Section IV.]
EPIDEMIC CHOLERA OF INDIA OF 1875 AND 1876.
297
CHAPTER V.
LEADING FEATURES OF THE CHOLERA OF 1876.
I regard it as most important that this inquiry into the method of which the area embracing
the whole of Hindostan is occupied by an invading cholera should be complicated as little as
possible by secondary questions. I prefer, therefore, to leave for consideration at some future
time the behaviour of cholera in Bombay and Madras in 1876 ; and all the more that I am as
yet unacquainted with more than the outline of its history.
The great famine of 1876-77 we know to have been rendered more terrible by the ravages
of cholera ; and a study of the aspect in which cholera specially manifests itself in a famine-
stricken population, where predisposition is so palpable, may do something towards increasing
our knowledge of the means by which the diffusion of cholera occurs in other communities.
But in case the local observers in Southern India should allow the special object of their
Great development of cholera in
the endemic area in the end of
1876. Was there any fresh distribu-
tion of cholera over India coincident
with this manifestation ?
research to be obscured by the generally prevailing mortality,
and should overlook the possibility that, in 1877, they have to
deal, not with the cholera of 1875, but with the cholera of a
new invasion, I take the opportunity to call attention to certain
features in the cholera of 1876 which seem to me to demand
notice.
The submergence by the cyclone-wave of 31st October, of the great cholera-breeding tract
of Eastern Bengal, in the very week when it was prepared to throw off its cholera, made it
almost certain that an epidemic would follow over the submerged tract and the adjoining dis-
tricts : and these were the deaths registered in the last quarter of 1876 :
October.
November.
December.
Backergunge, Noakholly,
Chittagong and Jes-
sore.
.
.
514
10,936
31,232
Five districts of Eastern
Bengal, affected in a
minor degree. .
1,776
7,622
8,128
Eight districts lying to
the north of these.
.
256
702
1,210
These figures show that little extension took place towards the north. No abnormal in-
crease of cholera appeared in Behar, Chota Nagpore, the Sonthal Country or Orissa, at this
time ; and Calcutta, Nuddea and the districts west of the Hooghly sympathised little with the
affected eastern districts.
The cholera deaths of the last quarter of 1876 of Bengal Proper, may be tabulated thus :—
Districts showing only the increase which is normal for the season.
October.
November.
December.
Calcutta and 24-Pergunnahs .
63
1,101
2,083
Moorshedabad and Nuddea.
235
2,150
2,022
Seven districts west of the Hooghly
83
485
1,042
Eight districts of Northern Bengal .
256
702
1,210
Districts epidemically affected in a minor degree.
Eastern Bengal, five districts .
1,776
7,622
8,128
Districts showing great and abnormal increase.
J e s s or e . . . . .
66
2,927
5,218
Backergunge.
.
.
.
399
1,134
9,295
Noakholly and Chittagong.
.
49
6,875
16,719
Total of this area .
.
514
10,936
31,232
Districts scarcely affected by Cholera.
Behar Provinces. . . .
373
206
304
Chota Nagpore.
•
83
8
7
Sonthal districts.
78
345
47
Orissa . .
.
.
. .
274
1,001
479
Pr ovi nc e of Be nga l . .
3,735
24,556
46,554
Compare with these totals the total deaths of the Madras Presidency for the same months
of 1876 :—
Cholera deaths of the Madras Pre-
s i d e n c y . . .
.
October.
November.
December.
3,280
7,894
31,183
4c