NationalLibraryOfScotland/medical-history-of-british-india huggingface dataset:
21
Godavery and Kist-
nah Districts.
All over the Godavery and Kistna Districts there was
a reproduction of cholera in 1860.
Western Coast Dis-
tricts.
The Western Coast stations, where the invading cholera of 1859 struck so
severely, viz., Mangalore, Malliapooram, Tellicherry, Canna-
nore, Cochin, and Calicut, showed no cholera in 1860. The
few cases at Tellicherry and Calicut in the beginning of the year were connected
with the invading cholera of the preceding year. There was no reproduction
on the Western Coast in 1860. The Bombay Mortuary Returns in fact afford a
true index of the general dying out of cholera on this coast after the year of
invasion.
THE CHOLERA OF 1861.
Deaths in Bombay
indicative of a new in-
vasion in December
1861.
20. The Military station of Kamptee in the Central Provinces shows six
cholera admissions amongst European troops in March and one in May, and
Secunderabad in the Deccan only one cholera case in March 1861. The fact of
these stations being nearly free of cholera will be regarded by some as a proof
that no new invasion occurred in 1861 by the " south-western
epidemic highway." But at the end of the year there occurs
a very significant increase in the cholera deaths in the town of
Bombay which would apparently indicate a new wave of cholera from an endemic
area. Here are the figures for 1861 and 1862.
Table shouting the Bombay Cholera Deaths.
Years.
1861 ...
1862 ...
January.
15
625
February.
18
240
March.
5
339
April.
4
266
May.
12
367
June.
18
218
July.
13
117
August.
10
95
September.
11
161
October.
34
272
November.
35
201
December.
466
269
Coincidently with this accession of cholera in Bombay, we find the Western
Coast stations of Madras, which had been free in 1860, again showing cholera,
thus—
Calicut.—Cholera present in July, August, and December.
Cochin.—Cholera present from July to October.
Cannanore.—Cholera present in June, July, and August.
Tellicherry.—Cholera present in April and June.
Malliapooram.—Cholera present in August.
21. The question arises whether this cholera of the western tracts, in 1861
should be regarded as a new invasion of Western India, or as a reproduction.
Under the reproduction theory we shall have to admit that a cholera may lie
dormant for more than a year, and then revive in strength. It seems to be
thought by Bryden, that there was no new movement of cholera in 1861 over the
tracts invaded in 1859 and 1860, but the facts do not enable me to concur
completely in this view. I think that a distinct cholera wave did invade Western
India in that year, and that it ultimately got so blended with the former wave
of 1859, in its subsequent progress, that it is now impracticable to trace either
of them independently.
22. In this year, then, we find a general revival of cholera over most of the
DRAWN ON TRANSFER PAPER BY. V. VARDARAJA MOODELY. 1871.
CROMO LITH: BY R.J. BALDREY GOVT. LITHO: PRESS FORT ST. GEORGE MADRAS.
23
The following table exhibits a marked accession of cholera in Bombay in July
1863, and a rise in the mortality even earlier in the year :—
Years.
1863 ...
1864 ...
January.
89
622
February.
50
401
March.
89
302
April.
161
680
May.
133
837
June.
161
395
July.
412
371
August.
240
351
September.
178
232
October.
181
88
November.
176
137
December.
319
431
Hyderabad not in-
vaded in 1863.
25. The Hyderabad country does not appear to have been invaded in 1863.
The CivilDispensary returns at Secunderabad show no evidence
of cholera, and the Military returns are a blank throughout.
There was cholera, however, at Kurnool, Bellary, North Arcot,
Madras, South Arcot, Tanjore, Trichinopoly, and Madura. The disease had com-
pletely died out in Tinnevelly and generally on the Western Coast, though a few
cases are noted at Calicut and Mangalore. At Calicut a local, but virulent, out-
break in the jail resulted in the death of 88 prisoners, out of a strength of 325
in the month of March. The exhibition of cholera in such strength in this locality
was probably indicative of the body of invasion following from the north. It was
reproduced in great strength in the Coimbatore and Salem Districts in the early
months of the year, and again in September and October. In the Mysore mili-
tary stations cholera had died out. The districts north of the Kistna, and below
Ganjam, were exempt.
