CHOLERA. 753 



March, 1857, the Sixty-sixth Ghorka Regiment marched simultaneously 

 in two divisions about seventy English miles apart, from the plains to 

 the hill-stations along the Himalayan heights — the A division toward 

 Almorah, the B toward Lohnghat — and both wings, though free from 

 cholera at starting, became infected en route. The A division, 611 

 men strong, arrived on the 13th of March, free from cholera, at 

 Tarai, a narrow strip of land between the plain of the Ganges and 

 the Naini Valley. Tarai is notorious for its fevers and cholera, while 

 the Naini Valley is celebrated for its general salubrity and its remark- 

 able freedom from epidemics of cholera. The division left Tarai the 

 morning after its arrival, passed into the healthful Naini Valley, and 

 halted at the hill-station of Almorah. The first case of cholera showed 

 itself in the Naini Valley twenty-four hours after the first opportunity 

 for infection. The first fatal case occurred on March 16th, two deaths 

 occurred on the 17th, ten on the 18th, nine on the 19th and one on 

 the 22d. These numbers show a mortality of nearly ten per cent. 

 The B division was 361 strong, and passed through Tarai about 

 a week after the A division, remained there but one day, and reached 

 Lohnghat on the 23d of March. The first fatal case occurred on March 

 21st, while the division was still in Tarai ; there were two fatal cases 

 on the 22d, eighteen on the 24th, eight on the 25th, one on the 26th, 

 and one on the 27th. Fatal cases thus occurred within a period of 

 seven days. Such statistical facts, which might be multiplied, have as 

 much value, as direct experiments, as infection through the linen of 

 cases of cholera. It is strange, however, that most of the " cholera 

 linen " first originated in the Naini Valley, in Almorah and Lohnghat 

 where the disease did not spread further, and where certainly disinfec- 

 tion by carbolic acid or corrosive sublimate was not thought of. But 

 the contagionists have no eyes for such facts. Just as was the case 

 with the Ghorka regiments, so was it with the pilgrims at Hard war. 

 On April 15th the great mass of the pilgrims — who had been quartered 

 on a flat, partly marshy tract of land, about a square mile in extent, 

 for several days — broke up and departed, so that a stream of 3,000,000 

 infected individuals for the most part, notwithstanding the influence 

 of the bathing in the Ganges, reeking with filth, began to spread 

 abroad over all India. According to the contagionists, an epidemic of 

 ; cholera ought to have broken out in every place to which the wander- 

 ing pilgrims came. In my view, epidemics may break out only where 

 the time and local conditions are favorable ; and where these condi- 

 tions do not exist an epidemic is impossible, as the case of the Ghorka 

 regiments proved. Bryden expresses himself in the following terms 

 on the Hardwar cholera : " From all accounts which have been written 

 concerning the outbreak at Hardwar, the impression is gathered that 

 the epidemic was by no means a typical one. That is only the case, 

 however, if the facts are considered in the light of preconceived theory. 

 For those who search the statistics the facts come out in their true 



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