CHOLERA. 



205 



Nothing was to be seen in motion, save a solitary in- 

 dividual, here and there anxiously hurrying from one 

 division of the camp to another to inquire after the 

 fate of his companions. Nothing was to be heard 

 but the groans of the dying, or the wailing for the 

 dead. The natives, perceiving the only hope of safe- 

 ty in flight, now deserted in crowds. But their speed 

 frequently deceived them. The fields and highways 

 for miles round were covered with the bodies of many 

 who had carried with them the seeds of the distemper. 



A few months after its first appearance at Jessore, 

 and while it was travelling through the northern pro- 

 vinces, it began to ravage along the eastern shore of 

 the gulf of Bengal ; and in 1819 it reached the 

 kingdom of Arracan. From Arracan it extended 

 itself into Siam, and after destroying 40,000 in Baku, 

 the capital of that kingdom, it passed into the penin- 

 sula of Malacca. In October it entered the islands of 

 Sumatra and Penang; Java and Borneo afterwards suf- 

 fered ; Canton was attacked in 1820, and at Pekin its 

 mortality was so frightful, that the government were 

 obliged to have the dead interred at their own ex- 

 pense. From China it passed to the Philippine and 

 Spice islands. Thus, in little more than two years, 

 did it traverse a space in Eastern Asia, which from 

 north to south is not less than 1,300, and from west 

 to east about 1,000 leagues in diameter. 



Two months after cholera entered Madras, it 

 travelled along the eastern shore of the peninsula, 

 through Arcot to Palamcottah, from whence it tra- 

 versed the strait, and entering the province of Jaffua, 

 which is opposite to Palamcottah, it penetrated into 

 the capital of Ceylon, which is situated in the very 

 centre of the island. About the same period the 

 Mauritius was attacked ; and on the 14th of January, 

 1820, it appeared at the town of St Denis, in the isle 

 of Bourbon, which is only forty leagues south-west 

 of the Mauritius. In July, 1821, it betrayed itself 

 at Muscat, on the southern extremity of the Arabian 

 peninsula. The neighbouring islands of Ormus and 

 Kishme, in the mouth of the Persian gulf, were 

 shortly afterwards infected ; by August, it had as- 

 cended along the eastern coast of Arabia, as far as 

 the island of Bahreim ; and not long after, it entered 

 Bassorah, on the northern extremity of the Persian 

 gulf. Opposite the little island of Ormus is the 

 port of Bender- Abassi, in Persia, the principal sea- 

 port town in which the Persians conduct commerce 

 with British India. The cholera broke out herewith 

 so much violence, that the bazaars were closed, and 

 the dead left unburied. Those, who escaped its first 

 onset, abandoned their houses, and sought for safety 

 in flight. Shiraz, which is about 100 leagues north- 

 west of Bender- Abassi, manifested symptoms of the 

 pestilence in September, and during the first nine 

 days, 4,500 persons perished. Yerd afterwards suf- 

 fered, and by the tune the disease had reached Ispa- 

 han, the cold season had far advanced, so that its se- 

 verity was much lessened, and it soon wholly disap- 

 peared. On the recommencement of spring, however, 

 it developed itself afresh, and spreading from Ispa- 

 han, where it had wintered, round the contiguous 

 Persian provinces, it visited in succession Kerman- 

 shah, Cashan, Khom, Casbin, and Tauris, following, 

 as it invariably did, whether in Asia or Europe, the 

 great commercial lines of national intercourse. At 

 Tauris, 4,800 perished in the short space of twenty- 

 five days, when it left the town, and travelled on 

 through Khaz, Erivan, and Kars, to Erzeroum on the 

 southern shore of the Black sea. The prince royal 

 of Persia had driven the Turkish army into this town, 

 in the month of July ; but immediately after his vic- 

 tory, cholera broke out with such devastating fury 

 among the Persian forces, that from thirty to forty 

 died daily, and the soldiers became so dispirited, that 



they precipitately retreated, and left the prince with 

 his ministers to sign an armistice at Khoe. 



