5i6 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



of the soil was reflected in a great abnormal rise in the ground-water. 

 But from August onward through the winter, and till the beginning 

 of the year, the amount of rain and dew which fell was again far below 

 the average, and the ground-water steadily decreased. In the middle 

 of April, 1874, it again began to rise, and then the epidemic of cholera 

 ceased. The abnormal fall of rain in August, 1873, in Munich had the 

 same effect on the cholera there as the southwest monsoons regularly 

 have on the disease in Calcutta. In the relative dryness which follows 

 this excessive wetness the epidemic process is continued as a winter 

 invasion. 



Munich and Augsburg are very much alike in situation and in 

 meteorological factors. Both j^laces lie in a direct line not sixty kilo- 

 metres apart. But that differences in the amount of rainfall may occur 

 is proved by the year of cholera 1873. In Munich, in spite of the ex- 

 cessive fall, the amount for the whole year was hardly up to the aver- 

 age ; in Augsburg the excess above the average was thirty per cent. 

 In 1873 the rainfall at Augsburg approached to that of the average at 

 Salzburg. The distribution of the rainfall was different in Augsburg 

 as contrasted with Munich, and the same difference in the history of 

 the cholera holds good of the two towns. Augsburg had an epidemic 

 of cholera in 1854, but none in 1836 or 1873, when only a few isolated 

 cases occurred. That Augsburg in place and time and in individual 

 disposition is susceptible of an epidemic of cholera was seen in the 

 year 1854, when about three per cent of the whole population was 

 destroyed by the malady, while Munich lost that year but two and a 

 half per cent. If the appearance of cholera in the two places men- 

 tioned differed only in the time required for the transit from one city 

 to another, then the germs of cholei'a must pass either from Munich 

 to Augsburg or nice versa. In the year 1836 Augsburg remained free 

 from cholera, which infested Munich for six months. At that period 

 no observations on the rainfall were made, but no doubt exists that 

 cases of cholera passed, without isolation or disinfection, from Munich 

 to Augsburg. These facts prove that cholera is a miasmatic disease, 

 and may be wholly independent of human intercourse. For the year 

 1854 meteorological data are obtainable, and this year had as dry a 

 season in Augsburg as in Munich, while at both places cholera pre- 

 vailed. In the year 1873 the case was different. Then there were in 

 Augsburg regulations for the prevention of the spread of cholera, 

 without which precautions, be it noted, in 1836, Augsburg remained 

 free from the disease. Nevertheless, cholera did not visit Augsburg 

 in 1873, during which period stringent measures of prevention were 

 also in full force at Munich. Such considerations lead to the logical 

 conclusion that what saved Augsburg did not relieve Munich. Fur- 

 ther, Munich remained free from visitation in the humid summer of 

 1866, when cholera prevailed in North Germany ; so that no importa- 

 tion of cholera to Munich took place from the seat of war. 



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