CHOLERA. 751 



• 



for each month of the year. This journal, extending over so many 

 years, must give a good idea of the frequency of cholera in pilgrimage, 

 even though the numbers be but small. The principal feasts, when 

 the chariot of the deity is drawn over the breasts of the faithful, occur 

 in the middle of March, but the period at which cholera is at its height 

 is in June, when the number of pilgrims assembled is much smaller. 

 Altogether there were three hundred and thirteen cases in March 

 during twenty-five years, while the number was eleven hundred and 

 fifty-five for June — or nearly four times as many admissions for cholera 

 into the hospitals. Puri lies on the southwest border of the territory 

 where cholera is endemic, and has the same rhythm so far as cholera 

 is concerned as Madras. Hardwar lies in the northwest of India, 

 where the chief feast occurs in April, the principal day being the 12th, 

 and often hundreds of thousands of pilgrims, if not millions, stream 

 together here ; yet cholera only breaks out in an epidemic form when 

 the regions are predisposed to it. It will be interesting to go further 

 into detail on this question. Hardwar is situated about one thousand 

 feet above the level of the sea, where the Ganges quits the Himalayas, 

 and belongs to the holiest of places which the Hindoos worship. 

 Cholera only occurs occasionally in an epidemic form. In the last 

 century (1783) a severe epidemic was known to have occurred among 

 the pilgrims at Hardwar. From 1858 to 1867 the feasts passed on 

 without the occurrence of any epidemic of cholera, and this immu- 

 nity was believed to be due to the soundness of the arrangements 

 which were enforced by the Government. In 1867 the whole prophy- 

 lactic armor was thrown aside. But already in ISTovember, 1866, an 

 epidemic of cholera was approaching the neighborhood of Hardwar 

 from Agra. The pilgrims began to arrive at Hardwar on April 1st. 

 On April 3d the majority had assembled, although the stream of pil- 

 grims continued to increase till the 12th. The whole number of pil- 

 grims reached about three million. On April 9th the first case of 

 cholera was detected by Dr. Kindall, and taken into hospital. Other 

 cases soon followed. On April 12th, on holy-day, the pilgrims bathed 

 from sunrise to sunset in the Ganges, in a holy fort which is separated 

 from the torrent of the river by a rail, so that the people could not 

 be drowned. Through this fort there was an incessant movement of 

 men all day long. The water became thick and muddy, partly from 

 the ashes of the dead which the pilgrims had brought with them to 

 strew in the stream, and partly from the washing of the clothes and 

 persons of the bathers. Every time a pilgrim entered the holy fort 

 he dipped himself three times under, drinking the water and saying 

 his prayers. The drinking of the water was never forgotten ; if two 

 or more members of a family bathed together, each one drank from the 

 palm of another's hand. All these things happened every year for 

 eight years without ill consequences. But in 1867 a violent epidemic 

 broke out among the pilgrims. Macnamara, a believer in contagium 



