Chapter III.] EPIDEMIC FEVERS OF INDIA AND THEIR RELATION TO JAIL MORTALITY. 189
appearance was, precisely as in the Behar Provinces, the first week of October. Dr. Naismith
of Benares, writes :—"So general were the ravages of fever during the months of October, No
- v e m b e r a n d D e c e m b e r i n t h e c i t y a n d d i s t r i c t o f B é n a r e s , t h a t f e w f a m i l i e s a l t o g e t h e r e s c a p e d ;
and for the time the population generally seemed prostrated by the extent of its inroads. This
fever, though not generally fatal, yet proved destructive either by assuming typhoid and con
- g e s t i v e f e a t u r e s , o r b y i n d u c i n g s p l e e n c a c h e x i a a n d v i s c e r a l d i s e a s e . T h e o u t b r e a k w a s t h e
sequel, and, in my opinion, the effect, of a late and heavy fall of rain which lasted for several
days in October."As in Behar, the prisoners suffered far less than the free community,
Dr. Naismith adds :—"The health of the prisoners even during the sickliest season will contrast
most favourably with that of the population generally, bah in regard to the prevalence of the
disease and the mortality."Dr. Garden, of Ghazeepore, the adjoining district, makes the same
observation. He says,—"I attribute the small number of deaths from fever to the favourable
circumstances under which the prisoners were placed; which, without doubt, influenced the
disease considerably."All of these reports were written at the time, and without intercommu
-nication between the different medical officers. And yet their statements are perfectly harmo
-nious.
Dr. Garden continues :—"On October 6th, 7th and 8th, four or five inches of rain fell,
after which the fever became prevalent, in degree, according to the circumstances under
which different classes of individuals were placed.* In the districts where everything
was favourable to the production and action of malaria, the fever raged most fearfully and
most fatally."Regarding the jail he says :—"The fever would hardly have claimed atten
-tion for itself on any grounds except perhaps the greatly increased number of admissions,
were it not for its evident connection with that which simultaneously raged throughout
the whole of this and the neighbouring districts, and which, assuming a typhoid form,
proved fatal to a most fearful extent."The fever, as he observed it in the jail, Dr. Garden,
thus describes : "In the great majority of cases the symptoms were those of ordinary inter
-mittent fever, and sonic few cases were remittent. The most marked points about it were the
very rapid prostration of the patient's strength, so that in two or three days they were hardly
able to move, and the extreme irregularity of the cases, which showed a tendency to change of
type, from quotidian to tertian, and vice versâ."In the Police Battalion the fever was universal.
In one outpost twenty-five out of thirty men were struck down in one day. Some of the
police attacked in the district were brought to Ghazeepore, and in their cases Dr. Garden had an
opportunity of seeing the pernicious form of the fever,—the same which was ravaging the district.
He writes : "The patients were brought in from some distance, and, having been ill a day or two,
were semi-comatose or entirely insensible, but not delirious; the pulse was small, fluttering and
almost imperceptible, and there were all the symptoms of a rapid failure of the vital powers."
I might quote similar observations made in the Sasseram and Mirzapore districts, but it is
unnecessary to do so.
Now, it is essential that there should be no misunderstanding as to the character of this
fever of the Gangetic Provinces. From Rajshahye to Mirzapore it was universally recognised
and acknowledged to have every attribute of malarious fever; and the unanimity of the
medical officers throughout the Gangetic Provinces on this point, is without a single exception.
It was a fever unusual in its prevalence, and an invading epidemic,—a fever which showed its
manifestations in the mildest form of intermittent, or, according to circumstances, proved so
malignant, that in a few days the patient sank into the typhoid of the worst description of
jungle fever.
The Deputy Commissioner of Saugor, in a special report on the epidemic of his district in
1859,† gives many details which lead us to remove this fever
from the province of typhus, to which the general epidemic of the
Saugor District of 1859 has been attributed. He tells us that
the early crops of 1859 were remarkable for their great abundance : "Grain was extremely cheap,
and I have never, in an experience of nine years, known the mass of the people so well off for
food of the best description."
As with the epidemic malaria of 1869, it was during a break in the rains of 1859 that
this fever was first noticed, and by this alone we recognise that the fever which prevailed
generally was not a typhus. Typhus is dead during the rains, and re-asserts vitality only
with the setting in of the cold weather; and before the end of 1859, this fever died at Saugor,
as well as in the Valley of the Ganges.
His account of the fever is very much that which is given by the medical officers of
the Gangetic districts :—"A sufferer attacked with it would feel listless and disinclined for
exertion. Loss of appetite and pains in the limbs were also premonitory symptoms. These were
followed at the end of three or four days by fever, which would last two days. The patient
was then left in a cold sweat, and in a state of perfect exhaustion, and if the strongest stimu
- l a n t s w e r e n o t a d m i n i s t e r e d , a n d t h e s u f f e r e r w a t c h e d w i t h t h e u t m o s t a t t e n t i o n , t h e v i t a l
powers gave way, and death ensued. Affections of the lungs and copious bleeding from the
nose were also attendant symptoms of the disease."
As in the east, the results of treatment were successful :—"In the majority of cases in
which the native doctors sent out had a fair chance, and the sick took the stimulants,
life was saved; but in too many instances the people Objected to this form of remedy, and
* Dr. Sutherland, of Patna, and indeed all the medical officers who had experience of the fever, recognised the asso
-ciation of the fever with the meteorology of these days.
†Selections from the Records of Government North-Western Provinces, 1861, Part XXXV.
The epidemic of malaria in the
Saugor District and other tracts of
Central India.
2z