The Huron Expositor, 1978-09-07, Page 10The early, symptoms. of a vholera attack included ,a
headache, cramps, and an aching feeling in the calves
of the legs and a ringing or buzzing sensation in the
ears. The more• severe' attacks of the disease could
prove fatal in the matter of a few hours.
Colonel Talbot, the creator of the Talbot Settlement
near Lake Erie, visited London in 1832 and wrote to a .
friend, "The weather laSt week has been very hot and I
• am sorry to say that ,a few persons have died after a few
hours sietcness, which the quacks pronounce as
cholera." •
One can't help hut question Colonel Talbot's
• judgethent about the local medical profession since the
"quacks" proved correct in their diagnosis and in 1832,
the town of London was hit .with the first of several
cholera epidemics.. .
Dr. Elam Stlmson
One of the Londen doctors who was swept into
service treating the epidemic was Dr. Elarn Stimson, a
transplanted New Englander who was. one of _the
region's saddlebag medics as well as the coroner.for the
,diStrict of London.
Dr. Stimson was an ambitious man alho had put
himself through Yale University by working as a farm
labourer and cranberry harvester, coming to Canada in
1824 and settling in Galt before moving on to London.-
The doctor's decision to leave ,New England was .
, rather asudden one. The grave of one of his patient's, a
person the good doctor had shown an unusual interest
in. was found disturbed the night' after the patient's
burial. Whatever the cause of the disturbance, Dr.
Stimson decided it was more tactful to 'simply remoye
By Alice GIbb
With Ontario's recent polio epidemic still fresh in out
minus, it's interesting to step back.150 years and take a
look at a disease which once struck terror in the hearts
'of Canada's pioneers.
The disease, known as the "scourge of nations" was
cholere,"brought to Canada It! the 1800s by Irish
immigrants who came to the country on board the ship:,
Constantine.
By the time the Constantine reached Grosse lie in the
St. Lawrence, a number of passengers had already
succumbed' to the disease and although many more.
were quarantined, in no time the epidemic spread to
Upper Canada,
SeirOditiite
An
r pidernic
FRESHIE CONCESSION --, Randy' Backer, Robbie Glew ind Steven
Vancierveldenviih customer'" David Geddes at their Main Street Freshie
stand on Friday afternoon. The boyi raided over $15 which they donated
to the Muscular Dystrophy telethon on the weekend,
$2.50 for children unddr 12
with children under six years
of age .admitted free of
charge.
Maps showing the , sites
WO can be visited Kin the
tour are• provided .with the
tickets.
• Homes and other buildings
will be open to visitors from
10 a.m; ,to4:3,0 p,m. on
Saturday. ••,
Plop to Enter,
THE SECOND ANNUAL
SEAFORTH. BED RACE'
Sat „SeRt.'16
3 P.M.
Registration Foirtos'can be obtained frotit the •
) Seaforth Recreation Office 527:0882.
Cash Prizes for 1st, 2nd, 3rd Place
Veal residents whci 'Tien to
go on the alternate energy
tour on Saturday. September
9, can purchase tickets for
the tour at any of the 15 sites
on the tour on Saturday.
The tickets are also
available at the Lucknow and
Goderich Conservation
Centres until September 8.
Tickets can 'be purchased
locally at the- Paul Carroll
home, Goderich Street West,
in Seaforth, one of the homes
included on Saturday's tour._
—.-Brilssels area residents
can purchase tickets- at the
Van Den Assent home or the
Neil Hemmingway farm.
