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crumble up into powder without much pressure.* This grain is given only to coolies and the Pala-
yans who work in the fields, and it is universally considered unwholesome.
4. Dr. McAllum seems to think that the outbreak at Kollam was due to the same cause, viz.,
the people eating this unwholesome fish and grain ; but that, in my opinion, scarcely accounts for
the maglinant type the disease took. We have procured specimens of water from the wells of the
houses at Kollam, and Dr. McAllum is sending them, to Madras to be tested. The analysis may
disclose something with which we are not yet acquainted. However, it is clear that the disease
originated in a house only a few feet off the coast road, and within 200 or 300 yards from a place
where pilgrims are in the habit of halting on their way northwards by this route. The survivors in
the house will not admit that they ate the " Mathe Meen" or " Pullinra nella," and it was only
surmised by the Adigari and others that such food had been eaten. The house and its surroundings
are clean and as airy as the generality of houses in this district. I observe that the disease spread
at once, the second case occurred on the day the first woman died. Now, if it had been merely a
case of indigestion followed by vomiting and purging as elsewhere, the disease would, I think, have
scarcely spread so fast, even supposing that no care whatever was taken to remove the cholera
discharges of the first patient. Elsewhere than at Kollam, the disease does not seem to have spread
by infection. On the whole, I am disposed to think, though there is no direct evidence on the point,
that the seeds of the disease were brought by pilgrims. Many, as I have already noticed in a
previous letter, have lately been passing up north through the district, and it is quite possible that
the disease may have been communicated by one of them. It is only a few steps off the road to
No. 1 house. It is true no case of cholera has been brought to notice among the pilgrims, but it is
well known it can be communicated by a person who is himself quite free from the disease.
5. Only two persons, both in a fair way of recovery, were lying ill when we visited Kollam, and
no fresh cases have occurred there since. •
6. Cases of what Dr. McAllum calls sporadic cholera have occurred over a wide tract of country,
almost from the foot of the ghauts near Kuttiadi (Paleri Amshom) to the sea. Treatment of these
cases, when taken in time, seems to have been successful. Other cases are to-day reported in Mani-
yur Amshom, north of the Kota river, which runs into the sea south of Badagerra. My orders to
the Tahsildars are to move a Dresser at once to any place where the disease tends to become local
and infectious. The central stations fixed for the four Dressers are at present—1, Kollam ; 2,
Mowral bridge on the coast road ; 3, Pyolli ; and 4, Kottiadi, Nos. 2, 3, and 4 being on the Kota
river. If no fresh cases occur at Kollam, the Dresser there is to be moved to Badagerra, near
which a case has been reported to-day.
7. Great fear prevailed at Kollam, and this undoubtedly tended to spread the disease. The
house No. 5, in which there was most fear, suffered most ; the head of the family left, and would not
return to it till our arrival. It was the only house we saw where the rules, of which I sent you a
copy, had not been properly carried out. The arrival of your Dresser, of whom favourable notice is
taken by Dr. McAllum, seemed to have had an excellent effect in the locality. The Quilandy Sub
Magistrate, the Dresser, and the Adigari of Viyoor Amshom all did their duty well ; the former, by
giving timely notice of the outbreak, probably saved the detachment of the 1st Battalion 21st Euro-
peans, then on its march down the coast road, from an attack. But for the timely warning, the
detachment would have marched through Kollam within a few yards of the infected houses when
the disease was at its worst.
8. The Cherikal Tahsildar has reported three or four deaths on the Cannanore and Coorg road,
but his report is very indefinite, and further information has been called for.
Dr. McAllum's Report on the outbreak of Cholera at Kollam in the Viyoor Amshom.
On the 21st instant 1 accompanied Mr. W. Logan, C.S., Sub-Collector, Malabar, to visit the
village of Kollam in the Viyoor Amshom, where there had been several cases of cholera. Un our way
there we visited Mowral and Pyolli, at each of which places an Hospital Assistant is stationed, as two
or three isolated cases had been reported. At our visit, no fresh cases had been reported. The place
was clean, and attention was paid to the sanitary instructions sent out. The Assistant at the former
place, Mowral, has strict orders to inspect all pilgrims and bandies with families in them, and, if neces-
sary, in cases of illness, to detain the people, and have the clothes, &c, washed and fumigated with
sulphurous acid. The village of Kollam we found clean, and the compounds of the various houses kept
in good order. The disease, in my opinion, first broke out in a sporadic form, as the first patient had
* Specimens of this diseased grain will be examined microscopically and reported upon hereafter.—(W. R. C.)
U