71
It would appear then from the extreme severity with which cholera prevailed
in villages under these conditions that elevation and dryness of site are no pro-
tection against the invasion of the disease.
250. It would appear too that the infecting matter of cholera cannot be
Always developed in the soil, for in the sites of these villages generally moisture
and sub-soil water, and even soil are non-existent, and notably so in certain vil-
Jages, as Rana (para. 82), Kuttiaghat (para. 132), and Ghunsoor (para. 100),
where the disease raged with extreme violence. A more parched condition than
that presented by the trap formation in the hot weather, when cholera more com-
monly prevails, can scarcely be imagined.
1251. If the description that I have given of the banks of the rivers and
the streams, both in the trap formation and alluvial plain of Jubbulpore, is borne
in mind, it will be allowed that here too the conditions of moisture and sub-soil
water, supposed to be necessary to the development of the infecting matter of
cholera, are wanting in a remarkable degree. Next only to the trap hills, the
banks of the rivers afford the driest sites in the country. In the drought of last
season, the crops in the fields in the neighbourhood of these rivers were the first
to suffer, and for a considerable margin along the banks the ground is an arid
uncultivated waste. At Burgowan on the Pureyat, at Ramnuggur or Lumheita
on the Nerbudda, at Kyrnore or Kutra on the Hirun, sub-soil water does not
exist, and water from wells is not obtainable; yet all these places suffered very
severely from cholera. Moreover, in remarkable contrast to these places, we find
that the town of Kuttunghee and the village of Belkera, places in the immediate
neighbourhood of Kymore and Kutra, but where, from their exceptional posi-
tion, sub-soil water lay at only a slight depth from the surface, experienced com-
plete immunity. I think then it may be said that the notion of their being any
relation between moisture of the soil and sub-soil water and the development of
the infecting matter of cholera, derives no support from the study of cholera as
it prevails in these Provinces.
252. The opinion that a water-supply containing organic impurities is the
chief, if not the sole condition under which cholera manifests itself, is now I
believe very commonly held by observers in this country and in England; and
there can be no doubt that this doctrine receives very strong confirmation from
the facts which we have now been able to collect regarding the spread of cholera
in the towns and villages of this part of India.
253. In former epidemics cholera has commonly made its appearance early
in the year, in March or April, and has reached its maximum of diffusion in May
and the early part of Jane, when, in consequence of the rapid drainage that is
characteristic of the water system of the country, the water-supply is scanty.
254. The epidemic of 1868 was exceptional in its course ; the disease
appeared in April, but its subsequent progress was slow. In Seonee it had visited
a number of villages near the road by the end of May, but although it reached
Jubbulpore by the 15th May, it did not attain to its maximum diffusion over the
district till the middle of July. This exceptionally slow progress of the epidemic
in 1868, however, rather tends to prove what has been before stated regarding
the more usual progress of the disease.
255. A reference to Table II. will show that in 1867 the rain-fall through-
out the country had been excessive, and that this excess was most marked in the
District of Jubbulpore and in the adjoining districts of Dumoh, Nursingpore, and
Mundla ; and not only this, but in the early months of 1868 the rain-fall had been
above the average. In the hot weather of 1868, therefore, the water-supply of
the country must have been more plentiful than usual. In the presence of this
more abundant supply of water the progress of the epidemic was slow, and its