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other was removed by the survivors, who suddenly abandoned the house and fled
no one could say where. They returned on the 23rd. The child taken away
sick Lad died, another was brought back ill, and two more were seized after
their return. * * * The site of their house is on a steep slope unfavour-
able by the necessary absence of sub-soil moisture to the development of
cholera from germs on the Pettenkofer theory. * * * The second case attacked
in the station was also * * * a tailor, but like the first, one who
worked exclusively at a European house. He lived in one of a collec-
tion of some dozen huts close by the high road about a mile from the
Darjeeling bazar. These huts were all crowded by Nepaulese. * * * He
was attacked on the 15th August and died on the 17th. Not another case
occurred in this busti, but a report reached the man's employers a little later,
that the tailor's wife and children, who had gone after his death some miles into
the interior, died of cholera. The tailor had worked for weeks at his employer's
house, and, as in the first case, I—writes the Civil Surgeon—could never discover
how cholera reached him. On the 17th three cases of cholera occurred in the
bazar. On the 18th two cases of cholera besides these were brought into the
special hospital then organized. A day or two later a Dhangar died in a few
hours of the disease in the bazar ; then the disease disappeared. The seizures
occurred over about eight days. More than half of those attacked died. I
observed no particular change in the weather when cholera ceased. I saw the
majority of the cases in the station, but noted no difference in respect of
symptoms and course from cholera elsewhere. * * * If the police reports
are to be believed it (cholera) hung about the station for several months
in the height of the rains in 1864. * * * I have no information either as
to its ravages in the Terai. It appears to have broken out and died away
again several times between May and September without moving in any
epidemic wave. (From the report of Dr. T. Mathew). The disease did not
enter the Darjeeling Jail, nor did it attack any Europeans at the Sanitarium.
At Mattigara, from 7th May to 14th August, 103 cases occurred with 89
deaths ; at Nakisar Bari, from 26th May to 14th August, 39 cases with 31
deaths ; at Kursiong, from 20th May to the first week of August, 104 cases
with 69 deaths ; at Phansidiwa, from 2nd July to 9th August, 28 cases with
23 deaths.
In the Cooch Behar Division cholera was raging in the villages of the
Singimari district on the east bank of the Brahmaputra river during January
and February 1869, and at Sirajganj also about the same time. In Singimari
district 93 deaths were reported up to beginning of February. The disease
appeared first among the Mahomedans residing on the sand banks adjacent
to the Brahmaputra at the time of the Ramazan fast, and it was observed
that villages where there were large trees suffered less than those were
there were none,
Purneah.—It is stated that cholera generally appears in Purneah in
every alternate year, between March and May. It has not been so severe
as this year since 1863. The first case in 1869 occurred in the eastern part
of the district on the 5th February, about the breaking up of the Caragola
fair, which is generally about the time that the disease is looked for. The
disease was general over the district; the following deaths were registered :—
Months
Deaths
Feb.
10
March
84
April.
1,512
May.
239
June.
7
Total.
1,852
The number of recorded attacks was 3,038, but the Civil Surgeon believes
that at least 10,000 must have been attacked. In the town of Purneah the
first case occurred on the 12th February ; 114 deaths were recorded from
12th February to 8th June. In the jail only a single case occurred, on the
17th April, although 400 persons are reported to have died in the neighbour-
hood. Among the police—757 strong—there were three cases, all fatal, and
all in February.
Burdwan.—In the report from this district nothing is said of cholera.
Bankurah.—There are no statistics given regarding the prevalence of
cholera among the rural population of this district. At Sonamukhi the
disease appeared at the beginning of the year, after the epidemic of fever, and
lasted until February ; 63 deaths occurred in seven days, but no statistics of