From the time of cholera

Doctor: “Bad news, Mr. Meier. I’ve just come from your friend — he has passed away!”
Mr. Meier: “What are you saying! But tell me, Doctor, his constant fear in life was that he would someday be buried alive. Is he really dead?”
Doctor: “Dead?! How can you doubt it if I am affirming it. I’m telling you, once I’ve had one of them in treatment, then I know that he’s dead, too.”
(Appenzeller Kalender, Zurich, 1855)

The cholera cure

Doctor: “Well, Herr Councillor, you have returned from your business trip quite corpulent, you’ve bounced back from cholera quite well and are making improvements to your diet!”
Councillor: “That’s just it. Herr Doctor told me: ‘Only diet! Only diet!’ and right away I followed it strictly in the plural!”
(Fliegende Blätter, Munich, 1855)