Abstract

In the paper some unpublished letters by Carlo Botta (San Giorgio Canavese, 1766 – Paris, 1837) dedicated to the cholera epidemic that hit Paris in 1832 are published and commented on. Botta describes to his scared friends in Turin the situation in Paris with the sensitivity of the intellectual and the scientific competence of the doctor. Botta criticizes the incompetence of many French doctors and the ineptitude and inadequacy of the authorities. He describes an apocalyptic scenery (mountains of corpses, mournful gravediggers, overflowing hospitals, the unnatural and suffocating atmosphere) and explains the different phases of the disease. Moreover in the paper the information given by Botta with official data on the epidemic is related.