128
itself and at Mulwagul and Chumbanhully that the disease assumed epidemic
characters. In other talooks the deaths were few, and often at long intervals.
*
*
*
*
" The shading of the map* shows that the disease was confined almost
entirely to the eastern or south-eastern talooks of the Nandidroog Division, a
few ripples of the storm wave only reaching some of the northern talooks, and
a gap existing between this region and the western talooks of Narasipura, Maha-
rajadurga, and Manjarabad. Hurryhur on the north-western frontier and
Budihulli on the south of the Chittledroog District stand out by themselves,
isolated from the rest of the northern tracts of the province.
" The fact is, that in all the talooks with mortality not exceeding three m
10,000 inhabitants, the cases which occurred were sporadic.
" It is impossible to say whether the disease reached Bangalore from the
westward or eastward, seeing that it prevailed on both sides of it. At the close
of 1869 cholera prevailed in many parts of the Madras Presidency, noteably in
North Arcot, Nellore, and the Madras Districts, and at the beginning of 1870,
it prevailed in Tanjore and Trichinopoly. It also " lingered on "—as is stated
by the writer of the article " Cholera in 1870" in the Madras Medical Journal—
"in the Zemindary tracts of North Arcot, and in that terra incognita Tripatty;
it prevailed also slightly in Nellore * * * But in Tripatty a great congrega-
tion of pilgrims assembled in the beginning of May, and suddenly we hear of
epidemic cholera not only in the town of Tripatty, but along various routes
taken by pilgrims. The great feast of Conjeeveram began on the 11th May, and
many of the Tripatty pilgrims went thither direct by rail. As might have
been anticipated, cholera broke out at Conjeeveram at the same time, and the
people in dispersing, scattered it all over the southern portion of the North Arcot
District, Madras, and the eastern portion of the Salem District. From North
Arcot, and possibly by means of the Tripatty pilgrims, cholera spread over the
Mysore plateau.
† I am inclined to
think that cholera had
Dot quite died out in
the eastern districts of
Mysore since the slight
invasion in 1869.—(W.
E. C.)
" Now I have shown that deaths by cholera had been reported in the districts
of the Nandidroog Division of the Mysore Province as early as April, prior, that
is, to the Tripatty and Conjeeveram feasts.† It is true that
the disease did not acquire any widespread prevalence till a
period subsequent to those feasts. The first death occurred
at Bangalore itself on the 30th May, though it was not till
July that the disease prevailed to any extent.
" If then it was imported, as I am disposed to hold it was, it was at a period
antecedent to the Tripatty and Conjeeveram festivals, though a fresh importa-
tion may have occurred at a later period, and account for the outbreak in the
cantonment in July. The Garrison Surgeon writes, ' very strong evidence is
afforded that it was introduced by some of the numerous travellers passing
through the station, or the pilgrims who had been attending feasts held in the
affected districts.' Although. I am disposed to hold that the disease was thus
imported, I do not think that ' the evidence' is sufficiently strong to justify its
being asserted as a fact, as the mode of origin of the first cases reported could
not be satisfactorily traced.
* Dr. Banking's figured map of Cholera in Mysore, has been included in the general Cholera map for 1870,
accompanying this report.—(,W. B». C.)