In Madras cholera was very prevalent for the first three months of the year,
when it seems to have exhausted itself and to have died out almost completely.
26. In this year we have the evidence of a new invasion of Western India, but
the epidemic had made but little progress. The great body of the invading cholera
had not reached the Madras Presidency during the year, and the epidemic
advance was deferred until 1864. The greater part of the mortality of the year
was due to the old, and not to the newly invading, cholera.
THE CHOLERA OF 1864.
Reproduction of cho-
lera in Nagpore and
Bombay early in 1864.
27. At the beginning of the year we find cholera in great force at Nagpore, in
the month of February, and moving westward, covering a good
portion of the Bombay Presidency. Dr. Bryden quotes from
the Bombay Gazette, of 28th March 1864, the following passage
in illustration of the great prevalence of the disease :—
" The Provinces of Central and Western India are suffering from the effects
of an outbreak of cholera almost as deadly and wide-spread as that which, three
years ago, ravaged Hindustan. Letters from most parts of the Bombay Presi-
dency, and adjacent territories, give sickening accounts of the desolation which
this fearful pestilence has made in the land. In Berar and Khandeish the
people are dying by the hundred every day. From Surat we hear hardly less a
sad tale, and although Bombay itself is still comparatively free of cholera, the
districts of the Southern Concan have been stricken as heavily as Guzerat."
G
DRAWN ON TRANSFER PAPER BY V. VARDARA MOODELY, 1871.
CROMO LITH: BY R. J. BALDREY GOVT. LITHo: PRESS FORT ST. GEORGE MADRAS.
26
of August. At Cocanada, in the Godavery District, it was epidemic in June.
The engineering stations in the Upper Godavery suffered very severely. Cholera
visited also the Vizagapatam District, and in the endemic area of Ganjam to
the north it was much more prevalent than usual. At the stations of Berham-
pore and Chicacole cholera prevailed from May to December.
Coimbatore.
In the Coimbatore District the disease was brought to the Railway Station
in March, and in July it came up in force through the gap
in the Western ghauts, attacking the towns of Pollachy and
Coimbatore. The Salem District suffered both in the beginning and end of the
Salem.
year. Travellers from the Western Coast brought up cholera
also in June. One of these I saw on the Shevaroy Hills,
near Salem, who had been seized with cholera a day after leaving Calicut. The
case proved fatal, but no cholera broke out on the hills in consequence of the
importation.
New invasion of Ma-
dras in August 18(35,
also of all districts to
the south.
34. In its southward progress the invading cholera struck Madras in August,
and then pursued its course affecting South Arcot, Tanjore,
Trichinopoly, Madura, and Tinnevelly, so that, within the
year, the whole of the districts which had not been occupied
in 1864, were under the influence of cholera.
THE CHOLERA OF 1866.
Scarcity and famine
predisposing to great
cholera mortality.
35. So general a distribution of cholera in 1865 augured ill for the health
of the Presidency in the following year. There were general causes at work
too, predisposing the population to suffer unduly from epidemic disease. The
monsoons in 1864 and 1865 had generally failed ; large tracts
of land remained uncultivated, and the prices of food had, in
many parts, gone up to famine rates. In every district there
was scarcity, and in Ganjam, Bellary, North Arcot, Salem, and Cuddapah,
the poorer people suffered from actual want of food. The south-west monsoon
rains of 1866, though late, were generally abundant, but prior to the advent of
the rainy season the heat and drought were intense all over South India, and the
general distress and impairment of vital power, from high prices and scarcity of
food, were most prevalent.
Decline of cholera in
Bombay Presidency,
southward movement
of the great body of
cholera.
36. With regard to the Bombay Presidency which had suffered so severely in
1864 and 1865, it is interesting to note the steady soutnern
advance of the epidemic, and the exemption in 1866 of the
tracts desolated in the former two years. As regards the
Bombay Army there was almost an entire immunity from
cholera in this year; the only reproduction occurring at Poonah and Kirkee in
August, when eight deaths occurred.
