By 1836 the propagation of health advice concerning the ‘Asian’ cholera epidemic (which had spread to Prussia from Russia five years previously) had become a genre of medical publishing, and this text was prepared by the Königliches Medicinal Collegium, and then published both in the regional Stuttgart paper Schwäbischer Merkur, and issued and distributed separately in pamphlet form, to maximise the reach of its information.

While the advice given here repeats the diet and lifestyle advice of earlier periods to a certain extent, the pamphlet is nevertheless remarkable for three reasons: firstly, it advises family members caring for a patient suffering from cholera on preserving their own health (one suggestion is to hire a nurse if necessary; secondly, an increased emphasis is placed on the cleanliness of the room housing the patient, in a manner reminiscent of the general sanitation debate in hospitals of the period; and thirdly, according to the official records (Medicinisches Correspondenzblatt des Württembergischen Ärztlichen Vereins 6 (1836), p. V), this was one of only nine medical pamphlets, or edicts, issued by the Königliches Medicinal Collegium in 1836, which emphasises the importance still attached to the disease five years after its initial outbreak in the region. (The others deal with mental illness, taxes on drugs, midwifery regulations, the documentation of smallpox vaccination, and an ointment to help frostbite; two further tracts are recorded regarding the ‘Asian’ cholera for that year).

This copy appears to have been kept in Röttingen, perhaps as official reference copy for the town. We have not been able to trace another copy of this pamphlet.