Cholera

{koV ’-er-ah) [^o/lep a; from x°^> bile]. I. A name given to a number of acute diseases characterized mainly by large discharges of fluid material from the bowels, vomiting, and collapse. 2. A synonym of C. asiatica. C. asiatica, an acute, specific, highly malignant disease, existing in India and the tropics of Asia during the entire year, and occasionally spreading as an epidemic over large areas. It is characterized by vomiting, alvine discharges resembling flocculent rice-water, severe cramps, and collapse. The rate of mortality varies from io to 66 per cent., the average being over 50 per cent. The cause is the comma bacillus of Koch, which is always found in the rice water discharges. The germs commonly gain entrance into the system by means of the drinking-water. C,Bilious, a form of the disease attended with exce ive discharge of bile. C, Chicken, a very fatal epidemic disease of fowls, marked by tumefaction of the lymphatic glands, with inflammation and ulceration of the digestive organs. C, English. See C. nostras. C, Epidemic. Synonym of C. asiatica. C, Hog, an infectious disease attacking swine and characterized by a patchy redne of the skin, with inflammation and ulceration of the bowels, enlargement of the abdominal glands, and congestion of the lungs. C. infantum, the ” summer complaint” of infants and young children; an acute disease occurring in warm weather, and characterized by pain, vomiting, purgation, fever, and prostration. The cause of the disease is probably micro organismal, and is favored by the prolonged action of heat, together with errors in diet and hygiene. It is most common among the poor and in handfed babes. The disease is of short duration, death frequently ensuing in from three to five days. C. morbus, an acute catarrhal inflammation of the mucous membrane of the stomach and intestines, with pain, purging, vomiting, spasmodic contractions of the muscles, etc. It is a disease of the heated term and is very similar to Asiatic cholera in its symptomatology. C.nostras, same as C. morbus. C. sicca, a term applied to those cases of Asiatic cholera in which rice-water liquid is found in the intestines after death, though none had been voided during life. 190