322 Cholera Outbreak q/" 1881 at Aden. [part i. 



somehow in the village." There is a large graveyard in the immediate vicinity, 

 where, during the last three years, some 3,000 interments have taken place. The 

 sanitary condition of Tawahi is said to be not quite so bad as this, but it is 

 nevertheless described as most unsatisfactory : " The courtyard of almost every house 

 contains one or more cesspools, which are dug and filled up according to the 

 requirements of the residents." Deputy Surgeon-Greneral Moore, in a memorandum 

 attached to the Committee's report, describes the condition of these two native 

 quarters as follows : " The villages lie low, the people are poorly fed, without any 

 good water, badly housed, with the midden system in operation, and the soil 

 impregnated with fsecal matter." 



4. On the 28th July the Muhammadan month Eamazan commenced, and to 

 the irregularities in matters of diet, etc., which are associated with the observance 

 of this month of fasting the first indications of the manifestation of the cholera 

 outbreak were attributed. " Bowel complaints," the Committee remark, " are not 

 uncommon during Ramazan, owing to the gorging at night after a long fast during 

 the day." 



5. Four days after this (on the 1st August), some 60 coolies, partly from 

 the village of Maala and partly from Tawahi (the proportion from each locality is not 

 known), were engaged in discharging cargo from the S.S. Colu7nhian, which had come 

 into Aden the day before from Bombay. On the evening of the 2nd,* 68 coolies 

 were again similarly employed. On the 3rd August the Port Surgeon reported to 

 the Political Resident that " seven cases of cholera, or of a disease closely resembling 

 it, had occurred amongst the coolies who had been unloading the cargo " of this vessel. 

 On this date also two other cases of this disease amongst the coolies occurred, 

 making 9 in all, the disease being strictly limited to the coolies of the Tawahi 

 village. All of the affected coolies are said to have been working on this steamer 

 on the 1st August, but not all of those attacked on the 2nd ; and at least two 

 of these men are said not to have been down into the hold at all. 



6. On the 4th, another case of the disease was reported at Tawahi, but this 

 time it was in the person of a Somali female resident in the locality, the wife 

 of the French Consul's butler, who had not been on board the Columbian; and 

 all endeavours which had been made to trace any connection between her and 

 the affected coolies failed. 



7. There were no more cases in the Settlement for over a week, and all 

 danger seemed to be over; but "on the evening of the 12th an old Somali woman, 

 a wood-seller, was found at Maala suffering from vomiting and purging, etc., and 

 died the next day." This was the first case in the village, but others soon followed ; 

 and out of a total of 151 deaths in the settlement between 1st August and 29th 



* In the printed copy of the Kesident's letter of the 9th August this is given as the evening of the 1st, 

 but the sentence as a whole seems to indicate that the 27id is meant. 



