?(129)
With a steady sinking of the subsoil water from September to March, cholera
appears in October, rages with violence in November and December, and
gradually becomes quiescent during the remainder of the period. It may be
said that the level of the subsoil water is too deep in January, February, and
March (14 to 18 feet) for its fall to have any influence, and that it was likely
to act as a cause of cholera during the time it was falling through the upper
strata saturated with decomposing matter; but in April the level of the sub-
soil water is practically the same as in March. It fluctuates through 2 feet to
18 feet or 20 feet below the surface of the ground, and yet cholera bursts forth
with renewed violence in almost every village community, and in May
the condition of the subsoil water remaining unchanged, cholera is disappear-
ing. It is true that in April there are frequent heavy showers of rain
which are often capable in a porous soil of moistening the upper strata and
thus favouring decomposition in them, but there is no difference between
April and May in this respect. The showers are somewhat more frequent
and heavy in May. In June the sub-soil water is rising rapidly, but cholera
almost entirely disappears. It is, therefore, evident to my mind that if the
annual flooding during the rains, and the rapid and steady fall of the level
of the sub-soil water during the last three months of the year have any
influence in causing the absence of cholera in the first period, and its general
prevalence during the second, there is still some other seasonal influence at
work during the remainder of the year, the cholera fluctuations of which are
not influenced by them. What that other seasonal influence or combination
of meteorological and other conditions may be, I am not prepared to say, though
I am making it a subject of special inquiry, for which I hope I have to some
extent cleared the ground by the foregoing remarks."
Faridpur.-Cholera was not generally severe in this district in 1877, and
the mortality was considerably lower everywhere than in 1876.
Bakirganj.-Cholera in this year was confined almost entirely to the
earlier months, and had almost disappeared by May. It was most severe
in the areas swept by the storm waves of the cyclone of October and November
1876. The usual winter epidemic was entirely absent from the district,
except in Gaurandi circle and Burisal town, where it was pretty severe, though
less so than in the early months of the year.
Chittagong.-As in Bakirganj, the cholera which followed the cyclone
continued to rage all over Chittagong district until May, when it began to
abate. In June and July the disease was present in only a few places, and
suddenly and rapidly disappeared after an unprecedentedly heavy rainfall,
41·35 inches, in August. This was the heaviest fall of any one month during
the year, and caused inundations of the lower portions of the district. Since
the rains the absence of sickness of every sort has been most remarkable.
The cholera of this year began at Sitakoond in the north, and travelled rapidly
to the south. Every circle in the district suffered very severely, and in several
of them more so than in 1876.
Noakholli.-Cholera raged from January to May, but after May it entirely
disappeared. Local outbreaks occurred from November to December in 
Rawganj and Begumganj, the only circles unaffected by the cyclone of 1876.
The mortality was very high in most of the circles, and in several of them
much higher than in 1876. The rainfall in June, July, August, and Septem-
ber was very heavy, viz. 28·36, 37·76, 19·31, and 18·79 inches respectively;
and the entire district was free from cholera in these months. The prevalence
of cholera in this district was referrible to the same causes as governed it in
Bakirganj and Chittagong.
In the Orissa districts the cholera of 1877 was very severe, but on
the whole less so than in 1876. In Kattak and Balasore there was a consider-
able decline, and in Puri a greatly increased prevalence. In Kattak the
disease was most severe in Jagalsingpur in the south, which is off the pilgrim
route; while Jajipur, Aul, Patamandi, and Kendrapara, which are on the
direct line followed by the pilgrims, suffered comparatively little. Moreover,
as the usual seasonal outbreaks of the year culminate in March and Septem-
ber, they cannot be credited wholly to pilgrims, because June and July, the
months of comparative respite, are the months during which the greatest
numbers are on the roads to and from Puri. In the Puri district cholera
8