In the Bombay revenue districts there was almost complete extinction in
every place where the severity of the epidemic fell in 1865, but some of the
southern Collectorates had suffered but little in that year, and did not feel the
full force of the cholera wave until 1866. The following table illustrates this
most clearly:—
DRAWN ON TRANSFER PAPER BY V. VARDARA MOODELY. 1871.
CROMO LITH: BY R. J. BALDREY GOVT. LITHO: PRESS FORT ST. GEORGE MADRAS.
28
THE CHOLERA OF 1867.
40. After a year of such general and severe prevalence of cholera—and that
cholera too in the fourth year of its life—it was to be expected that no general
reproduction would occur in 1867, and in truth the force of the existing epidemic
was nearly exhausted at the end of 1866.
Dying out of epide-
mic in Western India.
Referring to the returns of the Bombay Presidency, we find that, in the
European Army, cholera prevailed epidemically only in one station, Nusseerabad,
where the mortality was heavy. In the Native Army there were only four deaths
from cholera. There was some slight reproduction in many
of the collectorates. But in the town of Bombay, cholera
was nearly extinct, as it was in the southern districts of Dharwar, Belgaum, and
Kuludghee.
Central Provinces.
Secunderabad.
At Kamptee, the military station of Nagpore in the Central Provinces, the
year was said to have been singularly healthy. There was a
single case of cholera in the Civil Dispensary, but no deaths
occurred amongst the European or Native troops. At Secunderabad there were
no cases treated in the Civil Dispensary, but two deaths
occurred among the European troops in the third quarter
of the year.
Deputy Inspector General Balfour, in his report (Appendix I. Cholera Report
for 1869), says, that cholera lingered in the Secunderabad Cantonment from
August 1866 until April 1867.
Kurnool.—At Kurnool there was cholera from February until August, and
it was thought to have been imported from Secunderabad.
Bellary.—The Bellary District was particularly free of cholera during the
whole year, only ten deaths having occurred in the whole district.
Cuddapah.—In Cuddapah there were 323 deaths in the district, chiefly the
remnant of the 1866 cholera, as nearly all the deaths occurred in January and
February. The town was free of cholera, and no admissions occurred in the Civil
Dispensary.
North Arcot.—Cholera continued in this district through January, February,
and March, when it sank to a minimum and remained dormant until December.
Madras.—In the town of Madras cholera caused 600 deaths in the first
quarter, two in the second, none in the third, and eleven in the fourth. Here, and in
the district, the invading cholera of 1864-65 was dead by the month of April 1867.
South Arcot.—In this district the epidemic was also generally dead in the
first quarter of the year; but in the Chellumbrum Talook a local development of
cholera occurred in July.
Tanjore District.—Cholera was prevalent in January and February, but
declined with the approach of southerly winds. A new impetus was given to it
in June, and the adjoining talooks of the South Arcot and Trichinopoly districts
suffered from an accession of cholera during the south-west monsoon months.
Madura.—In this district cholera was active at the end of 1866, but it began
to die out after January, and became extinct by the end of the year.
Trichinopoly.—Cholera prevailed in January, but gradually decreased to a
minimum in May; increased in August and again declined, and became again
active at the end of the year.
Tinnevelly.—Cholera was prevalent in January and February, after which it
began to die out.
30
THE CHOLERA OF 1868.
43. The great immunity of Southern India from cholera during 1868, has
A year of minimum frequently been adverted to. To complete the series of tables
cholera
"
of cholera mortality, and to illustrate how completely an
epidemic invasion may die out in this part of India, I append the monthly deaths
in each district for 1868.
Table showing Cholera Deaths in 1868.
—
Ganjam
Vizagapatam
Godavery ...
Kistna
Nellore
Cuddapah ...
Bellary
Kurnool
Madras
Madras town.
North. Arcot.
South Arcot.
Tanjore
Trichinopoly.
Madura
Tinnevelly ...
Coimbatore
Salem
South Canara
Malabar
Population.
12,27,757
15,03,164
14,23,436
31,27,075
11,61,442
10,92,266
10,96,235
7,70,728
6,56,945
4,50,000
17,33,238
9,66,579
17,19,479
9,98,395
19,44,010
15,24,121
14,14,252
15,25,945
8,31,927
18,50,329
January.
