Appendix No. II. ]
I.—SANITARY
MEASURES.
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Query No. 3.—The effects of crowding in buildings, and assembling in large numbers at
fairs, &c.
Clarke, J. J., Surgeon, Ben. I.—In all severe visitations of epidemic cholera, one prominent
feature is invariably present, namely, the excessive prevalence and severity of the disease among
those who have been living in ill-ventilated crowded apartments, or massed together in large
numbers, as at fairs and in large camps, where overcrowding in tents and other places of
shelter, is frequently beyond all conception.
Fnrnett, M. C., Surgeon, Mad, I.—As to whether impurities of air or water have anything
to do with causing cholera, I wish to put on record the following singular circumstances. When
I was Civil Surgeon of Cochin in 1864 and 1865, I was in medical charge of two jails, one in
British Cochin, and the other at Gonacollum (Native Cochin) belonging to the Rajah. The
places are widely separated, a large breakwater, some miles across, running between the two.
The British jail was a singularly clean one, very well ventilated, and containing ample accommo-
dation for 30 or 40 prisoners located there. The jail at Gonacollum, on the contrary, was a
very dirty place, and had not been whitewashed for a long time ; the rooms were small, much
too small for the number of prisoners put into them, and moreover the cholera was raging all
round about, whilst in British Cochin there was none. I made some representations to the
native authorities about having their jail cleaned, and whilst the correspondence was going on,
the cholera made its appearance in my clean English jail (although, as I said before, there was
no cholera in the town round about,) and simply decimated the prisoners, whilst the native
dirty jail, with cholera raging all about it, escaped altogether. On this occasion, at the earn-
est request of the Magistrate, who was in charge of the jail, I gave chlorodyne a full and fail-
trial. Earl Russel's letters to the papers had just then been published and created a great
feeling in favour of chlorodyne as a cure for cholera. I found no benefit whatever from its use.
Kidd, Η. Α., Assistant Surgeon, Ben. I.—In the end of February 1860, I was in charge of
the ship Appleton, with a batch of 436 coolie emigrants, bound to the West Indies. Cholera
appeared the morning after we left Calcutta. My report to the Governor of Trinidad ran thus :
"PARA 2.—At the time we left Calcutta, cholera was raging not only in town but in the coolie
depot, where the mortality was five or six per day. It is very injudicious to send a ship away
with coolies when cholera is among them; from my long experience I knew what would be the
result, namely, great mortality, especially due to the confined space of a ship, I looked forward
to the chance of quickly getting out to sea, where, with a stiff breeze, the disease may be warded
off. I was unfortunate, as cholera broke out on the same evening, and 17 fatal cases occurred.
Whilst in the river, in five days I had 69 cases. When we got out to sea the breeze proved
exceedingly light and the sun hot, and cholera continued. The type was formidable, in a few
hours carrying off a patient, and those who rallied, died from coma."
Whitton, G. E., Assistant Surgeon, Mad. I.—My own personal experience leads me to believe
that the use of brackish water contaminated with animal and vegetable impurities, excessive
overcrowding, the immediate proximity of filthy latrines, the want of ventilation, and the
constant presence of vile odours, are not in themselves necessarily sufficient to generate cholera,
provided that the individuals exposed to these influences are well and suitably fed, and that
their occupations are of such a nature as not to produce any great physical exhaustion.
I would refer to the absence of cholera in the "Circar" jail at Gonacollum in the native
state of Cochin as bearing out these remarks. For 28 years the prisoners in that jail have
been subject to the above insanitary conditions, and yet not a single epidemic of cholera has
broken out, although frequently epidemics have occurred in the immediate vicinity of the jail.
A more detailed account of the extraordinary immunity from epidemic cholera on the part of
the prisoners in this jail was given in the Administration Report of Cochin for the year
1865-66. It was shown in that report that no alteration was made in the food of the prisoners
after admission, each being allowed to make use, in sufficient quantities, of such food as he was
accustomed to, and the hard labour of the prisoners was shown to be moderate and not such as
to tax the strength. The sanitary condition of the jail was shown to be bad in the extreme.
My opinion is, that whatever part an insanitary state may play in the spread of epidemic cholera
(and doubtless it is great), it has not the power in itself of generating the disease amongst a
class of people who are properly fed, and who do not suffer from physical exhaustion.
Query No. 4.—The influence of pure water and the soil in which wells are dug; the con-
struction of wells ; the boiling of water.
De Tatham, H., Assistant Surgeon, Bom. I.—I knew of three cases occurring in the same
house, in a mews, in London. I informed the Sanitary Officer and he inspected the house and
reported that the soil pipe leading from a privy leaked and contaminated the contents of a butt
from which the people of the house obtained their drinking water. No other cases occurred in
that mews.
Murray, T., Surgeon Major, Bom. I.—An instance of the advantage of filtering water was
related to me by Mr. W. G. Pedder, c. s., Superintendent of the Khandeish Survey. When
his camp was pitched at Chukla in Surat in the hot weather, and when cholera was raging, he
found that the people got their drinking water from stagnant pools in the channel of the river,
which was then dried up, and in which they washed their clothes. He at once had a number of
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