149
and sanitary supervision of the larger religious festivals of the country was
brought into play in this Presidency in the year 1864, when there was but slight
prevalence of cholera. The absence of the disease therefore was held to have
resulted from the simple measures of order and cleanliness enforced for the
first time in that year. The newly invading cholera of 1864 did not reach the
Madras District until August 1865, while the old epidemic had died out in the
surrounding country. Knowing what we do now, we can see that outbreaks of
cholera at Conjeeveram in 1864 and 1865 were not due to appear in the months
of May of those years, neither did they occur. But in the cholera invasion
of 1869, Conjeeveram had no escape, for the epidemic fell upon the town in
October, and continued until February 1870, reviving again with the influx of
pilgrims in May. The same remark applies to Tripatty, which suffered also in
October 1869 and May 1870 ; but here the force of the epidemic had moved
southward before the October festival occurred, so that at the latter festival we
hear of only two isolated cases of cholera, and no general sickness at that period.
207. I believe that simple sanitary precautions should be enforced, at all times,
with the class of people who constitute the bulk of pilgrim visitors to celebrated
shrines, but it does not help forward the progress of sanitary science to credit
attempts at enforcement of cleanliness and decency, with the power of averting
the progress of an advancing wave of cholera. The intensity of the local out-
break may often be controlled by the exercise of common sense precautions,
but the mysterious " something, " to which choleraic disease is due, will come
and go, irrespective of spasmodic efforts of purification, in the cleansing of streets
or the erection of temporary latrines. If a cholera wave has recently passed
over a district, or if the wave has not yet approached a locality, the assembly
of pilgrims may take place without danger to the general community ; but should
cholera be actually in the neighbourhood, and active, the probabilities are much
in favour of an outbreak, wherever a number of strange, ill-fed, and dirty people
gather together, even should special arrangements be made for the preservation
of their health.
208. It has seemed to me to be a very important portion of a Sanitary
Commissioner's duties to keep always in view the progress of cholera in the
territory under his supervision, so as to afford timely warning to local authori-
ties of the probabilities of outbreaks at the district festivals.
Owing to the omission of the Police in the North Arcot District to report
the activity of cholera in the north of the district, early in the year, I was unable
to give any warning to the Collector of North Arcot of the impending danger of
outbreak at Tripatty in May ; but as regards festivals in Madura, Tinnevelly,
Madras, Trichinopoly, and Kistna Districts, I was able to convey the necessary
warnings, and urge the importance of sanitary precautions, and especially, of dis-
suading the public from attending gatherings where they might be exposed to
unnecessary risk. As the record of cholera progress becomes more complete, so
as to permit of greater accuracy of deduction, these warnings will, I trust, acquire
a graver importance, not only with district authorities, but with the Hindu
community at large, who are already disposed to stay at home, to a very consider-
able extent, when they receive timely notice of danger abroad. The intensity of
cholera, and the prolongation of its epidemic visitations, are, I am convinced,
largely due to the habits of the people in gadding about to divers places where