Chapter IV.]
THE GEOGRAPHY OF THE MONSOON CHOLERA OF 1875.
287
While the first case appeared in Simla on 26th June, Dhurmsala became affected on 28th
and Kasauli on the 3rd July within a few hours of the time
that the great outbreak of 1872 first showed itself. It was in
fact upon the Himalayas, from Cashmere to Gurhwal and
Kumaon, that the force of the northern branch of the cholera of 1875, aerially diverted into
Upper India, was expended. Two districts only of Northern India registered above 2,000
deaths—Allyghur and Bolundshahr; and seven districts registered above 1,000 and under
2,000 deaths.
Over Northern India the material distributed sufficed for the manifestation of a minor
epidemic only. The lessons taught are, however, as valuable as those to be deduced from a study
of a more general or destructive epidemic. I shall have occasion specially to study the be
-haviour of this cholera in Northern India, and shall return to it again in a, future chapter.
In the Himalayas—Simla,
Kasauli and Dhurmsala.
Parallel in the Berars of the inva
-sion of 20th June of Northern India.
The history of cholera in Western and Central India was
consistent with the theory of a general advance with the mon
-soon influences of 1875.
I take the cholera of the Berars as typical, expecting to find a manifestation parallel
with that displayed over Northern India from 20th June onwards.
The Berars contain six districts. Two out of the six, Buldana and Akola, showed the
presence of cholera in May. In this month the cholera was local and localised.
In the 15 registration circles of Buldana the date of commencement of cholera in vigorous
manifestation is given by the Sanitary Commissioner as under: June 10th, 1; June 24th, 6;
July 1st, 5; July 8th to 22nd, 14. Out of 19 sub-divisions of Akola affected in June, culmina
-tion took place in two on 3rd and 10th June; in 14, between the 15th June and 8th July;
and in 3, between 15th and 22nd July.
Amraoti, Ellichpur, and Basim did not register a single cholera death before 15th June;
two circles of Ellichpur were affected on 15th June, the first circle of Amraoti on 20th, and the
first circle of Basim on the 26th. This is an absolute parallel with what is recorded above con
-cerning the Punjab. Wun, the remaining district, was entered for the first time on 31st
July, not a case having been registered in May or June, or the first 30 days of July. This
cholera of 31st July was caused by a second movement of monsoon cholera wide-spread over
India in the first week of August. In this week, 8 subdivisions of Wun, 3 of Basim, and 4 of
Amraoti showed cholera for the first time.
In the districts of the Nizam's territories adjoining the Berars, the registration in
Aurungabad dates from 22nd June onwards; 540 deaths occur
-red up to the date of the first special report on 6th July, and
the total reached 3,058 before the end of August. The Jaulna
district was entered between 17th and 24th June. At Hingoli
the outbreak was simultaneous; the first dates recorded, 3rd, 5th
and 8th July, refer to special cases, and the remark is appended
that many deaths have occurred in the surrounding villages from which no statistics have been
procurable. These three districts are naturally associated. At this time the southern districts
of the Nizam's dominions got no cholera: the epidemic did not move into Hyderabad; and
Mominabad to the north-west, and Ling Sagur to the south remained free of cholera. To the
south-west, in geographical continuity, Ahmednagar and Sheogaon were affected on 18th and
23rd June; six circles of Sholapur, between 18th and 27th; and six circles of Satara between
22nd and 30th June.
This cholera of the Bombay Presidency was definitely cut off from that which appeared
simultaneously with the wide spread of cholera to the east five weeks later, when so many
districts of Madras and the Central Provinces were invaded; for example, the cholera of
Kaladgi, which first returned deaths in 1875, between 22nd July and 17th August, in eight
out of fen registration circles.
In the epidemic leap of 20th June the adjoining districts of the Central Provinces
were not entered. The fact was so striking, that the Commis
-sioner of the Berars, Colonel Nembhard, thinks it worth while
to mention that this cholera in its advance from the west was
66 days in the Berars before the first case in the adjoining
province was heard of.
In association with Raipore and Bilaspur in the east, Bhandara got cholera in June; but
this cholera falls into a different history. Four circles in Hoshungabad and Nursingpur regis
-tered cholera commencing on 3rd, 4th, 5th and 8th June, with 38 deaths up to the end of the
month. But up to 14th July, no other circle in all the Central Provinces registered for the
first time a case of cholera.
In the Nagpore district, a single death occurred at Ramtek
on 14th July, and on the same day an outbreak which resulted
in 22 deaths before the end of the month, commenced at Arvi;
in the Wardha district.
Before the end of July, four circles of Nagpore showed cholera, beginning on 18th, 22nd,
26th and 30th, and before the middle of August 15 circles were affected.
Three circles of Wardha adjoining Wun in the Berars, commenced to register cholera on
29th, 30th and 31st; and 10 circles were registering cholera within the next ten days.
The Atner circle of Betul began to show cholera on 28th July.
Two circles of Chindwara, which lost 433 out of a total mortality for the district of 454
for the month of August, gave the 3rd August as the date of the first case attacked.
Movement of 20th June affecting
the three northern districts of the
Nizam's territory associated geogra
-phically with the Berars, and the
adjoining tract of the Bombay Pre-
sidency.
The districts of the Central Pro-
vinces adjoining were not entered
by cholera in the new advance of
20th June.
The general invasion of the Cen-
tral Provinces was from 20th July
onwards.