12
2
3
...
...
6
7
144
151
1,399
1,363
69
9
5
404
19
24
February.
8
8
6
3
...
6
2
106
92
675
562
53
8
125
74
19
13
March.
32
8
6
...
1
2
45
35
121
144
71
3
99
497
7
13
April.
13
8
...
4
114
58
59
28
18
118
59
4
19
May.
30
17
6
6
1
5
3
113
50
19
9
12
7
3
7
7
12
June.
12
12
...
4
3
5
10
47
4
16
6
4
4
9
4
July.
40
53
2
1
...
7
7
52
3
3
7
2
12
8
4
August.
15
9
...
i
...
...
4
42
9
16
6
2
1
15
7
September.
25
1
...
...
17
14
7
4
7
5
1
4
1
October.
6
...
2
1
3
3
2
7
7
11
6
1
7
9
1
November.
5
...
2
...
2
2
3
19
9
6
4
...
4
4
December.
9
3
...
6
...
3
2
24
15
7
8
...
5
9
2
1
En
207
121
9
21
6
14
24
13
322
550
2,503
2,201
293
94
868
1,071
114
100
Mild type of cholera
in 1868.
The cholera, which spread apparently from Trichinopoly and Tanjore, to
Salem and Coimbatore, in January and February,, had become
so mild in type, that, at Salem, the mortality to attacks was
not more than ten per cent. In the town of Madras only thirteen deaths were
registered during the whole year from cholera—a proof, if any were needed, of
the extraordinary healthiness of the year, and of the complete extinction of the
cholera contagium, brought in by the last epidemic invasion in 1864-65. In no
former year of the fifteen, in which a register of deaths has been kept, had cholera
so completely died out in the Presidency town, as it had in the year 1868.
44. And precisely at the period when cholera had ceased to exist as an
epidemic in Southern India, a new emanation of cholera passed out of the
endemic area in lower Bengal, and began to spread itself, in its accustomed
manner, over the Central Provinces, the Bombay Presidency, and Hyderabad.
CHAPTER III,
THE CHOLERA INVASION OF 1869, AND ITS INFLUENCE
ON THE CHOLERA of 1870.
Feeble vitality of
the cholera of former
invasion in 18(58.
45. Before I describe the progress of cholera in Southern India during the year
1870, I shall take a retrospective glance at the epidemic
history of the former year, to make plain to the reader the
actual facts in regard to the cholera of 1870. In my report for
.1869,
I
in almost every part of Southern India. In a few of the revenue districts the
remnant of the cholera invasion of 1864-65 had preserved a flickering vitality,
DRAWN ON TRANSFER PAPER BY V. VARDARAJA MOODELY. 1871.
CHROMO LITH: BY R.J. BALDREY GOVT. LITHO: PRESS FORT ST. GEORGE MADRAS
33
invasion in the Bombay Presidency kept pace with the advancing wave in the
Deccan, and in the Ceded Districts of the Madras territory.
Thus we read that " in the Belgaum Collectorate cholera, after a little
abatement in February, increased rapidly in severity, culminated in April (in
which month occurred no less than 2,735 deaths) and disappeared altogether by
the end of August."
In the Dharwar District, south of and adjoining Belgaum, " there was
" an exceptional and rather severe outbreak of cholera in the Dharwar Talooka
" in February, increasing in that talooka only in March, and decreasing, though
" culminating in the district generally with 600 fatal cases, in July. During Octo-
" ber the disorder may be said to have disappeared from the district."
In Kulludghee, east of and adjoining Belgaum, the cholera became severe
in March, culminated in April, and abated in August and September.
No returns are given for the Native State of Kolapoor, but it is evident,
from the spread of cholera all around it, that this area of country must also have
been covered by cholera, coincidently with the appearance of the disease in
the neighbouring districts of Sattara and Belgaum.
50. A tabular view of the cholera deaths in the Collectorates of Belgaum,
Dharwar, and Kulludghee of the Bombay Presidency, compared with the
mortality in the Ceded Districts of Madras, will illustrate how important it is, in
the study of cholera movements, that the facts should be recorded, not in relation
to artificial divisions of territory, but as a geographical whole.
