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It is, however, noticed that in a year of great prevalence of cholera, the large
number of fairs held in the province were almost exempt from the disease. The
local reports show that, excepting in Balasur and Puri towns, where, as usual,
the pilgrims suffered severely from cholera and bowel complaints, the disease
appeared only in the following fairs, viz. at Tarkesur fair in Hughli, 5 cases ;
at the Baruni fair in Dhaka, 3 cases; at Gawa Sagar fair in the 24-Parganahs,
and at the Nekmard fair in Dinagepur, only a few cases. At some of the
large fairs, where the gathering is great, and which lasts for any length of
time, sanitary precautions against the outbreak of the disease are taken; but
at many of such fairs, and as a rule at the smaller fairs, which last for a very
short time, little or no care is taken.
Regarding the seasonal prevalence of cholera in the Dhaka districts,
the Civil Surgeon, Dr. Crombie, says that, " in this district there are great
seasonal influences at work which overrule the local exciting causes of cholera,
overpower them in the months of July, August, and September, allow them
to reassert themselves in October, and induce them in their greatest inten-
sity in December. In January they are less active than in December, and
in February than in January. In March the seasonal causes are apparently
sometimes more favourable, and in some years more opposed to local outbreaks
than in February ; but in April the rein is given again to them, to be followed
by a check in May, and still more so in June, until they finally disappear
in July. Referring to the seasonal prevalence of cholera in Dhaka in relation
to the level of the subsoil water in the years 1877,1878, and 1879, it appears,
as Dr. Crombie writes, that in these years the April outbreak of cholera
was accompanied by greater or less fluctuation of the subsoil water at its
lowest level for the years. That in 1877, when the April outbreak was of
greater intensity than in the two succeeding years, the mean level of the
subsoil water was three feet higher than in 1878 and 1879. That in May,
with a steadier level of the subsoil water, cholera diminishes, and with a
rapid rise of the subsoil water-level in June, it disappears as an epidemic.
That when the level is at its highest, and the surface of the country flooded
and deluged with frequent rain from July to September inclusive, there is
practically no cholera. That in October, the rains being over, a fall of 2½
feet in the subsoil water-level was accompanied in 1877 by a fresh outbreak
of cholera, numbering between 600 and 700 deaths, but in 1878 there was
no such outbreak. That the rapid fall of the level from 7½ to 15 feet in
November and December 1877 was accompanied by about 3,300 deaths from
cholera, while the scarcely less rapid fall during the same months of 1878
from 6¼ to 13-½ feet was accompanied by 1,100 deaths. That the steady fall
of level in January and February in each of the three years was accompanied
by a marked diminution of the number of cholera deaths. That in March
1879 there was an increase of cholera while the water level was still falling,
while in the other years there was less cholera. There was, however, a slight
fluctuation of the water level in February 1879, and if the dry season out-
break can be attributed to such a fluctuation at low levels this may have
affected the returns for March, there being often great delay in register-
ing deaths in the district. * * * But, it is evident that the rapid fall of the
level of the subsoil water in October, November, and December must be
accompanied in a porous, sandy soil by a free emptying of the cess-pools into the
adjoining wells; but the fall is just as rapid, and the interchange of contents
probably just as free, in January, February, and March, the cess-pools
having in the meantime received the cholera stools of the three previous
months; and yet cholera is declining in these months.
The incidence of the cholera of 1879 among the troops and jails in this
province is shown in the subjoined abstract statements.
Among the European troops—total average strength 2,253—there were
altogether 1 admission and 1 death from cholera, giving a death-rate of
0·44 per mille of strength. Of the 5 stations occupied by European troops,
the 1 following recorded cholera in 1879 :—Fort William—strength 751
admissions 1, death 1, in July, giving a percentage of admissions to strength
of 0·13.
Among the families of the European soldiers—total average strength,
women 178, children 367—there was no cholera recorded in 1879.