646 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



the pilgrimage were not only supplied with a proper dose of the 

 infection, but were provided with a plot of the " endemic area " 

 on which it could be grown. In bedding out a plant we do not 

 put its naked roots into the new inhospitable soil, but we place in 

 the new ground a portion of the mold in which it hitherto has 

 grown, so that its tender rootlets may gradually get accustomed 

 to their new surroundings. And the fairs and pilgrimages of 

 India do much the same to plant the cholera in the new localities. 

 The infection carried from the endemic area can not die out, 

 even although it be but an exotic in a strange land, because the 

 people carry with them also the habits and customs which are 

 conducive to its growth, the willingness to use the same water for 

 every purpose, the readiness to drink it when in its foulest state. 



In a report in June, 1891, Dr. W. J. Simpson, of Calcutta, 

 gave a picturesque and startling account of two large pilgrimages 

 which he personally witnessed in that year — one in the endemic 

 area of Bengal, and another in the non-endemic area, or north 

 part of India. A pictorial presentation of one of their chief fea- 

 tures, which I am able to give from private photographic plates 

 that he has furnished me, will show the condition more effectively 

 than merely verbal discussion. 



The first of these was the Ardhodoya Jog, which comes round 

 at rare intervals, happening only when the moon is in conjunc- 

 tion with the sun in a certain latitude of the Indian zodiac. This 

 event, it appears, only occurs once in twenty-seven or twenty- 

 eight years, and is then made the occasion for a great bathing 

 festival. The purity to be obtained by bathing in the Ganges 

 during this festival is exceptionally great, and therefore the gath- 

 ering of pilgrims at the several bathing grounds was a very large 

 one. 



Kalighat, where the gathering in question took place, is the 

 suburban area of Calcutta, on Tolly's Nullah, a small tidal creek 

 which is held to be more sacred than the Hooghly, because it is 

 believed to be one of the original beds of the Ganges which has 

 gradually silted up. Sanctity, however, in these parts is no assur- 

 ance of decency. Along its banks on both sides houses and huts 

 are built, the drainage from the latrines of which finds an easy 

 and convenient outlet into the streamlet. Soiled clothes of the 

 sick and healthy are washed here ; oxen, buffaloes, horses, goats, 

 and other animals take their bath in the water ; and as the nullah 

 has frequently passing through it many country boats, the boat- 

 men add to the general pollution. 



Kalighat, like the other suburbs of Calcutta, also possesses a 

 large number of tanks or ponds, round which the huts or houses of 

 the inhabitants are built, and which are the drainage cesspools of 

 the locality. Much has been said concerning the filthiness of 