Tickets are $S for adults,
Tickets available for
alternate energy tour
.PLAN TO ATTEND . . THE JACK RIDDELL
DANCE. and CORN ROAST
AT
PINE RIDGE CHALET
RR 2 HENSALL
FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 5/18
9 P.M. to 1
Music by "WESTERN AIRES"
CORN ON THE coB and BEEF ON A BUN
at 11 p.m. 4
TICKETS
64.6° EACH THE HURON MIDDLESEX
AVAILABLE FROM
LIBERAL ASSOCIATION
• PROV. LIBERAL
ASSOC. FOR JACK
OR AT THE DOOR
RIDDELL
SPONSORED BY
SeaforthAgricultural Sotiety
P AR
BAR-B-
Featuring an entire pig ,barbequed, baked
potatoes, corn, salad,beverage, ice cream.
dinner 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 • •
and
Dance to
WALTER
OSTA E
cnd his band4
dance 9 p.m. to 1 a.m.
SATURDAY, SEPT.
SEAVORTH ARENA ,
.'rickets sibeque, Take Out-meal $5.00
and dance 7.00 each
Dance only 3.00
Tickets Maijiable Frail pair Direttors Or. at The Httrbn Expositor office.
Benefit Dance
For
Carl and
Dorothy
--Rose.
Fri., Sept. 8
Drodhagen Community
Centre
iViusicity
"The Silvertones"
Inglies please bride lunch
Stratford
Robin Phillips, artistic
director of the Stratford
Festival, will be taking a
sabbatical for one year.
Earlier this summer, the
artistic director 'had submit-
ted • his resignation to the
festival's boardof governors.
Mr. Phillips will not direct
any production's gat -.the . -
festival during - the • 1979
season, but he will oversee
planning and casting for the
.season before leaving on his
sabbatical.
When John Heney, pre-
sident of . the festival board' „
made , the announcement
about Mr. sab-
hatical....he.said the artistic
director .had assumed -a'
gruelling work load• during
his four years in. Stratford.
which had included directing
and co-directing 22 pro-
ductions . in addition to his
administrative dirties.
Mr. Hcney said the artistic.
director now_ :needs to stop
and rest.
"Me board suggested the
one year sabbatical which
s'N will give Mr. Phillips time to
recuperate without forcing
him to sever his ties with the
festival. ,
"The need for ,this kind of
ro..nite has been recognized ,,
in academic eirclei for malty
years," Mr. Henry said. "I
believe hi other professions
Directgrlake$:isqbbtaital
September 26 30, 1'978'
STAG
for
RALPH
WOOD
Friday Sept. 8
Ailmission $2'.00
as well there is growing
awareness that highly placed
innovators who live and mirk
daily under enormous pres
sure and whose jobs demand
great creative output, need
to be able to step back every
11:01Pkitc
HURON'78 z
VANASTRA RECREATION CENTRE
Fall program starts
SEPTEMBER 18, 1978
Fliness, swim lesSims, disco;.dunce3nstnteti4n etc.
Register now
Cali 4824544
selves if they are going to be
able to continue''wafting at
their Maximum ever the long
term."
The festival will not ap-
point an interim artistic
director for the 1979*•season.
STAG
For
Dennis
Murray
Sept, 9
home in the east part of the town,
The next year, Dr. Stimson and the remnants of his'
family left London fpr the smaller town of St. George,
but the doctor hadn't escaped his brushes with Cholera,
In 1834, a travelling circus visited the town of Galt•
and 10,000 people applauded the show in the
sweltering heat.
Within two days, 2042menbers of the audience had
died with cholera and the epidemic soon spread to
Hamilton and Dunhas.'
It was -the next year .that Dr. Srimson Venned his
'treatise after having,,had •ample experience observing
the different stages of the disease and the various
treatments used to cure it.
The doctor wrote in the introduction to his medical
treatise, "No general assertion is more true-than
that—cholera is easily cur ed if taken in time and yet
thousands 'of its victims have remained unalarmed
while the disease is making its overt and fatal
approaches, and with physicians at their very doors."
The doctor then outlined a number of cures for the
various grades of the disease, saying he had based his
SEAFORTH MINOR HOCKEY -
Organizational Meeting
Thurs. SeRt 7
7:30 p.m.