Cholera in 1869-
Collectorates.
Area in Square Miles ...
Population ...
Total Cholera Deaths in
1869
Months of prevalence.
January
February
March
April
May
June
July
August
September
October
November
December
Kulludgheo.
6,500
7,01,556
5,126
9
1
198
1,637
1,556
744
662
228
48
29
8
6
Belgaum.
11,814
7,91,263
7,808
300
186
577
2,735
2,578
1,117
267
48
••
Dharwar.
5,193
8,49,223
2,691
30
146
162
419
413
560
660
213
49
22
1
16
Bellary-
11,496
13,04,944
3,424
•
10
1
258
1,219
1,295
532
87
22
...
Kurnool.
7,470
7,70,857
2,817
52
50
203
240
103
709
J,045
305
41
61
5
...
Cuddapah.
9,177
11,44,759
1,S59
12
18
8
7
96
715
553
863
68
8
6
We see here that the general progress of cholera was in a south-easterly
direction from the Belgaum Collectorate, through Dharwar, towards the Raichore
Doab, and so on to the great cotton plains of Bellary. The Kurnool District
was, as I have already shown, reached at an earlier period of the year vid the
Hyderabad country, though the culmination of the epidemic both in Kurnool and
Cuddapah was coincident in time with the culmination in Dharwar and Bellary,
but later in all these districts than in Kulludghee and Belgaum.
DRAWN ON TRANSFER PAPER BY V. VARDARAJA MOODELY. 1871
CHROMO LITH: BY R.J. BALDREY GOVT. LITHO: PRESS FORT ST. GEORGE MADRAS
36
Exempted tract—Cholera of 1869.
Districts.
Madura
Tinnevelly
...
...
Population
for which
returns were
received.
19,01,774
10,82,301
January.
4
5
February.
10
7
March.
2
12
April.
8
4
May.
4
5
June.
7
9
July.
5
7
August.
8
5
September.
6
5
October.
2
3
November.
3
9
December.
13
9
Total.
72
80
When we find the total of deaths in a district like Madura to be 18,688,
and cholera returned as the cause of death (and that too by unprofessional
reporters) in only 72 instances, we may fairly conclude that any epidemic
invasion of former years had died out, and that the so-called cholera deaths
were due, if correctly reported, to the ordinary cholera of the coast. And the
same observation holds good in regard to Tinnevelly District, in which only 80
out of 21,808 registered deaths are noted as due to cholera.
The Madura and Tinnevelly Districts with the Western Coast Districts
(including the Native territories of Travancore and Cochin) may be safely declared
an "exempted tract," so far as the cholera invasion of 1868-69 was concerned.
Salem and Coimba-
tore.
57. The districts of Coimbatore and Salem suffered in 1869 to a very limited
degree from an importation of cholera from the North
Arcot District to the eastward, in the month of September.
The particulars of the importation, so far as they could be ascertained, are
recorded at page 17 in the Cholera Report of 1869, and the following table shows
the monthly distribution of cholera in 1869 :—
Districts.
Coimbatore
Salem...
...
...
Population
for which
returns were
received.
13,93,582
16,19,233
January.
2
4
February.
...
3
March.
...
3
April.
1
17
May.
1
...
June.
1
2
July.
4
2
August.
3
...
September.
8
20
October.
64
36
November.
60
129
December.
60
81
Total.
204
297
It will be seen that the mortality began to increase in these districts in the
month of September, and it has been distinctly ascertained that the deaths were
confined chiefly to the villages in the neighbourhood of the Railway stations, to
which the first cases were traced.
Northern Districts.
58. We have yet to take cognizance of the condition of the northern districts
on the Eastern Coast in regard to cholera, and then the survey
will be complete up to the beginning of 1870.
Ganjam.
