Chapter V.]
ASPECTS OF EPIDEMIC CHOLERA IN INDIA IN 1876.
303
The following is the homologue in one of our types in 1876. From Cawnpore to the
frontier one solitary case of cholera showed itself in the spring of 1876, from January to May,
in the European Army. Delhi was the locality; the date 10th April.
The medical officer says regarding it:
"The first point to be specially noted, is the total absence of even a rumour of cholera in the
district at the time of the occurrence of this case. The last case happened on the 10th Novem
-ber of last year; that case also was a solitary one, a native, who was attacked and died after the
fort had been apparently free from cholera since the 10th September 1875. There were no
premonitions of any kind, such as general malaise, among the men, nor, so far as is known,
were there any unusual or important local sanitary defects likely to prove injurious to the health
of the men."
It was in this very week of April that cholera first appeared in the Bannu district, beyond
the epidemic limit of 1861, heralding the great advance which
occurred three months later. The same may be expected in
future epidemics, and in this aspect the occurrence is brought
about by natural causes and not by chance importation.
It is, as a rule, with the setting in of the monsoon that cholera appears in the Murree Hills.
Murree has suffered in 1858, 1867, 1872 and 1876; and ex
-cept in 1857, when two fatal cases were observed on 17th and
28th May, the outbreak has occurred after the middle of June.
I believe, however, that here, as elsewhere in the hills, forerun
- n e r s i n d i c a t i v e o f c h o l e r a w i l l , i n y e a r s l i k e 1 8 5 8 a n d 1 8 6 2 a n d 1 8 7 6 , b e f o u n d i n M a y , a n d
early in June; and Dr. Bellew justly regards as cholera a few deaths of May and June 1876,
attributed to other causes.
Dr. Bellew concludes that "the disease, or its cause, was not imported into Murree, but
originated there independently." By this it is meant, I presume, that human agency was not
the cause of its introduction. The first cases in Murree occurred on 13th and 15th July; and
the depôt was attacked on 24th. The working parties at Camp Gharial were attacked on 8th
August.
In Rawalpindi, the same regiment which furnished these
parties was attacked on 5th August, the first case in the city
having occurred on 27th July.
In Hazara, the first case was recorded in 3 circles—on 30th July, 1st August and 3rd
August.
In Jhang, the first case occurred on 5th August; in Sialkot and Gujranwala on 14th
August.
Here we are writing the history of a cholera invading and in motion from Jummoo
and Sialkot to Hazara and Rawalpindi,* in the very same week in which in 1875 we traced the
epidemic leap across the cantonment of India from west to east. It is unnecessary that I
should point out how the phenomena of both years and both areas are homologous.
Had this cholera of the first week of August been lying in the east of the Punjab, or in
the districts west of Delhi, we know well what the sequence of events would have been, and
the garrison of Meean Meer would in all probability have suffered as in 1862. But with this
cholera there was no power of retrogression, and Meean Meer had not a single case of cholera in
1876.
Every one knows as a fact that the Rawalpindi district has little tendency to localise
a moving cholera. Summarising the office records of cholera from 1849 onwards, the
officer of the Quarter Master General's Department who reports, writes regarding Rawal
- p i n d i : " N o s e r i o u s o u t b r e a k h a v i n g e v e r o c c u r r e d a t t h i s s t a t i o n t h e r e i s l i t t l e i n f o r m a t i o n t o
be gained. Both in 1872 and 1876, the few cases that took place were nearly simultaneous
with, or a little subsequent to, the outbreak at Murree. Campbellpore and Talagaon in the
same command have never yet recorded a case of cholera."
This known immunity extends to Nowshera beyond the Indus, and it was on this fact
that movement in this direction from Peshawar has been so
repeatedly urged. This has been constantly reiterated, and
thus I wrote in my last report, of 1872:
"The Peshawar valley localises the air-borne miasm, and not the cantonment site alone.
Hence movement in the valley is not adequate to the case. The 93rd Highlanders in 1862,
and all corps encamped on 18th September 1869, were struck anew while in camp in the valley.
The line of escape is to the east. The statistics of Nowshera indicate this most positively;
and the occupation of the elevated site (4,400 feet) at Cherat, in the same direction, seems to
have effected all that was hoped for when it was proposed as a refuge for the Peshawar troops.
Tested in 1869, and again in 1872, Cherat has fulfilled all anticipations."†
And these in 1876 were the fruits of the measures based on these facts and recommend
- a t i o n s ; f o r i t w a s j u s t l y i n f e r r e d t h a t c h o l e r a w a s d e s t i n e d t o o c c u p y t h e P e s h a w a r v a l l e y a t
some date in 1876.
The officer of the Quarter Master General's Department, who reports on the outbreak
of 1876, writes: "The known immunity of Nowshera was taken advantage of, and every man
*Cholera was epidemic in Caubul also at this date, while the Peshawar valley and the frontier districts remained
free.
†See pages 42-46 of my Cholera Report of 1872.
Parallel on the frontier in April
1862.
Advance on Northern India with
the monsoon of 1876. The Murree
cholera of July.
General advance over Northern
India in 1876 in the same week in
which the general advance over so
many tracts of India in 1875 occurred.
Nowshera exempted in this advance,
and throughout 1876.