(142)
said never to be absent from the banks of the Kusi and Kankai rivers. The
district is generally low and interspersed with lagoons, swamps, and marshes.
In Sonthal district cholera was present in epidemic form for the greater part of
the year, and was more virulent than in 1877.
In the Orissa districts cholera prevailed very severely in 1878, both the
area covered by the disease and the mortality caused by it being greater than
in the preceding year. The number of villages attacked was 3,678 against
2·921 in 1877, and the death-rate 5·10 against 4·11 per mille of population.
The prevalence of cholera in these districts has been generally attributed
to importation by pilgrims, but in refutation of this notion the Magistrate of
Kattak very pertinently remarks:-" The Ruth-jattra festival occurred this
year on the 3rd July, and since 1873 it has never been earlier than the 23rd
June. Pilgrims march down through Gya, Hazaribagh, Manbhum, Bankura,
Midnapore, Balasur, and Kattak to Puri. There is therefore no reason
for supposing that they would bring cholera into the district until their return
after the ceremony, i.e., in July. Pilgrimage therefore cannot be the cause
of cholera which rises to strength in May. Again, Jagatsingpur, which lies
off either line of pilgrimage route, was the circle affected most last year.
This year it it has been comparatively free. It is also noticeable that in this
year, as in the last, there was a double wave of cholera, yet last year the
heaviest mortality was in March and April sinking into insignificance in May,
June, and July and rising again in August to culminate in September. But
in 1878 the first wave did not gain its strength till May, and thereafter lessen-
ing in June, it culminated for this year in July, falling very low in September
(the highest month of the previous year), and then gaining strength again
in November, it almost equalled the intensity of the ravages in July. Now
last year the Ruth-jatra was only a few days earlier than in this year. It
should be observed that the year 1878 has been one of peculiar rainfall
and free from floods. This implies what actually occurred, a great lower-
ing of the water-level below the soil. The wells in Kattak were pronounced
never to have been so low for years. Frequent showers occurred during
April and the early part of May, after which the rain totally ceased until
the last week of June. Here then we find the mortality greatly increasing
and not checked till the last week in June, when copious rain (7 inches)
fell."
In the districts of Chota Nagpur cholera prevailed more extensively and
with greater fatality in 1878 than in the preceding year; 687 villages were
affected against 105, and the death-rate was 1·06 against ·09 per mille of
population.
The incidence of the cholera of 1878 among the troops and jail popu-
lations in this province is shown in the subjoined abstract statements.
Among the European troops, total average strength 2,835, there were
altogether 3 admissions and 3 deaths from cholera, giving a death-
rate of 1·06 per mille of strength. Of the 5 stations occupied by European
troops the 2 following recorded cholera in 1878:-
Fort William...  
Strength
941
Admissions 
2
Deaths
2
Dinapore
  "
830
  "    
1
"
1
The strength of the affected troops is 1,771, the percentage of admissions
to strength 0.17, and of deaths to admissions 100. Of the 3 admissions
there were one in January, 1 in March, and 1 in July.
Among the families of the European soldiers the following cholera
was recorded in 1878:-
Women, total average strength 245, admissions 2, deaths 1, viz., at Dum-
Dum, strength 53, in April, 1 fatal case, and at Barrackpore, strength 32, in
November, 1 case which recovered.
Children, total average strength 519, admissions 3, deaths 1, viz., at Fort
William, strength 177, in May 2 and in November 1.
Among the native troops, total average strength 5,273, there were
altogether 15 admissions and 9 deaths from cholera giving a death-rate of 1 71