106
infected outside the town at a festival. As soon as rain fell and the supply
became adequate for the town the disease disappeared.
(c ) Instances in which the filtered water-supply has been the means of
disseminating cholera. Fortunately we have not many of these cases. The
standing example of this lamentable state of affairs is the Presidency town of
Madras. There can be no doubt that pipe supply became infected. Bacteriological
and chemical analyses show that the water is highly polluted, and the vibrios of
cholera were found in the supply. In Adóni there is reason to believe that during
the month of August when the lake was nearly empty, that the town supply was
instrumental in spreading the disease. Nearly all the cases were indigenous and
practically all other sources had dried up at this time of the year. As soon as rain
fell the disease rapidly disappeared.
It is just possible that the epidemic that occurred in Guntúr during the
months of July and August should come under this category. The analysis of
some of the samples taken in August show that the water was far from pure.
But, on the other hand, this epidemic may have been due, as already stated, to
the pollution of the supply of the town other than the pipe water.
On the whole the cholera results, in towns having pipe supply, for this year,
are distinctly disappointing. The death-rate per 1,000 of population per annum
is 3.0 which is above that of all municipal towns in the Presidency (2.2). But it
should be stated that these 18 towns comprise the largest in the Presidency and
also many of them are centres of pilgrimage, so that, supposing they had possessed
no protected Water-supply, the results would probably have been much worse.
Further we wish to point out that the chief offenders are to be found amongst
class B, namely, in places where the quantity of water is very deficient— vide
the high cholera figure for Guntúr, Dindigul, Cuddapah, Madura, Gudiyáttam,
Trichinopoly and Vizagapatam.
Out of the 18 towns 10 show a lower cholera figure than the average for all
municipal towns. The majority of these 10 show very materially lower figure than
2 . 2 p e r 1 , 0 0 0 , s o t h a t , a l t h o u g h t h e r e t u r n a s a w h o l e , d u r i n g t h e p r e s e n t y e a r , m a y
appear discouraging, it would not be fair to argue that the introduction of a pipe
water-supply is not beneficial. In order to demonstrate the improvement in health
in individual towns we wish to draw attention to the table below where the cholera
returns for Nellore and Vellore during the five years previous to the opening of the
water-works are given:—
Municipal towns.
Years.
Cholera.
Dysentery and
diarrhœa.
Total deaths
from all ages.
—
Actuals. Death-
rate. Actuals. Death-
rate. Actuals. Death-
rate.
Nellore . . .
. . .
. . . 1903 ...
62
1 . 9
45
1.4
883 27.6
1904 ...
257
8.0
55
1.7
1,023 31.9
1905 ...
210
6.6
96
3.0
1,173 36.6
1906
..
244
7.6
80
2.5
1,218 38.0
1907 ...
230
7.2
131
4.1
1,197 37.4
(Prior to the introduction
of water-supply).
Average ...
201
6.3
81
2.5
1,099 34.3
Year under
report.
4
0.1
62
1.9
837 26.1
Vellore ...
... ...
1903 ...
27
0.6
285
6.6
1,449 33.3
1904 ...
313
7.2
364
8 . 3
1,951 44.8
1905 ...
3
0.1
331
7.6
1,067 24.5
1906
..
126
2.9
438
10.1
1,792 41.2
1907 ...
94
2.2
260
6.0
1,122 25.8
Year under
report.
47
1.1
111
2.5 1,361 31.3
Note .—Too much weight cannot be given to these figures as in each case an ante-pipe supply-
year can be found that compares not unfavourably with a single pot-pipe supply year.