Before the disease quitted Bassorah in 1821, from 

 15,000 to 18,000 of its inhabitants were destroyed ; 

 and so dreadful was the havoc which it made in the 

 surrounding country, that Dr Meunier says, the third 

 of the population fell before it. At Bagdad it was 

 so prevalent, that a Persian army, which was march- 

 ing against the town, were compelled to withdraw, 

 but were pursued by the pestilence, and among the 

 other losses which it sustained, their commander fell. 

 In the spring of 1822, it appeared between the Tigris 

 and Euphrates ; in July it attacked Mosul, which is 

 about sixty leagues north of Bagdad, and then tra- 

 velling more westward, it passed through Merdine, 

 Diarbekir, Orfa, Biri, and Antab, on its way to 

 Aleppo, in Syria, which it reached in November. 

 During the winter, as usual, it lay dormant, but in 

 the spring of 1 823 it revived, and visited Latakia, 

 Antioch, Tortosa, Tripoli, and other towns on the 

 borders of the Mediterranean sea. By the end ot 

 July it had advanced in the direction of Sarkin, Ar- 

 sous, Khankaramout, and the gulf of Alexandretta ; 

 and passing over the high mountains of Beylam, it 

 entered the towns of Adena and Tarsous. In 1824, 

 it appeared at Tiberias, in Judea. 



Thus were Arabia, Persia, Mesopotamia, and 

 Syria, overrun by cholera in little more than two 

 years ; traversing every species of country, from the 

 arid deserts of Irac-Arabia, to the succulent banks of 

 the Euphrates, and depopulating almost every village 

 in its path with a pertinacious>obstinacy, which human 

 skill was seldom able to overcome. It will be seen 

 that the disease, during this journey, took two dis- 

 tinct routes through these countries, which it prose- 

 cuted with equal energy. By the one it penetrated 

 Arabia, attacked Bassorah, ascended the Euphrates, 

 ravaged Mesopotamia, and finally appeared in Syria , 

 where it committed frightful havoc among the towns 

 skirting the Mediterranean sea. By the other, it 

 travelled through the very centre of Persia, until, in 

 1823, it reached the shores of the Caspian. 



Early in September, 1823, it entered Astracan, a 

 large and populous town seated on the northern 

 shore of the Caspian, at the mouth of the Volga. 

 The Russian fleet were first infected, but 21 6 persons 

 were all who fell ill, and of these 144 died. As soon 

 as it became known to the Russian government that 

 Astracan was invaded, they dispatched a medical 

 commission, composed of six physicians, to investigate 

 its character ; a physician was sent into Persia with 

 the same view ; a board of health was established 

 at Petersburg, and every exertion was made to pre- 

 vent its extension farther north. How far such pre- 

 ventive measures were connected with the result, it 

 may be difficult to decide ; but certain it is, that the 

 disease got no farther in that direction that year than 

 Astracan, and did not again appear in Russia until 

 towards the close of 1828, when it unexpectedly en- 

 tered the town of Orenburg, as is supposed by some 

 through the caravans which came from Upper Asia, 

 and by others, through the Kirghis-Cossacks, who 

 neighbour Orenburg, and are said to have been in- 

 fected by the disease. As the cold season commenc- 

 ed shortly after its appearance, the mortality which it 

 occasioned was not great until thjL>pring of 1829, 

 when it raged with great severity, both in the town 

 and neighbourhood, and entered the forts of Rassay- 

 phaya and Isetzk. On the 31st of July, 1830, it 

 again appeared in Astracan ; by the 10th of August, 

 1,229 were ill, of whom 433 died; and by the 27th, 

 no fewer than 4,043 within the town, and 21,268 

 throughout the province of which it is the capital, 

 perished. After committing this unprecedented de- 

 struction, it pursued a north-west course along the 



