280
EPIDEMIC CHOLERA OF INDIA OF 1875 AND 1876.
[ Section IV.
"The year 1875 was again an epidemic season. The first intimation of cholera was in
First appearance of cholera in
Rajpootana.
the end of April, from Bhurtpore, and on May 10th some cases
oeenrred at Sookait in Holkar's territory."
Again Dr. Moore writes It may be remarked that the disease commenced almost simul-
taneously in the month of May, at places in the south, in the north and in the centre of the
extensive province of Rajpootana, between which communication could not have taken place
within the time. This supports the conclusion that other causes than human intercourse origi-
nate the malady."
Below the Himalayas, in the extreme west of the North-Western Provinces, in the very
same week, cholera manifested its existence.
" Cholera prevailed in the Rajpore and Dehra Circles from
the 24th April until the 27th May."—Planck.
South of the Iunina.—" The first death recorded was at
Karwi, on the 10th April ; on 22nd April at Oran in the centre of the district; and at Banda
on 25th April."—Planck.
Agra and AlnUra.—On 12th April, an officer was attacked at Agra, and simultaneously
appeared an outbreak at Saint Peter's College.
At Muttra, the 10th Hussars were attacked in the same week. The first death occurred
on 22nd April, the second on 26th April, and the last on 3rd May.
The Sanitary Commissioner for the North-Western Provinces is impressed with the fact
that the cholera of 1875 did not invade the area under his
observation in geographical continuity, and that importation
failed to establish cholera—for example, in Mussoorie, although
42 people who took it up the hill from Rajpore were seized in
the station. He notes, that the cholera of the spring prevailed simultaneously in the eastern
circle of Goruckpore and the western circle of Dehra, separated by six degrees of longitude.
The first known cases of cholera in the Delhi district occurred in the city of Delhi. From
the 6th to the 11th May, there were eleven persons attacked.
The next known case occurred in the sudcler bazar outside the city
wall in a man who had returned from Kurnal on 10th May.
Between the 10th and 18th, there were six apparently unconnected cases, which occurred in
different parts of the city. After the 18th, the disease disappeared and remained absent from
the city for nearly a month.
"The deaths of the Punjab registered under the head of cholera. in the first four months
of the year (22 in number), were all specially enquired into, and were ascertained, with some
approach to certainty, not to have been cases of cholera at all."
The Sanitary Commissioner for the Punjab seems to assume that the cholera of his prov-
ince was imported. Before going on to speak of the Delhi outbreak of 6th May he says : " It
is necessary to state that cholera in a very fatal form had prevailed previously in many of the
districts of the North-Western Provinces and Oudh, with which the Punjab districts are in
constant communication by railway." He does not explain why under these conditions imported
cholera was conveyed to Delhi and to nowhere else on the line of rail between Delhi and
Lahore. My inference is, that it was as little a contingency depending on the chances of
human intercourse, that these people were attacked, as were the parallel facts, that the first
case of cholera in the 2nd Goorkhas at Dehra occurred on 4th May, and that, in Western India,
our troops at Baroda were attacked on the same day as these residents of Delhi ; or, to revert
to the Delhi district, that the earliest cases in the epidemic'of 1862 were reported on 6th May;
and that in 1867, 70 villages of the Delhi district were attacked between the 1st and 12th of
the same month ; or that the Sanitary Commissioner for the Punjab, dating May 1st, 1872,
should write regarding the first intimation of the imminent epidemic thus :
" Cholera has shown itself in the several districts between Delhi and Jullundur. Twenty
deaths have been registered in the town of Manimajra in the Umballa district during the week
endin, 27th April."
While the great cholera of March and April was in progress in the Gangetic districts, in
Oudh, acrd indeed in all districts of Upper India east of 80°E
. longitude, to the west manifestation was repressed. Dehra
Dun, under the hills, was the only tract suited for the display of
vigour, and here 200 deaths occurred in May. Against '27,000
deaths up to the end of May in the east, after excluding Dehra,
we find within the same time less than 200 deaths registered in all from Shahjehanpore and
Bareilly in the east to the North-Western Frontier :
Cholera deaths of the 11Torg -1restenz, Provinces and Oudh., January to Hay 1875.
Eastern Epidemic Tract.
Western Epidemic Tract.
Oudh and eastern districts of
Moradabad
.
.
. 19
Mozufreruuggur .
.
. 10
North-Western Provinces . 27,000
Bareilly
.
.
. S
Meerut
.
.
.
.
1
Shahjehanpore .
.
- 29
Bolundshuhur
.
.
. 25
Budaon
.
.
. 23
Bijnour
.
.
. 30
TOTAL
.
. 172
Saharunpore
.
.
. 27
—
For Agra, Muttra, Mynpooree, and Allyghur, the mortality of May was under 150 ;
and in all Rajpootana, 57 deaths only were registered to the end of May.
Western division of the epidemic
area in Northern India showed its
cholera in the same week.
The fact recognised, that, in the
North-Western Provinces, there was
no geographical continuity in this in-
vasion.
First appearance of cholera in the
Punjab.
The special area of early spring
cholera in the districts of Upper
India east of SO° east longitude. Re-
pression of the spring cholera west
of SO°.