CHOLERA. 



513 



was only 278. After dry weather Bombay also sliows, like Lahore, 

 "monsoon cholera." 



Cholera in India, as is well known, has likewise a remarkable rela- 

 tion in time to the years of drought in India. If rain once fail, or be 

 very small in amount, a famine necessarily follows. Distress is then 

 felt both in Lower Bengal and in the Punjaub, but the cholera only 

 appears more severely in Lower Bengal and avoids altogether the Pun- 

 jaub. The dependence of epidemics of cholera on the time of the year 

 (i. e., on the moisture of the soil) comes out well in countries outside 

 India, as, for example, in Germany. In the kingdom of Prussia from 

 1848 to 18G0 cholera was prevalent every year, though its incidence 

 varied in intensity and in different provinces. During this period 

 cholera was as much at home in Prussia as in India. Brauser has col- 

 lated the cases of death from cholera week by week for the thirteen 

 years, 1848 to 1860. The numbers for the different months are as 

 follows: April, 112; May, 440; June, 4,392; July, 8,480; August, 

 33,640 ; September, 56,561 ; October, 35,271 ; November, 17,530 ; 

 December, 7,254 ; January, 2,317 ; February, 842 ; March, 214. The 

 numbers are founded on statistics, and it is proper to investigate the 

 possibility of errors therein. No objection can be made to the Prus- 

 sian statistics, for the numbers are too great to be vitiated by casual 

 error. In India the statistics may not be so trustworthy, because regis- 

 tration is sometimes defective. Some cases of death from cholera may 

 not ajjpear as such, and perhaps some deaths may be falsely registered 

 as due to cholera. The Indian statistics have, therefore, only been 

 given for large cities, where more attention is paid to correct registra- 

 tion. The errors which may occur extend over all the months of the 

 year, and are scattered, so there is less liability to perversion of the 

 truth. And there is no need to prove absolute numbers, for relative 

 statistics are sufficient. Further, in the garrisons and prisons of India, 

 where physicians abound, the statistics are nearly as good as in Ger- 

 many, since cholera is a disease so easily recognized. That a large 

 series of numbers is able to eliminate to the vanishing-point the una- 

 voidable errors of statistics is shown by an instructive example of 

 the statistics of typhoid fever in Munich. Buhl, in studying the 

 relations between the occurrence of typhoid fever and the state of 

 the subsoil-water, made use only of figures obtained from the gen- 

 eral hospital during the years 1856 to 1864, where every diagnosis 

 was confirmed or overthrown by post-mortem examination. [Pet- 

 tenkofer here devotes considerable space to the discussion of the 

 question, dealing chiefly with the possible inconsistencies in the cer- 

 tificated causes of death. He seems to prove that the difference be- 

 tween the numbers gained by actual observation and those obtained 

 by calculation is so small that it may be disregarded.] It is considered 

 that since the rate of death from typhoid fever in the general hospital 

 is on the above showing a fair representative of the death-rate in the 

 Toi,. xxvi. — 33 



