Communicability of kála-ázar.

149

ascertaining how long they had suffered from the disease, to
ask how it began, and immediately would come the answer,
that the first case was such and such a man, who had returned
from such and such a village, which was at the time affected
with kála-ázar, suffering from fever, and that the next case
or two were members of his household, after which it had
spread to the others in the village. Notes in short-hand
were taken on the spot in each case.

Village L.

     The headman of the village informed me that four years
ago, in March, his son-in-law came to
live in this village from another, four
miles away, which was affected with kála-ázar at that time,
and he had also been in Nowgong town a short time before,
where the disease was also very prevalent. At the date of
his return he was suffering from fever, which had begun
when he was in the neighbouring village. He was the first
to die of kála-azár in this village, and the next case was that
of a man who lived close to him, and who used frequently
to come and sit with him when he was ill. After that it
spread to the others in the village, but the infection of indivi-
dual cases was not known. Two-thirds of the people of this
village are said by the headman, who is responsible for the
registration of the deaths, to have died during the epidemic,
but at the present time (December 1896) it is much less,
although I saw several well-marked cases. They were inclined
to very seriously consider my suggestion to remove their
houses to a new site during the cold weather, as they were
convinced that the soil and houses were infected. In one
house in this village seven of the members of the family had
died of the disease, and the other two now have it. They
were also certain that any one who lived in a house in which
other cases of the disease resided, was very likely to get it,
and that it was often spread by orphans, who had lost their
parents of the disease, being taken into other houses, which
had been previously free from it. In this village, out of five
men who took opium regularly before it was attacked by the