156 THE BACTERIA IN ASIATIC CHOLERA. [CH. 



of looking at the records, he would have found that such a 

 conclusion was not in harmony with the actual facts, for he 

 would have found by studying the records, that cholera cases 

 diminished in a very marked degree some years before the 

 introduction of the better water-supply, and that this 

 diminution, but no greater one, was kept up afterwards. 



The Indian Medical Gazette of November 1884 repub- 

 lished, on page 332, the official statistics as to the course of 

 cholera in Fort William from 1856 to 1876. In 1863 there 

 occurred a sudden decrease of cholera, and this decrease 

 was kept up till 1876. But the new and pure municipal 

 water-supply was not introduced in 1862 or 1863, but in 

 1872, i.e. nine years later than the conspicuous decrease 

 of cholera happened. 



I had the opportunity in connection with Dr. D. D. 

 Cunningham to make an examination of the water of some 

 of the tanks in Calcutta, with reference to this very question 

 of the comma-bacilli. The same tank that plays such a 

 conspicuous part in Koch's report above mentioned was 

 visited by us on the 26th November. It is situated in 

 Sahil Bagan, a suburb of Calcutta, and it is surrounded by 

 native huts, in which altogether about 200 families are living. 

 There had occurred one case of cholera in one of these 

 huts about the first week of the month of November. The 

 water of this tank was very dirty, particularly all along the 

 shore, and the people around the tank, as is customary, 

 made use of the water for all and every kind of domestic 

 and other purposes, including drinking. 



A sample of this water was taken from near the shore 

 where it appeared particularly impure, about twenty yards 

 from the house in which the cholera case had occurred, 

 and the microscopic examination revealed living comma- 

 bacilli which, as was proved by cultivation, were identical in 



