Description

Cholera is a highly contagious gastrointestinal disease, spread by human contact.  Its origins were in India, but traditionally it had not spread to other regions.  However, beginning in 1817, the disease travelled widely, causing two global pandemics over the succeeding twenty years.

Cholera struck Mexico especially hard in both 1833 and 1850, sparking a debate between “contagionists” and “anti-contagionists” (those who believed that the disease was environmental and did not transfer from human-to-human), leading to some seriously ‘wrong calls’, as anti-contagionist government officials (usually motivated by the fear of economic consequences of ‘lockdown’ quarantines) often prevailed, leaving their city’s citizens as sitting ducks.

 

In Mexico, many officials followed the contagionist line, leading to massive quarantines and the fumigations of buildings in urban areas, although their stance was seemingly undermined by the fact that cholera continued to spread.  After the 1850 outbreak, an aura of heightened mystery developed around the disease, causing Mexican doctors to come up with some very intriguing theories as to the cause.

 

Isidoro Olvera Crespo (1815–1859) was a prominent Mexico City physician and national politician, who hailed from an esteemed medical family (both his father and son were famous doctors).  A child prodigy, he obtained his medical degree while only aged 16, before becoming variously the chief surgeon of the Regimiento de Inválidos and a professor of medicine at newly established Establecimiento de Ciencias Médicas, which was created from the merger of the Real Colegio de Cirugía and the Facultad de Medicina de la Universidad.  He subsequently waded into politics and was made of member of the Constitutional Congress in 1856 and was elected as a national deputy the following year.

 

In the 1840s, Olvera developed a fascinating and unusual theory that atmospheric electricity was responsible for mitigating many aspects of the health of both humans and animals, with his initial assertions being published as Olvera’s La electricidad aplicada a la esplicación de los principales fenómenos de la vida o El principio vital de los animales nueva teoría médico-fisiológica (Mexico City, 1846).

 

In the wake of the 1850 Cholera epidemic in Mexico, Olvera turned his focus to that disease, and came to believe that it was caused by atmospheric electricity, and so expanded upon his thoughts developed in the La electricidad aplicada…

 

Olvera refined his theories on cholera, leading him to publish the present work, Nueva doctrina sobre el cólera.  Here he asserts that the “true origin of cholera” is “atmospheric or other circumstances that could influence its rapid spread throughout the world”.  He continues that his “hypothesis is that it is due to disorders of atmospheric electricity… it is the most in accordance with the facts and sound reasoning… it should continue to be the basis for the study of the etiology of the disease”.

 

Olvera elaborates on his conceptions, asserting that atmospheric electricity causes changes in the organs, nerves, and blood chemistry that allowed cholera to thrive, and that individuals were made more susceptible to the disease due to their geographical location, race, sex, age, temperament, wealth/social position, etc.

 

While we know today that Olvera’s theories as to the origin and spread of cholera were dead wrong, it must be recognized that in the early 1850s it was very difficult to gain an understanding of such diseases, before the advent of advanced microscopy and lab work.  His treatise on cholera is nevertheless valuable to the history of medicine, as it shows a very advanced understanding of the interconnections between the nerves, organs, and blood with environmental factors, while the effects of atmospheric electricity are still hotly debated today.

 

A Note on Rarity

 

The present work is very rare, consistent with most mid-19^th century Mexican specialist medical imprints.  We can trace 4 institutional examples, held by the Biblioteca Nacional de México, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, National Library of Medicine (Bethesda, Md.), and the Wellcome Library.  Moreover, we cannot trace any sales records.

 

References: Biblioteca Nacional de México, Colección Lafragua; Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México: Copy 78-2735; National Library of Medicine (Bethesda, Md.): LM: W6 P3 v.7481 box 1747 no.12; Wellcome Library: K28493.