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sions in the Civil Dispensary. The Medical Officer remarks of one of them :
" The case of cholera occurred in a policeman, who had just arrived from
Coimbatore. I passed the man on the road at about 5 o'clock in the evening,
as he was being carried by two other men. The men that brought him stated
that he was much purged on the road, and that within a few miles of Ootaca-
mund, he fell down, unable to stand."
Another case, a woman residing in the town, was admitted on 3rd August
under the head "Cholera Biliosa," Of this case the Medical Officer records:
" The case perhaps might have been termed one of enteritis, or peritonitis, rather
than cholera biliosa." It is evident from the detailed account of the case, given
in the annual report, that it ought never to have been classed with any form of
cholera. An error of diagnosis was made, and the heading of the case was not
changed, as it should have been.
Coonoor.—No admission from cholera. Station reported to be very healthy.
1863. Coonoor.—Five cases of cholera admitted in 1863. The Medical
Officer, Dr. Colvin Smith, makes the following remarks :—
" The five cases of cholera occurred in a gang of convicts passing from
Tinnevelly to Ootacamund. They were all attacked with the disease before
leaving Metapolliam (the village at the foot of the ghaut, only 900 feet above sea
level). Two were peons, the other three were couvicts."
Ootacamund.—"Three cases of cholera were admitted; the disease in each
case was evidently contracted in the plains."
1864. Coonoor.—The cases alluded to in the report of 1863 were admitted at
the end of the year. In January 1864, five other cases were admitted. The
Medical Officer observes, " they all occurred in persons who had just arrived
from the low country, and who had brought the germs of the disease with them."
Ootacamund.—Two admissions and no death. The Dispensary report is
silent as to the antecedents of the cases. Four deaths were reported to have
occurred in the bazaar, but the Medical Officer did not see them, and there is no
history of the individuals.
1865. Coonoor.—No cholera case was seen in 1865.
Ootacamund.—One death amongst the out-patients. " The case did not origin-
ate on the hills. The patient was a Mussulman, the son of a shop-keeper, and
was attacked on the same night that he returned from Coimbatore."
1866. Coonoor.—The Medical Officer, Dr. G. S. W. Ogg, writes, "several
cases of cholera occurred in the station during the year 1866. The disease can
hardly be said to have prevailed in an epidemic form; but, as cholera has
rarely if ever been known to spread when introduced into Coonoor from the low
country, before this year, it may be well to take notice of the outbreak. The
epidemic originated at a place called Kurmathanputty near Coimbatore during
the celebration of a Roman Catholic festival. Many natives had gone from the
hills to be present at the festival, and on their return it was observed that the
disease broke out at Groodalore and Metapolliam, and other places on their route
" The first cases in Coonoor were found in every instance but one to have
occurred in persons who had lately returned from Kurmathaputty, or from the
low country, having passed through Goodalore or Metapolliam. Most of those
persons Were attacked on their way up the ghaut, or in the night after their
arrival. The single exception occurred in a young man who was attacked imme-
diately after his arrival from Kotagherry (a small hill station twelve miles
distant), where he had come in contact with some travellers from the low
country. The first case of cholera in Coonoor occurred on the 8th October