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From A. MACGBEGOR, Esq., Magistrate of Malabar, to the Acting Secretary to the Board of Revenue,
dated Calicut, 21st December 1870, No. 403.
In continuation of my letter of the 2nd instant, No. 398, I have the honour to enclose copy of a
communication received from the Sub-Collector on the subject of the prevalence of cholera in his division.
It will be observed that a second outbreak has occurred, more serious than the first, but that
it has been by energetic measures got under.
I have received reports of an outbreak in the vicinity of Chowghaut, in the south of the district,
and have despatched my Dresser to co-operate with the Dresser attached to Ponany in affording the
necessary medical aid and assistance to the Deputy Collector.
From W. LOGAN, Esq., Joint Magistrate, to the Magistrate of Malabar, dated Tellicherry, 15th Decem-
ber 1870, No. 1,152.
In continuation of my letter No. 1, 104, dated 28th ultimo, I have the honour to inform you that
Dr. McAllum and I paid another visit last week to the cholera infected localities in Kurumbranad
Talook.
The disease has taken firm hold of the portion of the Maniyur Amshom, lying immediately
opposite to Payally bazaar, on the north side of the Kota river. I enclose a list of the cases classified
according to houses, and will forward to you a nominal roll, with full particulars.
We visited several of the houses where the disease had proved most fatal and instituted
enquiries as to the origin of it. The first person attacked was a Moplah woman, whose husband
assured me that she had not left the precincts of his house at all for many months previously to the
date she was attacked. No possible clue could be obtained as to the origin of the disease in her case,
until I asked the man what she had been eating the night before she was attacked, when he replied,
that she had eaten freely of the sardine fish (Mathi meen). The next house attacked was that
belonging to the people of the Tiyar caste. It was said that one of them had gone to the Moplah's
house for betel nut, and, seeing the Moplah woman's dead body, had taken fright and been attacked.
This statement, however, was not very clearly made out ; the family had been eating the sardine
fish too. Two days elapsed before the occurrence of the third case in the house of a Polayam out-
caste. The surviving head of the family could give no clear explanation as to the origin of the disease.
They had been living as usual, and had been eating the sardine fish too before the disease broke out.
The first attacked in his house was a child of six years. On the following day, no less than eight
fresh cases occurred in these three houses, one more next day, and two more on the third day. The
three houses are all within half a mile of each other, and are in secluded places, far from any roads
or much frequented foot paths. The occurrence of the disease in these three houses belonging to
people of different castes points, I think, to the disease having a common origin. It is scarcely pro-
bable that a child of six years would be affected by fear ; it could not have visited either the Mop-
lahs or Tiyar's houses, and I am disposed to believe that the eating of the oily sardine fish was
provocative of the disease in the third house as in the first one. The eating of this fish has been
mentioned as the cause of the disease in many of the sporadic cases. The fish itself may not be
poisonous, but it is certain that its exceeding plentifulness in certain years makes it very cheap, and
that in these years it contains a large amount of fatty matter. Poor people are, therefore, enabled to
buy it and to eat it freely, and the result in very many cases is indigestion followed by vomiting
and purging. It is noteworthy if true (as I have been assured it is) that the last time this oily
sardine fish was common on the Coast was in 1864-65 and 1865-66 when upwards of 40,000 deaths
from cholera were reported in the district.*
I regret to inform you that I have been obliged to suspend the Adigari of Maniyur Amshom
for negligence in reporting the outbreak. No less than five deaths had occurred before he discovered
that the disease had broken out at all. The Dresser stationed at Payally heard of one case by
accident, and, on going over the river, discovered that eleven or twelve cases had occurred, and it
was not till then that the Adigari reported the matter. The disease had taken such firm hold of
the place before it was reported that it has been difficult to get rid of it. I regret also to inform you
that after the discovery of the outbreak, the local officers failed to take the requisite steps for
putting the place in a proper state of sanitation. I have been obliged to administer a severe rebuke
to the Tahsildar, who (though by my orders he visited the locality) seemed to have done nothing
* The facts are correct as regards the cholera deaths, but the greatest cholera mortality occurred in June and July
1865, a season when no sardine fish are caught. The shoal3 of sardines visit the coast after the south-west monsoon
is ended, i.e., in September, October and November.—(W. R. C.)