“Need more be offered upon the subject; and yet with such facts upon record, ‘hot punch’ is now given to the poor patients in the cholera hospitals in Limerick. Those pious and angelic Sisters of Mercy, to whom you have alluded in the Chronicle, never, in all probability, heard or read of the treatment of cholera as above narrated; but ever attentive and observant as they are in the performance of their hallowed vocation, they have not been unmindful of the good effects of cold water. Nature prompts the sufferer to call for it, and it should be always supplied. In cholera, pure water is balsamic. “As to the operation of cold water on the human system in cholera, or the action of the system on water, I will not presume to pronounce; but I may say that it is commonly supposed that when the serum (one of the important constituents of the blood) is exhausted by discharges, collapse takes place, and the livid hue of the countenance follows; and everybody has heard of the experimental operation of transfusion of warm water, combined with albumen and soda, into the veins, to supply the absence of serum, in order to give the vital current its natural and healthy flow: whether cold water, from the oxygen it contains, and the necessary heat it is therefore calculated to impart, is taken up rapidly by the absorbents to cherish and feed the blood, and fill the channels of circulation, so as to remove collapse in cholera, I shall leave physiologists to determine; but it is indisputable that cholera patients have anxiously asked for, and eagerly swallowed, copious draughts of cold water, till their thirst was allayed, genial warmth restored, agony banished, and the vital functions vivified and invigorated.” * * * * * The following extract is taken from Braithnorth’s “Retrospect of Medicine,” a standard professional work:— “I am acquainted with three persons, who, after they had been laid out for dead, on being washed, previous to interment, in the open court-yard, with water, to obtain which the ice had been broken, recovered in consequence, and lived many years. I received from Erycroon, in Turkey, a letter from our excellent Consul, Mr. Brant, who states that Dr. Dixon, of that place, was then curing more patients by friction, with ice or snow, than any other treatment. The same practice is reported to have been the most effectual in Russia.” We make no comments on the foregoing, leaving the public to draw their own conclusions from the facts stated. In setting the facts before them, we feel we have done our duty; we leave the leaven to work in their minds, and produce its own result on their future conduct. In condemning the mistaken administration of hot stimulants, such as “hot punch,” &c., Dr. Barter proceeds:—