PART I.] Prevalence of Cholera at Purneah and Berhanipore. 



255 



The district of Parneah forms a large tract of the alluvial plain lying between the 

 Granges and the Himalaya, the town itself being about 100 miles to the south of the 

 latter and about 30 from the river. During the greater part of the rainy season the 

 district is more or less completely under water, and, as may be ascertained by reference 



Monthly Rainfall, 6-7 years 

 [Inverted curve]. 



Monthly "Water-level, 3-4 years 

 [Inverted curve]. 



Total Cholera [23 years] 



Mil—  



■i HiMIHlCWEQiQ^ia^QISmSHMlHi 



^1 



IEI3I 



lEEII 



■IBBBBBS8BS8SSSS3 



-Lowest Rainfall. 



-Highest Rainfall. 

 -Highest Water-level. 



Diagram 12. — Illustrative of the average monthly Rainfall, Water-level, and total monthly 



Cholera at Purneah. 



to the detailed tables of the water-level registers (pages 302 to 319), the water in the 

 station itself may come within a few inches of the surface. Although the total number of 

 carefully registered cases of cholera in the jail is not sufficiently large to justify any 

 opinion as to the minimum cholera month or season, still the preponderance of the disease 

 in April and May is very marked, the cases having occurred in these months on ten 

 different years. "With regard to March, the high numbers may be said to be exceptional, 

 as although cases were registered as occurring in this month during six annual periods, 

 211 out of 220 occurred in March 1863. We have not, however, been able to ascertain 

 the particulars regarding this evidently terrible outburst of the disease among the 

 prisoners at this station. 



Berhampore was in former years a large Military station, and over 800 of the cases 

 recorded in the table refer to Europeans. It is within a short distance of the town of 

 Murshidabad, and the statistics of the jail of that station have been incorporated with 

 those of Berhampore. 



Here also March and April present a high cholera rate, and this high total rate has 

 not been attained by the occurrence of one exceptionally severe epidemic, but by repeated 

 severe visitations of the disease. In March 1828, and again in 1829, the European troops 

 suffered terribly, as also did the prisoners in March 1856 ; so that although, according to 

 the summary-tables and diagram, March is the worst month, yet it appears from a study 



