2o6 Cholera in Relation to Certain Physical Phenomena. [part i. 



some extent, only done so in so far as special phenomena have appeared to lend 

 support to special views regarding the cause of the disease, while neglecting to 

 consider others, which either appeared to have no direct bearing on such views, or 

 were even difficult to reconcile with them. 



In the following pages an attempt has been made to bring together the 

 scattered data which appear to be of importance in studying the relation which the 

 prevalence of this disease in the province of Bengal may bear to certain conditions 

 of soil and of air, and to incorporate with them such of the new observations as 

 appear to be sufficiently advanced to warrant some conclusions being derived from 

 them. 



Under the orders of the Grovernment, daily observations have been recorded 

 at numerous stations all over India, in the presidencies of Bombay and Madras, 

 as well as in Bengal, regarding the fluctuations which the subsoil water undergoes. 

 In the military cantonments these were conducted during 1870 and the greater 

 part of 1871, but in several of the civil stations the registration has been 

 continued until the present time. In 1875 the observations were limited to four 

 or five stations in each province, as, with the information already acquired, it was 

 considered that these would suffice for the future. 



The registration of the water-level was undertaken not only for the purpose of 

 endeavouring to ascertain whether any relation existed between the degree of the 

 prevalence of cholera and the hygrometric state of the soil, but also in the hope 

 that continuous and systematic observations of this character might aid in enabling 

 the profession to come to some definite conclusion with regard to the cause of 

 the various fevers which so frequently recur in certain districts, and cause such 

 terrible devastation. 



As is well known, the credit of drawing attention to these matters in modern 

 times belongs to the distinguished Professor of Hygiene at the Munich University, 

 Dr. Max von Pettenkofer ; and their investigation in India was undertaken at the 

 suggestion of the Army Sanitary Commission, in consultation with the late Dr. 

 Parkes and the other Professors of the Army Medical School.* As some miscon- 



* The previous reports which have appeared in connection with the Special Cholera Enquiry sanctioned by 

 the Secretaries of State for War and for India, and which have been published in former Annual Reports of the 

 Sanitary Commissioner with the Government of India, are the following : — 



1. Microscopic Appearances of Choleraic Discharges — The Fungus Theory, etc. App. A, Sixth Anmuil 

 Report, pp. 124—178, Calcutta, 1870. 



2. Cholera in Madras — Topographical and Microscopic Observations. Apj). B, Secentk Annual Report, pp. 

 139—236, 1871. 



3. Cholera : Microscopical and Physiological Observations — Series I. — EigMh Annual Report, App. C, pp. 

 143—203, 1872. (Republished in Indian Annals of Medical Science, No. 30, vol. XV, 1873.) 



4. Microscopic Examinations of Air. Ninth Annual Report, App. A, 1 — 54, 1873. 



5. Cholera : Microscopical and Physiological Observations — Series II. — Tenth Annual Repoj't, App. A, pp. 

 173—210, 1874. (Republished in Indian AnnaU of Medical Science, No. 35, vol. XVIII, 1870.) 



6. The Soil in its Relation to Disease. Eleventh Annual Rtport, App. 13, pp. 117 — 143, 1875. (^Republished 

 in Indian Annals of Medical Science, vol. XVIII, 1876.) 



