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died; it was a surface well, without masonry, under a mango tree, the roots of
which went into the water, which was full of decayed leaves and animalculę, and
foul and offensive. The village of Jhilmillee is in the circle of Oomurwara
(shown in the map), in the trap formation; the population was 125; of those
who died, 9 were men, 15 women, 2 boys and 3 girls. Here the disease broke
out within 24 hours,- probably in less than 18 hours after the importation of the
contagion,-and by the time 48 hours had elapsed 23 per cent of the population
had been carried off; the disease then ceased. The fact of the woman having
died at the well affords ground for presuming that the water had been contami-
nated, and had thus become the medium by which the contagion was communi-
cated to the villagers.
There is, however, no proof that this had happened; and it must be borne in
mind that the water on which the people had been dependent was foul and offen-
sive prior to the importation of the contagion.
288. The facts detailed in the foregoing report appear to me to warrant
the following conclusions:-
1st.-That for the production of cholera two conditions are necessary,-the
presence of a special contagion, and a susceptibility to its influence
on the part of the person to whom the contagion is applied.
2nd.-That with respect to the origin of the epidemic of 1868, the evidence
is in favour of the contagion having been brought from elsewhere,
rather than that it was generated in the localities where the disease first
broke out.
3rd.-That the subsequent diffusion of the contagion was effected solely
by means of human intercourse.
4th.-That a high temperature and extreme dryness are no obstacles to the
diffusion of the contagion.
5th.-That with respect to the general population of the country the imbi-
bition of water containing animal organic impurities is the most com-
mon means by which personal susceptibility to the effects of the con-
tagion is induced.
289. The measures required to prevent or diminish the frequency of the
recurrence of epidemic cholera in these Provinces, and the mortality which it
occassions are of two kinds,-
1st.-Measures to be undertaken with the view of preventing the diffusion
of the contagion and-
2nd.-Measures for the removal of the conditions under which the personal
susceptibility to the contagion is induced.
Under the first class would be included the prevention of assemblies at fairs
or for pilgrimages, by the dispersion of which cholera may be diffused throughout
the country, and the establishment of quarantine, and such like measures, for
preventing the transmission of the contagion from one locality to another.
290. In 1865 the assemblage of the fair at Mahadeo, from which in that and
the former year cholera had been diffused through the country, was prohibited.
The exact effect of this measure cannot be easily estimated; but it may be safely
said that the epidemics that have since arisen have been less rapidly diffused
over the country, and that to this cause is in a measure due the diminished
rate of mortality that in the present year has been the lot of several districts,