17 BACTERIA. 



is which is given up to decomposition in the marshy districts of the 

 Sunderbunds, and that here an opportunity is afforded for the development 

 of micro-organisms, such as exists in scarcely any other place on the globe. 

 Peculiarly favourable for this are the regions between the inhabited and 

 the uninhabited parts of the delta, where the excrements of an unusally 

 thickly populated country are washed away by the current, and, flowing 

 here and there, are mixed with the brackish water of the Sunderbunds, 

 already teeming with decaying matter. Under these peculiar conditions 

 quite a distinct fauna and flora of micro-organisms must be developed 

 there, to which in all probability the cholera bacillus belongs. For every- 

 thing points to the cholera having its origin in this district. All the greater 

 epidemics have begun with an increase of cholera in the southern portion 

 of Bengal. Jessore, from which the first intimation of the epidemic of 

 1817 came, lies on the borders of the Sunderbunds ; and Calcutta, which is 

 now the fixed home of the cholera, is connected with the neighbouring 

 Sunderbunds by a marshy and sparsely inhabited tract of land. Now the 

 comma bacillus finds in this district, contiguous to its presumptive home, 

 the most favourable conditions imaginable to implant itself and to spread 

 from one individual to another." 



In the large towns in this cholera region there appears to 

 have been no diminution in the mortality from the disease 

 during the British occupation ; and until a new water supply 

 was obtained and it was no longer necessary for the natives 

 and others to take their water from tanks, from the Ganges, 

 or from the Hoogley, even a better sanitary and drainage 

 system appeared to have little effect. Once this supply was 

 obtained, the mortality fell to about one third, and even a 

 considerable portion of that third is to be accounted for by 

 the fact that it was, and is, very difficult to impress on the 

 natives the necessity of avoiding the old contaminated 

 sources of water supply. Although Koch brought out these 

 remarkable statistics he is still, as he says, " not a supporter of 

 the exclusive drinking-water theory," and he considers " that 

 the ways in which cholera can spread itself are extremely 

 varied, and that almost every place has its own peculiarities 

 which have to be thoroughly investigated, and the regula- 

 tions which are to serve for the prevention of infection in the 

 place in question must be drawn up accordingly." It is a 

 remarkable fact that Koch never speaks or appears to think 

 of the possibility of the existence of the cholera bacillus as a 

 saprophyte. If it enters food or water it is the result of an 

 accident and the organism can remain there, capable of 

 development only for a short time and under exceptionally 

 favourable conditions. Thus he contends that cholera is 

 endemic in the Ganges only because there is a complete 