2nd Floor Town Hall
Potential coaches, manager, parents or anyone
interested in Minor Hockey are asked to attend.
milIMMIIIIIIIIIIM1111111111111111111 01111111111 IMIIIMIIIIIIII1101111111p111111111111111M
our
ris
ims
(Beside Mac's Milk)
Got those back to
school blues 'already? •
Wake up, late? Forgot
your lunch?
Speed out to the
Pizza Express
for lunch * Fast
* Friendly
*, Service
* phone ahead
527-0180
OPEN from 11 am - 2 pm_on WED & THURS.:
FRI. &SAT. 11 ani - 2 am
SUN. Thru THURS. - 4 pm - 12 midnight,
Phone 527-9180
i
4II11111*11l11Ii1111I11IIIIBiHIflPlail~lWi lVU!fl !VI iiHHII 11111$11111111
110 =» THE HURON EXPOSITOR, SEPTEMBER 7, 1978
himself from the Community, before the' rumour mill
could destroy his career.
Although Dr, Stimsoiresided-in London for only four-
.years, his stay provided him with the background to
write The Cholera Beacon, being• a' treatise-on I he
Epidemic Cholera, as it appeared in Upper Canada in
1832034.
The,pnly surveying copy of the treatise was unearthed
some years ago in the Surgeon General's Library in
Washington, D.C. and later republished in the
University of Western Ontario Medieal Journal.
The doctor's own introduction to the disease' was a
particularly harsh one.
On July 21, 1832, his, wife came down with' the
symptoms of the disease and within 12 hours she was
Five days later, the doctor's youngest child died front
the same disease and a second daughter 'was so sick,
neighbours had already dressed her, in grave clothes.
Survivors • " '
But the second daughter survived and so dirt many
other. Londoners fortunate enough to be admitted to the
temporary cholera hospital Set tip in an abandoned
theories on the "careful perusal 'of the Book of
Nature."
Cures
, Dr. Stimson believed the local strain• of cholera Was
"the productof heat and humidity, holding in solution a
quantity-of iniasm, of exhalations of decaying animal or
vegetable matter" which prevailed-near large bodk of
water or in low, marshy areas, cornmorknear,same of
our earlier settlements. •
The secret in curing cholera. according 'to. the New
Englander, was "to replace the secretions and remove
the corigestions." .
Dr. Stimson was correct in his view that cholera was a
product of heat and humidity, 'and Asiatic cholera is still
a problem in some et the tropical countries of the world,
with another strain surfacing in southern Europe every
few years.
Dr. Stimson's cure for the disease was first to bleed
the cholera patient (a common remedy for all sorts of
.4irnents in the earlier days bf medicine) and then
dosing them with dither quinine of-fluxham's Tiheture,
a number •of times during the day.
Quinine, a treatment later used .in malaria or yellow
fever epidemics in tropical' dimes., is made from •
Peruvian bark and is , a bitter," white crystalline
substance with a diacid base. .
Huxham's Tincture, for the uninitiated, wasg a blend
of three and a half pints" of spirits or whiskey, two
Ounces of Peruvian bark, 1/2 ounce of Virginia snake
root and one ounce
,l
of dried orange 'peel.
One can well imagine, given their choice, most
patients would opt for the tincture rather than the less
"spiritous' ' u in in e •
Also, .although - Hakbann's -- Tincture -was- once a
common medicine,' readerS' can be assured it's• not
likely' to be found on pharmacy shelves today. •
Dr. Stimson was never to achieve the recognition of
Jonas Salk, but today.kholera epidemics in this country
at least, are a thing df. the, past.
But anydne considering going to warmer climes
might be. well advised to have acholera shot just as a
precaution.
And, if you're, still concerned about the,disease, you
can always visit the London Room of the London Public
Library, Where the librarian can let you' read a facsimile
, of Dr. Stimson's original treatise, The Cholera Beacon.
r -
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SEA FORTH
Entertainment Thurs., Fri., Sat.
Hurricane
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Friday Special Hot Turkey Sandwich.
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