some other organisms so dossel that it may be almost impo sible to dif ferentiate. A broad view of the whole case, including the exemption from disease of the entire school, using precisely the same food and drink with the exception of the boys served. with the tainted pies, makes ptomaine poisoning, to my mind, certain.
I may say, however, that precautions were taken in connection with the disas f the disease had been undoubtedly charges, bedclothes, etc., of the same nature
cholera.
Tam, ete., Georce E. J. Kiva, M.B., Cli. B., Bain.
Chefoo, 23rd July.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.