The Ganjam District abuts on the area mapped out by Brydenas the district
of endemic cholera, and it is undoubtedly true that it suffers
in common with the endemic district, as regards time and
season, but although invasion of the southern districts along the Eastern Coast
appears to have taken place in the epidemic of 1818, it has not been so, accord-
ing to my knowledge, on any other occasion of an invasion. During 1869, it is a
remarkable fact, that the influences invading from Ganjam southward, stopped
abruptly somewhere in the Vizagapatam District, the southern boundary of
which was not overstepped as will be seen in the following table :—
37
Cholera in Northern Districts, 1869.
Districts.
Population for which returns were
received.
Total Deaths.
Cholera Deaths.
January ...
...
...
..
February ...
March
April
May
June
July
August
September
...
October ...
November
December
Ganjam.
10,68,992
16,437
981
17
14
58
55
25
160
299
199
109
9
16
20
Vizagapatam.
10,79,926
22,226
567
26
6
11
10
13
37
185
122
72
53
28
4
Godavery.
14,27,472
31,939
...
...
...
...
...
...
Kistna.
12,46,852
22,656
3
...
3
...
...
...
...
•
Exemption of Goda-
very and Kistna Dis-
tricts both in 1868 and
1869.
The Godavery and Kistna Districts had been practically exempt from cholera
for the whole of 1868 as well as 1869. It is true that the
death registers for 1868 show a total of six deaths in the
Grodavery District from cholera. These are stated to have
occurred in January and February. The Kistna District shows twenty-one cholera
deaths in 1868 scattered through the year, and here again it is necessary to bear
in mind that these scattered and isolated cases may have been either incorrectly
reported, or due to so called endemic influences of the coast line.
Recapitulation,
59. We have seen, then, in 1869, cholera pressing steadily to the southward ;
advancing from the Kistna river to the valley of the Cauvery,
where it lay in strength at the end of the year.
In this southern advance it passed very lightly over the whole of the country
below the ghauts in Western India, and on the east, it passed by, and left
untouched, the districts of the Godavery and Kistna. Cholera, in trying to
advance from the endemic field in Ganjam to the south, was stopped short in the
next district, Vizagapatam. The year was not one of any great mortality, con-
sidering that it wasayear of invasion. The registered deaths numbered only 21,602
and the following table will illustrate the monthly prevalence in each district :—
Table showing Cholera Deaths in 1869.
Districts.
Ganjam
Vizagapatam.
Godavery
Kistna
Nellore
Cuddapah ...
Bellary
Kurnool
Madras
Madras town
North Arcot.
South Arcot.
Tanjore
Trichinopoly.
Madura
Tinnevelly...
Coimbatore ..
Salem
South Canara
Malabar
Population
for which
returns were
received.
10,68,992
10,79,926
14,27,472
12,46,852
] 1,34,757
11,44,759
12,57,147
7,70,857
8,04,283
4,50,000
17,75,506
10,92,958
17,33,703
9,90,037
19,46,389
10,82,301
13,93,582
16,19,233
8,36,019
18,49,671
January.
17
26
...
12
...
52
• ••
3
4
19
6
4
5
2
4
18
...
February.
14
6
...
...
5
...
50
...
2
18
7
10
7
3
30
3
March.
58
11
3
18
10
203
5
1
16
4
2
12
3
11
19
April.
55
10
...
8
1
240
2
...
3
13
4
8
4
1
17
15
19
May.
25
13
3
7
258
103
5
2
5
13
...
4
5
1
...
5
18
June.
160
37
2
96
1,219
709
5
86
4
26
6
7
9
1
2
9
5
July
299
185
154
715
1,295
1,045
90
80
705
14
13
...
5
7
4
2
13
1
August.
199
122
219
533
532
305
37
229
339
3
138
8
8
5
3
...
8
13
September.
109
72
358
363
87
41
71
147
549
27
281
6
6
5
8
20
14
32
October.
9
53
173
68
22
64
83
73
447
31
542
7
2
3
64
36
33
9
November
16
28
39
8
5
121
16
213
63
1,258
69
3
9
60
129
19
9
December.
20
4
106
6
...
154
11
256
393
2,226
405
13
9
60
81
9
Total.
981
567
3
1,054
1,859
3,424
2,817
1,559
568
2,605
544
4,563
522
72
80
204
297
184
131