754 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



light, and prove that the type of an epidemic has nothing to do with 

 the smallness or largeness of the number of people affected. The sup- 

 pression of the cholera at Hardwar toward the east and south and the 

 increase of it in the west and southwest are inexplicable phenomena 

 [Bryden ought to have said, for the contagionists]. But the phenom- 

 ena are not difficult to understand if the preconceived theory be laid 

 aside. If we take Hardwar as the central point at which the gathering 

 on April 12th was infected, then it will be found that the pilgrims 

 died only in those districts which were reached within a limited time 

 after their daily march had begun. The great majority of fatal cases 

 did not occur at Hardwar, but in those regions which were reached 

 within the first few days after leaving Hardwar, It seems to me that 

 the end of the outbreak at Hardwar was pretty much the same as that 

 of local outbreaks elsewhere, and I can see no connection between the 

 epidemic of cholera in the Punjaub in May and the return home of the 

 pilgrims." The movement the cholera had taken in the autumn of 

 1866 led Bryden to say, " I believe that the geographical distribution 

 of cholera in 1867 would not have been very different, even supposing 

 that the gathering of the pilgrims had never taken place." And Bryden 

 is perfectly right, for in 1862, for example, the cholera in India became 

 remarkably widely spread without cholera having broken out among 

 the pilgrims at Hardwar. 



Such epidemiological facts, which cry aloud for the truth of the 

 existence of local and time predisposition, stand as sure, as etiological 

 elements, as the discovery of a microscoj^ic organism in the intestines 

 of cholera-patients. Only ignorance and prejudice can ignore such 

 facts. It is but a necessary logical conclusion that the comma bacillus, 

 if it have anything to do with the infective material of cholera, must 

 also have some relationship with the local and time conditions which 

 favor cholera. And, further, the relationship must be discovered by 

 the bacteriologists before they can explain an epidemic by the aid of 

 their bacilli and before practical rules can be framed thereon. 



Another objection to the views of the contagionists is found in the 

 behavior of cholera on board ships. Long before I announced my 

 views on local conditions, the epidemics of cholera, not only on the 

 rocks of Malta and Gibraltar, but also on ships, were brought as wit- 

 nesses against my doctrines. What can soil and ground-water have to 

 do with epidemics on ships ? And although I had found nothing but 

 confirmatory evidence of my views, still the contagionists remained 

 obdurate. As I can not suppose that all my readers are sufficiently 

 acquainted with my observations on cholera in ships, I must be allowed 

 to give a few illustrations. The contagionists, referring to cases in 

 which epidemics occur during the voyage from Europe and America, 

 say that such can only be explained on the view of infection of one 

 case from another. The facts of such epidemic outbreaks are known 

 to all. How often do such attacks occur ? As an instance, I shall 



