EPIDEMIC CHOLERA OF INDIA OF 1875 AND 1876.
[ Section IV.
294
July ; and Rajahmundry, 10th July. On 8th July, troops marching to Hyderabad were attack-
-ed on the banks of the Godavery.
In 1818, the advance subsequent to 20th July occupied a definite area on the east coast ;
Guntoor got its cholera on 30th July, and on 2nd August the northern villages of Nellore were
entered. Ongole got its cholera on 14th, the same day on which Dharwar, Hoobly and
Badamy in Bombay became affected. And here the cholera of the east coast stopped; and
even Nellore, 70 miles to the south, got no cholera before the secondary movement late in Sep
-tember. To the north and west of the line there was no limit. From Hyderabad to Bombay,
and from Dharwar to Nusseerabad cholera was universal between 20th July and 14th August
1818.
When Madras City was occupied in 1818, these were the dates as given by Scot. They in
-dicate the covering of a great area in this week—Ghooty, 6th October; Cuddapah, 9th
October ; Madras, 8th October; Nellore, 3rd October; Bangalore, 12th October ; Saint Thomas'
Mount, Poonamalee, and Arcot, 13th October.
Epidemic lines fall only in obedience to great natural laws. By the operation of natural
influences the cholera of the first move of August 1818 was repelled, the epidemic failing to
reach Madras city before October 1818. In 1875, influences more extensive in their scope were
in operation, which determined that in the same week of August Chingleput, Madras, South
Arcot, Nellore, and the Neilgherries should be entered by the invading cholera. The fact that
in the same week Nagpore, the Berars and several districts of Bombay became involved in this
cholera I have tried to demonstrate. The natural area occupied was the same as in 1818, with
the above reservation only ; and this we know, that an advancing cholera will shape its lines
or its limits only to the conditions afforded to it at the time of movement.
Knowing nothing in detail of the progress of the great cholera of this week beyond what
was communicated in his letter, dated 4th August, by the Sanitary Commissioner for the
Central Provinces, the telegram, dated 11th August, to which I have before referred, led me to
infer and to tell the Government of India that in all probability the parallel of the same week
of 1818 had been repeated, and that cholera had moved from one side of the continent of India
to the other.
The aspects in the week of invasion were two—( a), advance over an entirely new area, and
(b), the occupation for the first time of many registration circles in the tract of Southern
India hitherto left unoccupied by the cholera which appeared in the spring. I will not pretend
to decide to what extent the vast tract newly taken up was indebted for its occupation to the
cholera of the south, or was affected by the great cholera of the north and west. I have placed
here the parallel of 1818, which proves this, that advance from the north and west did occur in
that year, seeing that no cholera existed at the time in Southern India, and I leave this detail
to local observers to work out.
At the opposite extreme of the epidemic field the homologous phenomenon impelled the
Sanitary Commissioner for the Punjab to write thus—
"It will be observed that the disease made very slow progress over the province till the
week ending 31st July. After that date the mortality rose
rapidly till the week ending 4th September, when it reached its
climax."
The significance of this is, that, but for a mere accident of
geographical distribution, the history of 1856, 1861 and 1872
might have been repeated at Meean Meer and elsewhere in the province in 1875.
This quickening of cholera in the last ten days of July, from Lahore to cape Comorin, was
essentially a vital phenomenon. It is a homologue of the quickening of the 15th—25th April
over a field nearly as wide, illustrated in the preceding Chapter ; and to any observer intelli
-gently apprehending this, it becomes an evident truth, that the subsequent movement of the first
week of August was as little due to human agency as was the original appearance of the cholera
of April and May.
Leaving out those districts of the Punjab which registered one and two deaths only through-
out the year, the first district affected, entering the cholera area
from the unoccupied area of Northern India, was Gujranwala.
Gujranwala registered 8 deaths only in 1875. Here is the
parallel of 1856 as given in my original. Report, page 19 "Gujranwala, forty miles beyond
Lahore, is reckoned as the limit of the invasion of 1856." And here is the parallel in 1861,
for in this terrible year also cholera refused to proceed beyond this Gujranwala district,
page 25 : "Cholera did not spread epidemically through any of the districts north of Lahore."
The unoccupied districts to the north and west were Gujrat, Jhelum, Shahpore, Jhung,
Dera Ismail Khan, Hazara, Rawal Pindee, Peshawar, Kohat, and Bannu ; and to the south and
south-west—Montgomery Mozuffergurh, Mooltan, Dera Ghazee Khan, and Ferozepore. These
15 districts, registered 13 deaths, against a total of 6,246 registered for the province. The
remaining 6,233 deaths were spread over 16 districts. This fact is a definite one, and the
phenomenon is brought about solely by two circumstances—( a) what cholera is as an object of
natural history, and (b) how cholera is subordinated to natural agencies.
The northern limit of invading cholera was in these three years the limit of monsoon in
- f l u e n c e s a t t h e d a t e a t w h i c h c h o l e r a w a s v i t a l i s e d a n d i n m o t i o n .
This is the limit upon which our attention is fixed in the course of every great epidemic.
Our cantonment of Meean Meer lies on the border, and the alternative is presented to us, whe
- t h e r o u r s o l d i e r s s h a l l b e d e c i m a t e d b y a c h o l e r a b e g i n n i n g b e t w e e n 3 0 t h J u l y a n d 8 t h A u g u s t ,
as in 1856, 1861 and 1872, or shall absolutely escape, as in 1860, 1869, and 1875.
The parallel phenomenon of the re
-newed activity of cholera in the Punjab
in the same week. The extreme north-
ern Unlit of the epidemic.
The limitation of the cholera of
1875 in Northern India.