THE PILGRIM PATH OF CHOLERA. 641 



the infection from its previous breeding ground within the body 

 of a previous patient. We now can understand why, when cholera 

 spreads and breaks its bounds, it follows the lines of human traffic 

 and communication. Man, in fact, is the porter by whom the 

 cholera is carried from place to place, and so the rate of diffusion 

 depends upon the rate of travel. But, as no one porter can carry 

 the malady further than he can go between the time of being 

 infected and being struck down, the wide spread of the disease 

 depends not only on the speed of the porter, but on the sanitary 

 condition and social habits of the place where he is taken ill ; for, 

 if these are such that he can transfer his load to others, that the 

 infection he deposits can take root and grow in the bodies of fresh 

 patients, some of whom may travel to fresh places and set up 

 fresh foci of disease, the epidemic spreads; but if, from cleanly 

 habits or clean surroundings, or from plentiful supply of pure 

 water, the infection fails to pass from body to body, the mal- 

 ady dies out, and there is an end of the matter. King Chol- 

 era is, in truth, a lazy and voluptuous potentate ; unless he is 

 carried by quick steamers, he will not travel far without a rest, 

 and when he reaches his destination he declines either to ad- 

 vance or show his power unless he is nourished and pampered 

 with his beloved luxuries of dirt and filth and fecally contami- 

 nated water. 



The inhabitants of the Indian " endemic area " are a conserva- 

 tive race — the son lives like the father ; one generation passes on 

 like another, and centuries of intermittent pestilence and famine 

 have till lately kept down the population to exactly tally with 

 the means of sustenance. The village community has been for 

 ages the unit which, multiplied by thousands, has made up the 

 population. Each village has mostly kept to itself, and, except 

 for the wars of their rulers, the passage of their traders, and their 

 occasional pilgrimages, they have for time immemorial lived an 

 isolated life. At times of pilgrimage, however, all this isolation 

 is cast aside, and pilgrims from widely scattered districts rub 

 shoulders in the bathing places, wash and cleanse their bodies 

 and their clothes in the same water, which in turn they drink in 

 an unsavory fellowship. 



Disease may remain for long tied up in a single village ; nay, 

 a whole village may die of cholera, and do but little damage to 

 their neighbors ; but in times of pilgrimage cholera travels with 

 the pilgrims, and, after the festival is over, is scattered broadcast 

 through the land. Such fairs as that at Hurdwar, at the junction 

 of the hills and plains, outside the endemic area, but attended 

 largely by those who dwell within, have beyond doubt been the 

 great gateways by which cholera has periodically escaped from 

 its confines to ravage the world at large. Of this the historic 



