22
districts of Madras invaded in 1859 and 1860. The only districts in which the
disease did not generally prevail were Madura and Tinnevelly in the extreme
south. No record remains of the general mortality of the population, though
this must have been high, judging by the very general prevalence of cholera.
In the town of Madras there were 2,776 deaths in this year from cholera.
THE CHOLERA OF 1862.
The cholera of 1862
a reproduction.
Exempted localities
in 1862.
23. The cholera of 1862 was generally, I believe, a cholera of reproduction;
but it had begun to die out. In Nagpore, cases occurred in
August and September, and at Secunderabad it became com-
mon in June, July, and August. This fact, I think, favors the
idea of a distinct new invasion in 1861. The Western Coast
stations were free of it throughout the year, and so were the
northern districts on the Eastern Coast, with the exception of Ganjam, which
has always some cholera in it, owing to its position in regard to the area
of endemicity. There was reproduction of cholera in Bellary, Kurnool, North
Arcot, South Arcot, Madras, Nellore, Tanjore, Trichinopoly, Madura, Tinne-
velly, Salem, and Coimbatore. In the town of Madras the highest mortality yet
recorded occurred in this, the third, year from the date of the new invasion of the
town. The total cholera deaths in the town were 3,635. A distinct accession
of the epidemic occurred in Madras in June and July, and in October of the same
year we find it advanced south-ward so far as Trichinopoly.
THE CHOLERA OF 1863—(A YEAR OF NEW INVASION).
24. The year 1863 is noted by Dr. Bryden as the period when a new
epidemic sprung up within the Bengal provinces, and passing out by the
" southern epidemic highway" travelled on to Eastern Africa, the Red Sea, and
Egypt, and subsequently invaded Europe in 1865-66- There can be no doubt,
I think, that a new body of cholera did spring up in that year, and that the
Central Provinces were invaded by it in the month of June, though the Mili-
tary returns give no evidence of its presence before July. The Dispensary at
Kamptee, for the first time since 1860, shows thirty-five cholera admissions, and
the Military Returns of the station confirm the fact that cholera was in motion in
July. If we look to the Bombay Mortuary returns for 1863
and 1864, we shall see a great increase of cholera mortality as
early as July 1863, with a later increase in December.
The invasion of Cen-
tral Provinces and
town of Bombay in
June and July.
Dr. Bryden holds that the invading cholera of the Central Provinces did not
reach Bombay until December, but it must be remembered that this gentleman
supports a theory, that invading cholera cannot move against a monsoon wind,
and this may explain perhaps why the month of December has been pitched upon
as the month of a new invasion. The ascertained mortality in the town of
Bombay certainly does not warrant the idea of a new invasion of Bombay
in December 1863, but points rather to the certainty that the cholera influence
was in power there much earlier in the year, at the period in fact when cholera
appeared in the Central Provinces. If it be a fact that cholera can cross the
peninsula of India in June and July, in the teeth of the south-west monsoon, all
theories founded on the dogma that a cholera invasion cannot progress against
prevailing winds must necessarily fall to the ground.