MANUAL OF THE NlLAOIRl DISTRICT. b/ 



tively rare amongst natives, probably owing to careful vacci- CHAP. lY, 

 nation of late years, and is seldom met with in the European. PART II. 

 Cholera 1 originating on the Hills is practically unknown, at least Physical and 

 in the higher portion of the plateau. Hardly a year passes Medical 



however, but some cases are imported from the low country. [ L 



Occasionally it is communicated to one, two, or more persons, and 

 then speedily dies out. Although so far removed above the 

 so-called fever range, yet there is a strong probability that malaria 

 is, at certain seasons of the year, carried by the dry cold winds 

 from the belt of jungle which surrounds the base of these hills, 

 and cases of intermittent fever are occasionally observed amongst 

 Europeans residing on the plateau who have never been absent 

 for a day. 



Recently abundant evidence has been furnished of its occa- 

 sional existence in a severe form amongst the native population 

 by the excessive mortality which occurred in the months of April, 

 May, and June 1876 fi'om this disease. This exceptional state 

 of the public health was probably due partly to the above cause 

 and partly to a season of excessive drought, and the liberation of 

 the deleterious material from the soil by solar desiccation. 



The milder cases of uncomplicated intermittent fever, con- 

 tracted either here or on the plains, usually do well on these hills, 

 for although a return of paroxysms may be induced by the rapid 

 alternations of temperature, yet they appear gradually to lose their 

 intensity in succeeding attacks. 



Rheumatism originating on the Hills is also, strange to say, a 

 rather rare disease with Europeans, but frequent with Natives. 



Diarrhoea is common enough amongst the newly-arrived, but Diseases 

 in these cases it is seldom intractable, and is usually due to errors ^g^. v(,itii in 

 of diet or exposure to cold. Amongst children it is one of the Europeans, 

 most troublesome diseases to which they are liable, and when it of climate'' on 

 occurs during dentition it is more than usually serious. same. 



Whooping-cough and measles are sometimes very prevalent in 

 the early months of the year : croup is also occasionally met with. 

 In European children, who of course are carefully looked after, 

 these diseases generally run a mild course, but in the case of 

 Native children they not unfrequently prove fatal. In all of the 

 above cases cold and particularly the cold dry winds of the early 

 months of the year have to be carefully guarded against, but 

 otherwise the climate does not act prejudicially in any of them. 



Asthmatic eases seldom do well even in the milder climate of 

 Coonoor. The same may be said of consumptive cases. The 

 former seldom originate here, and the cases observed have been 

 those sent from the plains for change. 



* An outbreak occurred in 1877, resulting in many deaths. Though origi- 

 nally imported, its prevalence was probably due to bad drinking-water and 

 defective drainage, and to the fact that the town had not been cleansed by the 

 usual monsoon rains in 1876. — Ed. 



8 



