35
her mother and two children; she was taken ill a little while before dawn, and
died about 9 ; the mother was attacked a little later, and died in the evening; the
two children escaped. The next persons attacked, were first a Gond, second a
Bhoey, and the third another Gond; these were all attacked in the course of the
nicht and day following that on which the woman died; all 3 died; after this it
spread over the village. The epidemic lasted about 15 days ; the deaths were 6
men, 6 women, 4 boys, 3 girls,—the ages of the children from. 5 to 9. The men
present look fairly healthy, the children were pot-bellied ; one man had stone in
the bladder. I could not ascertain that they suffered much from bowel complaint
of any kind. Fever does not appear to be very prevalent in those jungles.
127. At Chittora Chowkee, 7 miles from the well on the road, near Dun-
wahi, there is a Police out-post with a small village round it. Here I learned the
following circumstances :—On the 23rd of May two Gonds belonging to Mundla,
returning from Jubbulpore, arrived at the station ; both had been attacked with
cholera on the road ;—one died at the station; the other, fueling a little better, went
on his way next morning ; he, however, only reached the well at Dunwaiii, to die
there. The death being reported at the Police post, the next morning, the 25th,
the Havildar with a Constable went to bury the body; to assist them they
summoned help from the village of Dunwahi, and a Bhoey and two Gonds came.
At the village they said nothing to me about the body on the road ; and, as
cholera had not previously appeared anywhere near, they probably attributed no
importance to the fact ; they evidently considered that the cholera was due to the
fish eaten by the woman who died first. The Bhoey and two Gonds that died on
the second day of the out-break were probably those that assisted in burying the
body. Neither the Head Constable or the Constable suffered in any way. At
Chittora Chowkee the people draw water from the Hingnee river, from a long deep
pool 300 yards from the village ; the bank is not free from pollution ; but in
May there had been no rain to wash foul matter into the river. A month later,
in July, a brother of the Head Constable died of cholera ; and two or three cases
occurred among the inhabitants of the cluster of huts round the Chowkee.
128. From the tract of hill and forest of the Mundla district the road
descends into a more open part of the trap formation, extending from the border
of the Mundla district to the cantonment of Jubbulpore, a distance of 10 miles.
It is traversed by the Gour river, which joins the Nerbudda 7 miles below the
town of Burrailla. The general character of the country is hilly and undulating;
but in the immediate neighbourhood of Burrailla it is a level plain of blacksoil
overlying basalt. Of 413 villagesin the Huzoor tehseel of the Jubbulpore district
about one-fifth are contained in this tract of country, and a larger proportion were
attacked with cholera.
Of 106 villages in the sub-division from which
deaths from cholera were reported, 36 were in this south-eastern portion. The
greater number of these villages were attacked in the latter part of June and
early in July. They derive their water-supply from surface wells, and from
small streams running into the Gour river ; few are very near the Gour itself. In
some of the larger villages there are deep wells sunk through the clay into the
rock ; but they contain a very scanty supply of water in the hot weather.
129. The town of Burrailla was the first place attacked in this locality ; it
is situated in an open plain on blaeksoil overlying trap rock ; the population is
returned as 2,340; the town was remarkably clean, and not greatly crowded.
When cholera broke out at Goareeghat in the middle of May, it was attempted
to ward off the disease by stopping communication with other places ; for this
purpose a sentry was posted on the Mundla and Jubbulpore road, at the point
where the road to Burrailla turns off. Cholera, however, made its appearance on
the 27th May. The first known case was that oí a girl 12 years of age, a Kayet's
daughter ; the 2nd, two days afterwards, in a different part of the town. In all 24
deaths occurred—6 men, 4 women, 4 boys, and 10 girls; all castes suffered in like