PART I.] Nature of the Soil on which Luc know Stands. 49 



Concerning the amount of organic matter in the soil, the same remarks will 

 apply to this as were made relative to the soil at Allahabad. The soil from the 

 camp at Bhowpore contained more than any of the others. 



LUCKNOW. 



The European troops at this station suffered very severely from cholera, nearly 

 a hundred deaths having taken place during the month of August, the men who had 

 newly arrived from England, or had only lately been brought down from the hills, 

 contributing most largely to swell this number. 



Whilst visiting the various parts of this city, one could but note the extent to 

 which it is intersected by ravines or ^lullahs, a faint conception of which may be 

 obtained by observing the shaded portion of the accompanying little map, as well 

 as of the swampy nature of the surrounding country. Some of these ravines are 

 very deep, and contained filth, others contained water which flowed into the Groomtee. 



Much valuable information was obtained from Dr. Sutherland, the Sanitary 

 Commissioner for Oude, concerning the course of the epidemic, which he had 

 carefully noted on the spot ; nevertheless, no clue could be obtained as to the origin 

 of the cause of this mortality, or the mode by which it spread. In some cases the 

 disease seemed to be localized to a particular spot, but in others no indication of 

 such localization could be traced. As an example of the former, the following will 

 aptly serve : — 



A man was seized with cholera in a barrack on the ground floor, and rapidly 

 succumbed. The bed and bedding was removed and another replaced, which was 

 occupied that night by another man, who was apparently perfectly well ; he also 

 sickened and died the same night ! Another : a case occurred in the jail of a man 

 who for a long time previously was not known to have been in communication with 

 a single person from outside. His food and drink were precisely similar to the food 

 and drink of the other prisoners. He was suddenly seized with cholera, and death 

 resulted in a very short time, but the disease did not spread in the jail. 



What was the nature of the ground above which these persons lived ? No 

 difference could be detected between these and other places in this respect. The 

 upper two or three feet consisted of rubbish, which had been used for " filling up ; " 

 then came a layer of sandy soil from two to three feet deep, which was quite moist, 

 below which was a thin stratum of yellowish clay not sufficently impermeable so as 

 to be capable of holding water for any length of time, the permanent water-level 

 being about thirty feet from the surface. This is attained by digging through some 

 twenty feet of a white sandy soil. Speaking in general terms, this description will 

 apply to the whole of the soil upon which Lucknow stands. It contains considerably 

 more clay than exists in the stations already described, and was subsequently ascer- 

 tained to be of a rather more impermeable nature. 



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