292
EPIDEMIC CHOLERA OF INDIA OF 1875 AND 1876.
[ Section IV.
This cholera of Cuddapah culminated in three additional circles before the middle of July,
thus showing a special occupation of this area.
It is from the 15th July onwards that the invasion of monsoon cholera must be reckoned.
Now, Bellary, Kurnool, half of Cuddapah, Nellore, North Arcot, Madras, Chingleput,* Mysore,
the Neilgherries and Hyderabad first showed cholera.
Excluding the three circles of Cuddapah, 88 circles were entered, and these were the
dates :—
July
14th—20th
Circles.
6
65
88
21st—30th
=
11
Now first entered
. August
1st— 8th
=
30
9th—15th
=
9
16th—31st
=
9
July
14th—20th
=
None
23
Newly entered circles within
2 2nd—25th
=
5
the area of spring cholera. August
1st— 8th
=
11
9th—31st
=
7
Fifty-nine registration circles, out of 151, were first entered between 21st July, when
active movement began to show, and the 8th August, when the climax of distribution was
reached. Within the 8 days, 1st to 8th August, 41 circles of the Presidency were enveloped
in this cholera; and the same phenomenon was simultaneously occurring from Tinnevelly to
the Himalayas.
Analysing the death registration of the Presidency, these are the results :
Ganjam, Vizagapatam, Godavery and Kistna in the north-east, and Malabar in the south-
west, taken together returned the deaths as under from January to June :—
January.
February.
March.
April.
May.
June.
=17
1
3
3
7
2
1
Dividing the remainder of the Presidency into two, a southern and a northern division,
in the first six months the registration ran thus :
Northern, including Chingleput, Madras, North Arcot, Kurnool, Bellary, Cuddapah, and
Nellore:—
January.
February.
March.
April.
May.
June.
= 34
. . .
...
...
...
...
34
(31 in Cuddapah, and 3 in Chingleput.)
Southern, including South Arcot, Salem, Coimbatore, Trichinopoly, Tanjore, Madura and
Tinnevelly:—
January.
February.
March.
April.
May.
June.
= 7,588
7
13
3
77
1,631
5,857
It was late in July when the northern districts were entered. In the south the cholera
was in full power ; and, in fact, with the setting-in of the monsoon, the mortality of June
was more than doubled in the southern districts. The invasion of August in the north is
marked by nearly 5,000 deaths.
The death registration of the Presidency from July to December was distributed thus :
North .
.
.
.
.
July.
August.
September.
October.
November.
December.
932
4,951
5,692
3,210
1,993
2,382
South .
.
.
.
. 13,227
7,923
7,678
10,196
12,616
12,107
Ganjam area.
. .
3
15
25
1 1
185
138
Malabar
. . . •
• • •
29
146
579
1,227
1,583
Total 14,162
12,918
13,541
13,996
16,021
16,220
The invasion of Malabar is precisely the same as to date with the invasion of 1818,
as shown on Scot's map. It falls in with the advance on the southern districts of Bombay.
Note also how the southern districts of Madras fostered the cholera through October, Novem-
-ber, and December, the months in which the very same tract was first invaded in 1818. With
such a parallel before us, I should hesitate to assert that the cholera of 1875, invading from the
north, did not cover this area for a second time in this year. Be this as it may, the phenomenon
of approach to the conditions offered to cholera in its endemic home in this tract, as noted by
Mr. Cornish, was again exemplified in this invasion.
In further detail, these were the phenomena of distribution exhibited by this cholera in
Invasion of Madras. The sequence
in which the area was covered—(a),
by spring cholera; (b) , by the mon-
soon cholera of 1875.
Southern India. The epidemic area of 1875 in Madras ended
in the north with Nellore. The Ganjam cholera was entirely
cut off from the epidemic tract of 1875 by a wide unoccupied
area, the Vizagapatam, Kistna, and Godavery districts having
* The invasion of two circles in June resulted in 3 deaths only.