63
30. One hundred and nineteen cases occurred between the 27th July and 19th August, of which
twenty-seven proved fatal.
31. This small outbreak was entirely due to contagion conveyed by the pilgrims, the low
sanitary condition of the place encouraging the rapid development of disease. Like Callawelle, the
village is surrounded by stagnant pools of water, in which the husk of the cocoanut is left to decom-
pose, emitting a most offensive odour.
32. As the procession advanced towards Colombo, the disease began to exhaust itself. Twenty-
one cases were officially reported by the Medical Officers appointed to accompany them, of which
only five died, showing that amelioration in the intensity of the attacks, which generally occurs as,
the disease dies out.
33. They were detained for forty-eight hours at a distance of eleven miles from Colombo ; and,
as no fresh cases occurred among them during that time, they were permitted to enter the town, and
no evil consequences followed.
34 It remains for me now to advert to the other localities appearing m my statement in which
cholera made its appearance.
35. Colombo.—On 15th June a prisoner, who had been confined for some time previously in the
Hultsdorf Jail, was attacked and died.
36. On 17th June, another long-sentenced prisoner in the Welikade Jail, which is at a distance
of more than two miles from the Hultsdorf Jail, and has no communication with it, was attacked
and died.
37. On the 18th, a resident of Grand Pass, a Singhalese, was attacked and died.
38. Solitary cases continued now to occur in different quarters of the town at periods of a few
days from each other, and having no possible communication with each other.
39. Six more cases occurred in the Welikade Jail on the 12th, 14th, 17th, 26th, 28th, and 30th
July, respectively, when it ceased.
40. All the cases in the town were spread about promiscuously, the disease never locating
itself in any one quarter, with the exception of one large compound in Sea Street, in which a number
of cattle were kept tethered day and night, and the grounds were filthy to a degree.
41. This compound was surrounded by small miserable huts inhabited by Moors and Malabars.
Between the 13th and 26th August eight cases occurred, six of which proved fatal.
42. The 29th August is the date of the last case reported in Colombo, and between that and
15th June, the date of the first case, twenty-nine cases were reported, of which twenty-three died.
43. It cannot be said to have been epidemic at any one period. Cases occurred in every quarter
of the town, and in not one instance could any direct contagion be traced. They were all of a
very severe type, and the deaths were generally rapid. The appearance of the disease in the two
jails is altogether mysterious. In both instances it was controlled by the greatest attention to
sanitation, a lavish expenditure of disinfectants, the immediate segregation of the patients (in the
"Welikade Jail each case was removed at once without the walls), and the destruction by fire of every
article of bedding and clothing which had been used by those infected.
44. In Badulla, twelve cases with nine deaths occurred between the 6th and 28th July.
45. It is more than probable that the disease was conveyed to this station from Kandy.
46. At Batticaloa, nine cases with five deaths were reported. The disease, in this instance,
was clearly traced to two travelling men who had just returned from Badulla, where it was then
prevailing.
47. At Kurunegala, a fatal case occurred on the 30th June. The individual had arrived
from Kandy only two days previous to the attack.
48. A few cases were reported in the Peninsula of Jaffna. Between July 6th and August
25th, twenty-three cases were reported, of which eleven died.
49. The disease became established in a village called Vertettivo, situated thirteen miles to the
east of Mannar, where thirty-seven cases occurred among the residents between the 12th July and
26th August ; of these, twenty-three died.
50. At Pesalle, the port at which the immigrant coolies arrive from the coast, the residents
were attacked. The first two cases, however, as reported by Mr. Ondaatfe, were coolies returning
to the coast on the 23rd June (and they had evidently contracted the disease along the central road),
and a resident of the place was seized on the same day.
51.I regret to state that cholera continues to prevail at Pesalle, forty-six cases having been
reported from the 23rd June to 21st September, the date of my latest report, Of these, twenty-five
have died.
R