PART I.] Various Opinions as to the Cause of the Outbreak. 323 



September,* 89 occurred amongst dwellers in this village alone. So far as can be 

 gathered, none of the coolies from Maala who had worked on the Columbian had 

 been attacked. Certainly none of them had been attacked for three weeks afterwards, 

 as the first adult male (occupation not given) of this village was not attacked till the 

 22nd August, and the next, a coolie, not till the 2nd September. 



8. The proportion of women and children attacked much greater at Maala than at 

 Tawahi. Of the 109 cases which occurred at Maala, only 5 are stated to have been coolies. 

 For the most part, the cases in this village were amongst women and children. Indeed, 

 there were only 35 males altogether attacked here, who were over 15 years of age. At 

 Tawahi (Steamer Point, end of the harbour) and Hedjuff, on the contrary, out of a total 

 of 48 cases, 33 were adult males, so that the circumstance that the first 9 attacked were 

 coolies loses much of its significance. A nearly equally large proportion of males was 

 attacked at the very end of the outbreak, as, from the 18th to the 24th September (the 

 date of the last case in these localities), 7 out of 9 cases were amongst adult males. 

 Possibly, this end of the harbour is inhabited by a much larger proportion of coolies 

 whose families are settled elsewhere. 



9. The previous history of the disease amongst the coolies is not wholly incon- 

 sistent with the view that cholera may have existed even before the 1st August, 

 though the first recognised case occurred on this date. The facts, so far as they 

 go, show that cholera broke out amongst the coolies inhabiting the Steamer 

 Point end of the harbour on the 1st August, though it is by no means certain 

 that some of the very many fatal cases of bowel complaints registered before that 

 date as dysentery and diarrhoea may not have been of a choleraic character. 

 This much, however, is clear, that, coincidently with the circumstance that a certain 

 number of coolies, whilst engaged in their ordinary occupation of discharging a cargo, 

 were attacked with a disease which was recognised as cholera, it so happened that this 

 ship was a steamer, laden with pilgrims and merchandise, from a port where cholera 

 is but rarely absent, viz., Bombay ; but, as will be seen below, it has yet to be shown 

 that the first person who was reported to have died of the disease had, as a matter 

 of fact, ever been on board the vessel. 



10. With regard to the cause of the outbreak, the Committee remark that they 

 are " generally of opinion that the disease was imported into Aden by the S.S. ColuTnbian. 

 The theory of the Port Surgeon is that it was introduced by the cargo, which he thinks 

 could have been contaminated by cholera discharges while being shipped in Bombay ; " 

 and Dr. Moore in the Memorandum above referred to, writing of this part of the subject, 

 adds — " It is more likely that the germs of the disease were secreted among the rice- 

 bags in the hold, and liberated when the bags were moved by the coolies." 



11. But the theory is not borne out by the facts. Two cases of the disease were 



* No European or Native soldiers suffered from the disease. The Committee mention that the only European 

 attacked was " a woman in the military hospital at Steamer Point, who had been suffering for some time from 

 dysentery and fever. She died." 



