60
where the Nagpore road to Jubbulpore crosses the river to Sakur, the distance
is about 40 miles, and 27 villages between these two points appear in the cholera-
returns ; in fact, with the exception of two or three in the Nursingpore district,
deaths were reported from all villages on either side of the river.
210. Cholera broke out in Goareeghat on the loth May, among a body
of coolies employed there, and in the course of the following three weeks or a
month, 54 deaths were reported; and it is probable that a great number of the dead
bodies were thrown into the river. The nearest village down the river is Ram-
nuggur ; here cholera broke out on the 8th June; on the 12th 11 deaths were
reported; and the villagelost altogether 22, out of a population of 470. It is
situated on a ridge of sandstone rock that crops up near the river bank ; there is
a well behind the ridge in which the water lies at 40 feet from the surface, but
nearly all the people use water from the river. At Ghunsore and Seonee, on.
the opposite bank, the disease appeared at the same time, and both villages suf-
fered severely. At Lumbeta, two miles lower down, the appearance of cholera was
first reported on the 26th June, and the village lost 17, out of a population of 126.-
On the 29th June, a body of labourers employed in the construction of the
railway bridge were attacked. Beyond the bridge, on the Jubbulpore side, the
village of Jhatone was attacked on the 12th July, and lost 32, out of a population
of 600; and Fula, on the same bank, near the junction, lost 10, out of 500, ten clays
later.
211. Sakur is a large village, with a population of 1,100, close above the
junction of the Hirun with the Nerbudda. The bank of alluvial clay here rises
80 feet above the river, The village lies back half a mile from the edge of the
bank, the intervening space being waste, and intersected in all directions by deep
ravines ; these are much fouled, and the sewage after rain would be carried into
the river above the place to which the people chiefly resort for drinking water.
There were two distinct out-breaks of cholera in this village ; the first case occurred
on the 15th June, and between this and the 19th there were 9 deaths; then no
more cases occurred till the 2nd July, and between this and the 12th, 1 7 deaths
took place,—altogether there were 62 cases and 36 deaths. The meeting of the
two rivers is a place of pilgrimage, and a large proportion of the population are
Brahmins ; of these, however, only 4 died; the rest were chiefly Gonds, Dhee-
rnurs, and Chumars.
At Heerapore, the village immediately below the junction, the Kotwal
died of cholera, but no other case occurred ; and, although not a village on either
river above their junction escaped cholera, as far as I could ascertain not one below
suffered in the slightest degree.
212. It has been before stated that cholera reached Gadurwara, near the
western boundary of the district of Nursingpore, early in June. The central towns
of Nursingpore and Chindwara were also attacked early in the same month;
they, however, suffered but slightly; and, taking the whole district, the number of
villages visited by cholera was comparatively small. Of 876 villages that report
to the different station-houses, deaths from cholera were reported from 46 or 5
per cent only; the greater number of these were in the Chindwara circle, which
borders on Jubbulpore. Villages, however, here and there in all part of the district
south of the Nerbudda, were attacked. In the majority of instances cholera
was slight, but in a few it was very severe. Thus, at Jhiree, five miles south of the
town of Nursingpore, 25 persons died in July, out of a population of 280; at
Bahareepar, in the Bûchai circle, 32 out of 300; and at Bhurasdo, 13 out of 120.
The epidemic influence was therefore widely diffused over the district, but it
would appear that last season the local conditions favourable for its manifestation
did not generally prevail This partial insusceptibility to the choleraic influence